Chapter 1.1: San Ka La, the Ends of the Earth
一, 山旮旯
Hong Kong Island, 1840s
The British Empire was in an upswing during the transition between the 18th and 19th Centuries. In the 1760s, Britain had conquered Bengal, and from there, the Indian subcontinent. In 1812, the rebellious American colonies had been humbled, subjugated under British economic hegemony. Finally, by 1848, the autocratic Napoleonic Empire seemed to be crumbling under the very forces of Republicanism it was borne from.
The young Napoleon II had proved an ineffectual leader. Unable to rein in his father’s generals, the modern diadochi, a series of pyrrhic victories against the rebellious Germans had set the French empire down a course of military dictatorship, with the Bonapartes as mere figureheads under the thumbs of the Marshals of the Empire. French military leadership was in a word, gerontocratic. Even in the 1840s, France was led by the senile Marshal Marmont, who had fought alongside the founder of the Empire.
The jewel in the British crown was, without a doubt, India. The subcontinent had been under the rule of the Mughal Empire for some 3 centuries--despite Nader Shah’s brief invasion [1] and a sizable chunk of the Empire breaking away under the Maratha Confederacy, the Mughals had built roads, provided administration and built up India as an economic superpower. The British conquest, filled with atrocities and bloody massacres had sapped the continent of some of its vitality--but still India did not suffer from the utter devastation and towers of skulls the likes of Afsharid sacking would have entailed.
To facilitate British rule, the East India Company had divided the myriad ethnic groups into 3 invented categories: the “administrative races”, notably Bengalis, Gujaratis and Malayali, who provided for the army of bureaucrats that ran British India; the “martial races”, notably the Punjabis and Rajputs, who served in the Company’s army; and finally the agrarian races, which made up the bulk of the Indian population. British administration in India was, though heavy-handed, largely non-colonial in nature, with the subcontinent simply switching out Persian for English as the language of the elite. Indeed, Queen Victoria would even be crowned Empress of India in 1852, quite literally the Aberdeen Ministry’s crowning achievement.
There was an unintended side effect. The industrialisation of Bengal had led to Indian exports crashing the European textile market, destroying British industries, and being an indirect cause of the 1848 European Revolutions. Mass unemployment left the Continent wracked by liberal revolutions from Paris to Warsaw and threats of another German War. Though the Empire was yet to collapse into anarchy, it was evident that Britain and Russia were the dynamic powers that would shape the coming century.
A Bengali Palace of the time
Britain was glad that the Napoleonic Empire had fallen into decline with so little geopolitical manoeuvring, but feared that Bengal's prosperity would be to Britain’s detriment in the long term. In an attempt to restabilize Europe, the great powers met at the Congress of Vienna, decreeing a 30% tariff on all Indian goods exported to Europe, in return for Russia and France paying an annual stipend to the British Government. This blocked out the market to Bengali merchants. With the exception of parts of Southern India, the subcontinent was still reeling from the shock of British conquest, and the average Indian consumer could not readily afford the quantities of Bengali goods to maintain local industry. After much fruitless searching, the Bengali moguls realised that the solution lay in their Eastern neighbour: China. The Qing Dynasty had emerged from the Daoguang years in a slight economic upswing, even would talk of resurgence. It would be a brilliant market for Indian goods.
There was one obstacle though: the Canton System. The Early Qing was relatively open to trade and interaction with the West--however, after a century of cooling relations with both the papacy, misguided missionaries, and brazen (primarily British) merchants smuggling in the name of free trade, Emperor Qianlong decreed a return to traditional Chinese diplomacy, eschewing trade and mercantile exchange for tributary relationships. What trade was allowed was routed through the southern port of Canton, in the Viceroyalty of Liangguang, and traders were subject to excessive, discouraging regulations.
