Opium Wars
The Second Opium War was also known as the Arrow War or Anglo-French War in China. French soldiers also took a big part in this war, which started when the Chinese took over one of the British ships in the port of Guangzhou, called The Arrow. Britain and France, along with troops from Russia and the United States, attacked more Chinese cities. This included the Battle of Canton of 1857, and in 1860 the Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) in Beijing was burned to the ground. At the end of this war, the Chinese had to sign more of the "unequal treaties". They included making opium legal in China, opening up all their ports for trade, and to give up part of the Kowloon Peninsula to the British, which became part of the colony of Hong Kong.