Welcome back everyone, L'Asile Montgomery. Here again, you're listening to the China

History Podcast, part five this time, of our history of Guangzhou series. We made it to the

Qing Dynasty last time, in the aftermath of the first opium war, 1839 to 1842. All those

hard fought gains were rammed down the throats of the Manchu Qing rulers by the British,

to a lesser extent, but still guilty as charged French and Americans,

corporate profits, just as important back then as they are today. And a little later on,

the city of Guangzhou in post-treaty of Nanjing times witnessed the incident that

generated the spark that led to the second opium war. Lin's issue, burning the opium at Human,

in early 1839, was all the British needed to come out blasting in the first opium war.

Now, in 1856, came the arrow incident. You know how this started. The Guangzhou

console, Harry Parks, and it got all bent out of shape when Chinese police boarded a vessel

called the arrow to arrest some Chinese traders dealing an opium. Despite flying a British flag

of convenience, the arrow was not exactly entitled to fly. They were boarded by Qing authorities

in Guangzhou and the Chinese crew was arrested. And the registry for the arrow that

entitled it to British protection had expired. And though they technically were not a British

vessel, the powers in Britain, who were not happy with their ill-gotten gains that they glammed

off the Chinese and the Treaty of Nanjing, pointed to this dubious incident and restarted military

action against China. Now, 1857, when this all reached a good froth,

was perfect timing for any foreign power to take that vulture head and sink it into the

entrails of the Qing Empire. Here on the eve of the second opium war, the Manchu Qing government

was desperately trying to tamp down the typing rebellion that had spread like a wildfire all across

southern China. You're not in the north. The Nian rebellion was laying waste to Hu Beixuanan,

...