First Opium War
Britain takes Hong Kong as China's century of humiliation begins
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The war began after Qing officials tried to stop the British opium trade at Canton. China's defeat was sealed by the 1842 Treaty of Nanking: Britain gained Hong Kong and five ports opened to foreigners. It opened China's so-called century of humiliation.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1814–1815 Congress of Vienna — 25 years earlier
- 1833 Abolition of slavery in the British Empire — 6 years earlier
- 1839 Birth of photography: the daguerreotype — same year
- 1845–1852 Great Famine in Ireland — 6 years later
- 1861 Unification of Italy — 22 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1853–1856 Crimean War — 14 years later
- 1861 Emancipation of the serfs in Russia — 22 years later
Middle East
- 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay — 11 years earlier
- 1839 The Edict of Gülhane opens the Tanzimat — same year
- 1839–1842 First Anglo-Afghan War — same year
Africa
- c. 1835–1846 The Great Trek — 4 years earlier
- 1847 Liberia declares independence — 8 years later
Americas
- 1822 Independence of Brazil — 17 years earlier
- 1835 Darwin in the Galápagos — 4 years earlier
- 1838–1839 Trail of Tears — 1 year earlier
- 1846 First public demonstration of ether anaesthesia — 7 years later
- 1846–1848 Mexican–American War — 7 years later
Oceania
- 1851 The Australian gold rushes — 12 years later
Alive at the time
- Charles Darwin (aged 30)
- Abraham Lincoln (aged 30)
- Karl Marx (aged 21)
- Queen Victoria (aged 20)
- Fyodor Dostoevsky (aged 18)
- Leo Tolstoy (aged 11)
- Dmitri Mendeleev (aged 5)
- Katsushika Hokusai (aged 79)
- Andrew Jackson (aged 72)
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt (aged 70)