This was effectively a stranglehold on trade which limited Bengali exports and therefore Bengali profits. The Jejeebhoy Embassy, like its predecessor, the MacCartney Embassy, sought to abolish the Canton System and the ageing Daoguang Emperor on the merits of free trade. Racial thinkers of the time presumed that if the Indian mind could be convinced of the merits of free trade, so could the oriental--this failed. Daoguang was adamant that the Canton system would stay in place.
Things came to a head when Zeng Guofan, Viceroy of Liangguang ordered the capture and burning of the Anglo-Indian ship Gunsway, subsequently destroying captured Indian textiles at the town of Humen. Without even waiting for Parliament’s approval, Indian dhows were clashing with Chinese junks in the South China Sea, sparking the Mogul War, named for the Bengali merchant elite who had lobbied so hard to punish China.
Indian textiles are tallied and burnt at Humen, 1852
British troops and their Indian auxiliaries landed in Hong Kong, a hub of British commercial activity, occupying the island and setting it up as a base of operations. Company ships led by Admiral Gordon Bremer then advanced up the Pearl River Delta towards the port city of Guangzhou, capturing the island of Longxue, and then imposing a blockade on the Pearl River Estuary. A panic beset Guangzhou, and Zeng Guofan ordered that the Viceroyalty’s war junks sally forth.
Led by the talented, (relatively) young Admiral Zuo Zongtang, the Chinese fleet was of 3,000 men and 230 cannon, the largest fleet in all of China. Further East were the Chinese fort of Humen. Overlooking the Pearl River Estuary, Humen guaranteed Chinese access to the sea, rendering the British blockade less than airtight. Humen’s mighty guns, expanded and modernized under Zeng’s diligent governance, would also stubbornly resist any British attempt at seige. Bremer and Zuo both understood the importance of Humen. Both fleets attempted to trap the other in the interweaving waterways of the Estuary. The Chinese ships were smaller and more nimble; but the Anglo-Indian technological advantage was simply insurmountable. Gujarat built and manned with Indian sailors, this Indian fleet was perhaps 10 years behind her European counterparts, but still enough to tear apart the Chinese fleet in their many skirmishes.
Bremer failed to force a battle; whereas Zuo failed to win a single skirmish. Word came from London that Parliament was less than pleased with Calcutta's attempt to make war without Parliamentary approval, and for a time, it seemed that time was on China’s side. All Admiral Zuo had to do was drag the conflict out, and the British would withdraw.
The Battle of Humen, 1852
Then Bremer did the impossible: assault Humen. Under pressure from Jejeebhoy and other Company representatives, Bremer personally led 2,500 Redcoats to disembark on the East Bank of the Pearl River Estuary, and marched Northwards to encircle and siege Humen. The Chinese fleet moved to trap the British flotilla in the Taiping Waterway, but failed to break through and relieve Humen. Within the week, Bremer’s gambit paid off: Britain had overestimated the defences of Humen, and took the Fort with a measly 50 dead. With Humen’s guns turned upon the Chinese fleet, Zuo’s command disintegrated. The Chinese fleet scattered before British guns, and Guangzhou soon fell to British occupation.
This was not the end of the Mogul War. Reports of victory in the orient scattered anti-war sentiments in Parliament. Perhaps, perhaps Britain was looking at a new possession in the East. The very same reports would reach Beijing as well, where the enraged Daoguang Emperor ordered the execution of Zeng Guofan (he would not be, as Zeng was under armed guard in British-occupied Hong Kong), but could do little before his death in December of 1852, 3 months into the war. The new Xianfeng Emperor continued his father’s war, but a simultaneous rebellion in Southern China, the Tiengued Rebellion, distracted Imperial attentions.
4 years, 6 months and 73,000 dead later, Britain claimed victory. China signed the humiliating treaty of Tianjin, where China was opened up to trade, and Zeng Guofan, as well as all the Viceroys that succeeded him, would receive an EIC “resident”. In effect, China had signed 2 whole provinces away to British suzerainty. And so, British Liangguang came into being.
The World in the Year of our Lord, 1857
[1]: And here you see our POD
