Second Opium War
October 8, 1856 – October 24, 1860
Result Allied victory
War from 1856 to 1860 between Britain and France against China's Qing dynasty, also known as the Arrow War. It began after Qing officials seized the British-registered ship Arrow and escalated into an Anglo-French advance on Beijing that burned the Old Summer Palace; the Convention of Peking of 24 October 1860 legalized the opium trade and ceded the Kowloon Peninsula to Britain.
Battles and events 8
November 16–24, 1856
December 28–31, 1857
May 20, 1858
June 1858
Treaty of Tientsin
Tianjin
June 24–26, 1859
August 12–21, 1860
Battle of Taku Forts (1860)
Franco-British victory
Taku Forts
James Hope Grant, Charles Cousin-Montauban
September 18, 1860
Battle of Zhangjiawan
Franco-British victory
Tongzhou District
Sengge Rinchen, James Hope Grant, Charles Cousin-Montauban
September 21, 1860
Battle of Palikao
Franco-British victory
Baliqiao (Palikao), near Beijing
Xianfeng Emperor, Sengge Rinchen, James Hope Grant
Key commanders
United Kingdom and France 8
Queen Victoria
belligerent leader
Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby
belligerent leader
Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston
belligerent leader
Napoleon III
belligerent leader
James Hope Grant
belligerent leader
Charles Cousin-Montauban
belligerent leader
Charles Rigault de Genouilly
military commander
Josiah Tattnall
military commander
