A Century of Humiliation for Europe

Sin Permiso

Factuality

Ownership

In 1842, broken and defeated, China sent its highest bureaucrat, Qiying, to Nanjing to meet with Sir Henry Pottinger, the ruthless British colonial administrator, who dictated the terms of capitulation. The resulting Nanjing treaty caused China to lose everything it had, without getting anything in return, except humiliation. Then there was talk of “trade agreement,” while traders offered in London and Chinese poets immortalized in verse the sha…