14. The First Opium War set the conditions which led to the Second Opium War
The Treaty of Nanking was the first treaty of many which in China were known as unequal treaties, because the believed they were made with unequal nations. It was followed by similar treaties with France and the United States. Officially the treaty with the United States made the trading in opium illegal, though American merchants continued to do so through the expedience of allowing emissaries in the treaty ports of China to participate in sharing the profits. French and British emissaries did the same. In the case of the British, the emissaries were representatives of the Crown in the treaty ports. Both the French and American treaties carried terms which allowed them to be renegotiated every twelve years. The British demanded, retroactively, the same terms.
The British leaned on their having received, through the Treaty of Nanking, most favored nation status from the Chinese of the Qing government. With competition from the French and Americans, the British demanded even more favorable terms than they had extracted from China in their treaty. Among them was the demand that they not be restricted to operations in the treaty ports, but allowed to trade freely anywhere in China. Another was the legalization of the opium trade, but only by British and Chinese traders, excluding the French and Americans from the business. While they pressured the Qing government to legalize the opium trade they continued to participate in it illegally.