Treaty of Nanking

Treaty of Nanking

Treaty of Peace, Friendship, and Commerce Between Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and the Emperor of China[1]
Signing of the treaty on board HMS Cornwallis
Signed	29 August 1842 (1842-08-29)
Location	Nanjing, Qing Empire
Effective	26 June 1843 (1843-06-26)
Condition	Exchange of ratifications
Signatories	Keying and Yilibu Henry Pottinger
Parties	Qing dynasty  United Kingdom
Depositary	National Palace Museum, Taiwan The National Archives, United Kingdom
Languages	English and Chinese
Full text
Treaty of Nanking at Wikisource

This article is part of a series on the
History of Hong Kong
Timeline
Prehistoric Imperial  (221 BC – 1800s) Bao'an County and Xin'an County British Hong Kong (1841–1941, 1945–1997) Colonial  (1800s–1930s) Convention of Chuenpi Treaty of Nanking Convention of Peking Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory Japanese occupation (1941–1945)   (1940s) 1950s 1960s (1967 riots) 1970s 1980s 1990s Retrocession to China Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China (since 1997) 2000s 2010s 2020s 2019–20 protests COVID-19 pandemic National security law (2020, 2024) 2021 electoral reform
By topic
Aviation Bus Culture Economy Education Geography Politics Technical standards
History of China / of the United Kingdom Hong Kong portal
v t e

The Treaty of Nanking was the peace treaty which ended the First Opium War (1839–1842) between Great Britain and the Qing dynasty of China on 29 August 1842. It was the first of what the Chinese later termed the "unequal treaties".

In the wake of China's military defeat, with British warships poised to attack Nanjing (then romanized as Nanking), British and Chinese officials negotiated on board HMS Cornwallis anchored in the Yangtze at the city. On 29 August, British representative Sir Henry Pottinger and Qing representatives Keying, Yilibu, and Niu Jian signed the treaty, which consisted of thirteen articles.

The treaty was ratified by the Daoguang Emperor on 27 October and Queen Victoria on 28 December. The exchange of ratification took place in Hong Kong on 26 June 1843. The treaty required the Chinese to pay an indemnity, to cede the Island of Hong Kong to the British as a colony, to essentially end the Canton system that had limited trade to that port and allow trade at Five Treaty Ports. It was followed in 1843 by the Treaty of the Bogue, which granted extraterritoriality and most favoured nation status.