Battle for Canton (1857)
| date | December 28 to 31, 1857 |
|---|---|
| place | Canton , Empire of China |
| output | French and British victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
|
|
| Troop strength | |
| 5,679 | 30,000 |
| losses | |
|
15 dead |
250–600 victims (estimated) |
The Battle of Canton was fought during the Second Opium War from December 28 to 31, 1857 by a coalition of British and French troops against the Empire of China .
Delay in fighting
Although the British Royal Navy destroyed nearly all of the Chinese junks during the summer, an attack on Canton was delayed by the Indian uprising of 1857 . British and French troops scouted the city on December 22, 1857.
Course of the fighting
The battle began with a naval bombing of the city on December 28th, followed by the capture of Lin's Fort on One Mile Island . The next day the attackers landed on Kupar Creek in the southeast of the city. The Chinese assumed that the attacking troops would try to capture Magazine Hill before climbing the city walls. In fact, following another bombardment of the city, French troops climbed the city wall at 9 a.m. on the morning of December 29, 1857, and met little resistance. More than 4,700 British, Indian and 950 French soldiers climbed the city walls. 13 British and two French died. They occupied the city walls for a full week, and on January 5, 1858, the troops continued to march into the city streets. Some reports estimate that tens of thousands of Chinese were killed or captured and around 30,000 houses burned down, while other sources put the losses on the Chinese side at 450 soldiers and 200 civilians.
End of the fighting
Senior politician Ye Mingchen was captured and taken to Calcutta , where he died a year later. As soon as the British and French occupied the city, they set up a joint government commission. The Chinese wanted to avoid a repeat of the Battle of Beijing, so on June 26, 1858, the Treaty of Tianjin was signed, which ended the Second Opium War.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Capture of Canton. (PDF) (No longer available online.) In: The London Gazette, number 22104. February 26, 1858, p. 1021 , formerly in the original ; accessed on August 13, 2012 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Capture of Canton. (PDF) (No longer available online.) In: The London Gazette, number 22104. February 26, 1858, p. 1026 , formerly in the original ; accessed on August 13, 2012 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ George Wingrove Cooke: China: being "The Times" special correspondence from China in the years 1857-58 . G. Routledge, London 1858, OCLC 2830104 , pp. 357 ( online in Google Book Search).
- ↑ a b c d e Bruce A. Elleman, SCM Paine: Naval coalition warfare . from the Napoleonic War to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Routledge, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-415-77082-8 ( online in Google book search).
- ↑ a b Harold E. Raugh: The Victorians at War, 1815-1914 . an encyclopedia of British military history. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara 2004, ISBN 1-57607-925-2 ( online in Google book search).
- ^ A b c Thomas Carter: Medals of the British Army, and how they were won. In: Medals of the British Army. 1861, accessed August 13, 2012 .
- ^ A b Thomas M. Santella: Opium . Chelsea House, New York 2007, ISBN 0-7910-8547-3 ( online in Google Book Search).
- ↑ David Harris, Felice Beato: Of battle and beauty . Felice Beato's photographs of China. Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA 1999, ISBN 0-89951-101-5 ( online in Google Book Search).
