Wars of Dutch Humiliation (1850-1857)

War of Humiliation
Date March 1st 1850 - April 17th 1857 Location Southern China Result Independence of the Kingdom of Canton Loss of Dutch monopoly over Chinese Trade Eventual collapse of the Great Qing
Belligerents
Kingdom of the Netherlands Great Qing	British Empire French Republic Spanish Empire Kingdom of Canton
Commanders and leaders
Dan Vedelaar Lennerd Middendorp Liu Jianhong	Sir Dennis Houghton Fabien Garreau Yang Gengxin
Strength
250,000	400,000
Casualties and losses
125,600	101,000

The War of Humiliation, also known as the Cantonese War (1850), was a 19th century colonial war over European influence in China. It pitted the Great Qing Empire and her allies the Kingdom of the Netherlands against the British, French and the breakaway Cantonese Kingdom. The war lasted 7 years and is considered to be the bloodiest colonial war of the 19th century with numbers of causalities that weren't matched until the East Indies Crisis in the 1960's & 1970's.

The war led to a dramatic balance shift in East Asia and allowed for the rise of Canton, Corea and Taulandt as major regional powers. It is also known to many historians as the beginning of the Dutch Decline with the Kingdom of the Netherlands loosing influence in Southern China and simultaneously loosing the vast swatches of North American territory to the Spanish Empire in the Dutch-Spanish War (1850).

Background

The Dutch established a base on the island of Formosa in the 1620s. Although not universally welcomed, they fostered a good but informal relationship with the Ming on the mainland. However, in the 1640s, with the rise of the Qing dynasty, the Dutch completely cut their ties with the Ming and allied with the burgeoning Qing instead. This had developed into a formal military alliance, and throughout the 18th century, the Dutch possessed unfettered and uncontested trading rights in China, much to the envy of other European powers.

Breaking the Monopoly: The Coming of France and Britain

Britain and France had long desired to break the Dutch monopoly on Asian trade. They had continuously chased any opportunity that came knocking at their door. In the early 1800s, Britain had started to establish a small presence in the southern regions of China (particularly Canton). The Qing, however, were not receptive to this. They started to enact more restrictive trade policies in Canton, leading to the disgruntlement of British and Chinese merchants alike. The influx of Christian missionaries in Canton did not help the situation either, only further alienating the populace from the ruling Qing. An insurrection was brewing in Canton, and this was exactly the opportunity the British and French had longed for.

The Kingdom of Canton and The War of Humiliation (1850-1857)

The unrest in Canton grew into an open revolt by 1847. The Qing were slow to respond and faced multiple defeats at the hands of the rebels. The Canton rebels were well-equipped and well-supported by British and French arms, while the Qing army was languishing in their antiquated systems of fighting. By early 1848, the rebels were able to take substantial portions of the southern China region.

By late 1848, the leader of the rebellion had garnered enough support and legitimacy in the region. He established a new kingdom, dubbed by the west as the "Kingdom of Canton." This new kingdom would infuse Chinese tradition with western styles, particularly putting Christianity at its core. Britain and France were quick to recognize this new kingdom.

At this point, the fledgling kingdom became this unstoppable force aiming at the Qing capital. The Dutch Empire realized that their Asian monopoly was at stake. If this British-backed kingdom becomes the new master of the region, the Chinese trade would be open to other powers besides the Dutch. A Qing collapse would mean the end of the Dutch Empire's Asian enterprise. The Dutch had to act quickly. In the spring of 1849, with the consent of the Qing emperor, the Dutch landed their army on the mainland and launched naval attacks on Canton.

Britain and France nervously watched as the Dutch crushed the rebels marching towards the north. Although not officially in the war, they continued to provide logistical support to Canton. However, they are still looking for an opportunity to intervene in the war and turn the tides. An opportunity came on 1 March 1850, when a Dutch admiral had sunk a British ship carrying gunpowder to Canton: an open act of aggression.

As soon as Europe got word of the incident, Britain hastily declared war on the Dutch Empire. France soon joined on the side of Canton and the British. This quickly developed into a global conflict, with British and Dutch colonies being pitted against each other in the Americas, and multiple naval battles being fought on the English channel. In China, the Anglo-British-Cantonese alliance was slowly pushing back the Dutch and the Qing. Things started to look tragic for the Dutch, especially when the Spanish Empire declared a separate war against the distracted Dutch Empire in late 1850, hoping to take some of the territories from the Dutch Colony of Tussenland in America. Dutch Formosa was now being attacked on all sides, by Britain and France from Canton and the Spanish from Manila.

Aftermath

The war ended in disaster for the Dutch and the Qing. In the resulting Treaty of Tchangtcheou (1857), the Kingdom of Canton was formally recognized by all nations, taking most of the southern Qing territory. Multiple treaty ports were opened, specifically Tchangtcheou (France), Foochow, Taichow, Ningpo, and Shanghai (Britain). The Dutch were forced to concede defeat and retract their monopoly on the Asian trade. All Dutch presence in China was removed. This war would later be known in the Dutch-speaking spheres as The War of Dutch Humiliation.

However, it was the Qing that suffered the most damage in the war. Although still holding a large territory, the situation in post-war Qing had devolved into a constant civil war between local warlords, and they would never recover from that point on/ The Qing would be known as the "Sick Man of Asia [亞洲病夫], and by the late 1880s, although the Qing state was still present de jure, it was already considered dead. The withering of the Qing in the 1880s had allowed for a new Asian power to enter the global stage: the Empire of Corea.