The Boston Tea Party

The Boston Tea Party
On the night of December 16, 1773, three British merchant ships lay alongside Griffin’s Wharf in the city of Boston. They carried cargoes of tea packed in wooden cases.

Rain had fallen throughout the day, but now the sky was clear and crowded with stars. Suddenly, the sparkle of the stars was joined by the yellow glow of lanterns swinging along the wharf. Holding lanterns high were some strangely dressed marchers. Blankets hung from their shoulders. Single feathers crowned their heads. They carried axes and hatchets.

This seems to be an Indian attack. But these men are really Boston colonists in disguise. They are giving early American history one of it memorable nights – the night of the Boston Tea Party.

Their outfits were means to keep their identities a secret from the Boston authorities, who would be infuriated by what was going to happen and would surely want to take revenge for it.

Behind the disguised men hurried a crowd of people out watch the coming adventure – an adventure that would be remembered for centuries as the Boston Tea Party.

The Boston Tea Party was the result of years of growing trouble between Britain’s King George III and his American colonies. Much of the conflict sprang from taxes that he and his parliament demanded of the colonists.

One of the most hated taxes of all was contained in a law passed in 1767. It was a tariff (a special tax) that Americans had to pay when buying various goods shipped from England. Chief among these goods was tea. The tariff angered Americans everywhere because tea was their favorite beverage. They bought tons of it every year. The tax would cost them dearly.

Also, the tariff was of a special nature. Most taxes were charged to business firms. But this one was charged to the people. To the Americans, this was an outrage. The king had no right to tax them directly. They were not even represented in parliament. No one spoke for them when laws were being passed.
The Boston Tea Party

Arrow War (1856-1860)

The Opium Wars was the two trade wars fought in 1839-1842 and 1856 – 1860 (also known as Arrow War) between China and the Western powers as the result of China’s attempt to curb opium smuggling.

Although China was forced to concede many of its territorial and sovereign rights in the years following the First Opium War, the Western imperial powers also had to face rising anti-foreign sentiment, as many Chinese believed that uncultured barbarians should be excluded from the Middle Kingdom.

In this tense atmosphere in Guangzhou, Chinese policemen boarded the Arrow, a Chinese ship registered in Hong Kong under a British flag on October 8, 1856, and arrested 12 crewmen. The police accused suspected the crewmen of piracy and smuggling.

In the effort to arrest the crew members, the British flag, flown by the vessel because it was registered in Hong Kong, was torn.

Eager to gain more trading rights, the British used the incident to launch another offensive, precipitating the Second Opium War. The incident was immediately seized upon by Harry Parkes, the British consul in Guangzhou who wanted to legalize the opium and expand trade in China yet was frustrated by Cantonese opposition.

Parkes demanded that the Qing dynasty release the Arrow’s crew and apologize for the insult to the British flag. When Ye Mingchen, the viceroy of Liangguang released the Chinese crewmen but refused to apologize, Parkes had a fleet bombard Guangzhou.

The Chinese responded by burning foreign-owned factories and businesses in Canton. Meanwhile, a French priest was murdered in Canton.

Britain, joined by France, launched two punitive expeditions. The British parliament sent an expedition under James Bruce, the Earl of Elgin, to defend its honor. Meanwhile, France also dispatched it fleet under Baron Gros to China.

The Anglo-French force fought its way to Guangzhou and captured Ye Mingchen by the end of 1857.

Beijing was occupied in 1860, forcing the Imperial Court to stop resistance. The Arrow War ended with the acceptance and ratification of the Convention of Peking by the emperor in 1860. Under the terms of the Convention of Peking, China ceded Kowloon peninsula to the British in Hong Kong. The opium trade continued uninterrupted.
Arrow War (1856-1860)

Opium War, First (1839-1842)

The term ‘Opium Wars’ refers to the period of Anglo-Chinese conflict between 1839 and 1860. This period of unrest was punctuated by two outbreaks of armed conflict.

The Opium Wars began when the Chinese government tried to stop the illegal importation of opium by British merchants.

The First Opium War was sparked off by the detention of a number of (mostly British) traders and the confiscation of more than 20,000 cases of opium at warehouses in Guangzhou in March 1839. In July 1839 a group of drunken British and American sailors killed a Chinese civilian at Kowloon. The Chinese demanded the British surrender the murderer, but British First Superintendent of Trade Charles Elliot refused to do so.

In this power struggle the Chinese forced all British merchant ships to retreat from Macao to Hong Kong. British merchant ships attempt to land at Kowloon for supplies four days later and were attacked by Chinese warships.

British responded by sending an expedition of warships to the city in 1840. The British fleet of some 16 warships, including four steam powered gunboats, which represented a revolution in military affairs in Asian waters retaliated by shelling Guangzhou and seized an area of coast around the village of Hong Kong to settle merchants expelled both from Guangzhou and Macao.

The British took Xiamen and Ningbo. Meanwhile in 1842 land reinforcements from the Indian Army were put to work seizing control of key access points on China’s Grand Canal. The British won a quick victory.

The First Opium War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. By this treaty, and a supplementary one signed 1843, China was forced to pay a large indemnity, open five ports to British trade and residence, and cede Hong Kong to Great Britain.

The Second Opium War (or Arrow war) followed the detention of a British registered boat in 1856 and charged its crew with smuggling.

Eager to gain more trading rights, the British used the incident to launch another offensive, precipitating the Second Opium War.  British forces aiding by the French, won another quick military victory in 1857.

The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Tientsin in 1860, following an advance on Beijing by a British military expedition.
Opium War, First (1839-1842)