March 3 marked a little-known but hugely important event: the 160th anniversary of the start of the Second Opium War, when France and the UK declared against China. It arose from British Imperialism, unsatisfied by the 1842 settlement under the Treaty of Nanking, which ceded Hong Kong to the British under lease and opened up five treaty ports to ease trade in opium, cheap Chinese labour – ‘coolies’ as they were then known – and improve diplomatic relations.
Chinese acts of aggression against the British in the interim had also not helped, and the French soon joined the British after the Chinese executed a leading French missionary.
The Indian Mutiny in May 1857 meant British troops had to be diverted from China, which delayed any outcome, but the Qing government could not sustain an effective defence as it also had to deal with the long-running Taiping Rebellion.
The cruel torture and murder of the British envoy Harry Parkes, and his entourage, led to the revenge sack and burning of the Summer Palaces in Beijing, from where many valuable works of art made their way abroad. Later legal sales of Chinese treasures have muddied the waters over what was looted and what exported legally, but together explain why so many amazing pieces have emerged at auction in London and Paris over the past few years.
