The Treaty of Nanking or Treaty of Nanjing, signed 29 August 1842, was the unequal treaty which marked the end of the First Opium War between the British and Qing Empires of 1839â??42. The treaties forced China to lower its tariffs.
In the wake of China's military defeat, with British warships poised to attack the city, representatives from the British and Qing Empires negotiated aboard HMS Cornwallis anchored at Nanjing. On 29 August 1842, British representative Sir Henry Pottinger and Qing representatives, Qiying, Ilibu and Niujian, signed the Treaty of Nanjing. The treaty consisted of thirteen articles and was ratified by Queen Victoria and the Daoguang Emperor nine months later. As one historian notes, a "most ironic point was that opium, the immediate cause of the war, was not even mentioned.
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