1840: A Complete Account of the Opium War (Adapted from Records of the Barbarian Crisis)

In 1840, a conflict sparked by opium plunged the Great Qing into an unprecedented crisis. From Lin Zexu’s journey south to ban the opium trade and the destruction of opium at Humen, to British forces advancing north along the coast; from the bombardments of Guangzhou, Xiamen, Dinghai, and Zhenhai to the successive losses of Wusong and Zhenjiang, the war crept ever closer to Nanjing. Frontline commanders held isolated cities to the last, local people banded together to resist the enemy, while the court wavered repeatedly between fighting, negotiating peace, and indecision. Why could the Humen forts not stop the British warships? Why did Dinghai fall again and again? How did the people of Sanyuanli in Guangzhou rise up against the British? Was the Qing army defeated by its weapons, its tactics, or deeper flaws in its institutions and judgment? As the British fleet advanced up the Yangtze toward Nanjing, why did the Qing court ultimately choose to negotiate? Based on Records of the Barbarians’ Outbreak, this book retells the events surrounding the First Opium War in modern, accessible language. From the ban on opium to the outbreak of war, from bloody battles along the coast to peace talks in Nanjing, it takes you back to the historical scene of 1840 and shows how an ancient empire first came face to face with the modern world amid the thunder of cannon fire.