Albert Johnson: The Mad Trapper of Rat River

 

Albert Johnson (c. 1890–1900 – 17 February 1932), also known as the Mad Trapper of Rat River, was a fugitive whose actions, stemming from a trapping dispute, eventually sparked a huge manhunt in the Northwest Territories and Yukon in Northern Canada. The event became a media circus as Johnson eluded the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) team sent to take him into custody, which ended after a 240 km (150 mi) pursuit lasting more than a month and a shootout in which Johnson was fatally wounded on the Eagle River, Yukon. Albert Johnson is suspected to have been a pseudonym, and his true identity remains unknown.

Attack on police

Albert Johnson arrived in Fort McPherson after coming down the Peel River on 9 July 1931. He was questioned by RCMP constable Edgar Millen, but provided little information. Millen thought he had a Scandinavian accent, generally kept himself clean-shaven, and seemed to have plenty of money for supplies. He was suspected to be in his 30s. After venturing the waterways in an indigenous-built raft to the Mackenzie River delta, he built a small 2.5 m × 3 m (8 ft × 10 ft) cabin on the banks of the Rat River. Johnson had not acquired a trapping licence, which was considered odd for someone living in the bush. At that time, many northern native traditional trapping areas were being invaded by outsiders fleeing the Great Depression, and some complaints may have been intended to remove him.

In the end of December, indigenous trappers complained to the local RCMP detachment in Aklavik that 'Johnson' was tampering with their traps, tripping them and hanging them on the trees. A post-incident investigation by the RCMP "found an entirely different story. Evidently, Johnson had roughly told them to take off and had even pointed a gun at them, when they came-a-visiting at Johnson's cabin".

On 26 December, Constable Alfred King and Special Constable Joe Bernard, each of whom had a considerable northern experience, trekked the 100 km (60 mi) to Johnson's cabin to ask him about the allegations. Seeing smoke coming from the chimney, they approached the hut to talk. Johnson refused to talk to them, however, seeming not even to notice them. King looked into the cabin window, at which point Johnson placed a sack across it. The two constables eventually decided to return to Aklavik and get a search warrant.

King and Bernard returned five days later with two other men. Johnson again refused to talk, and eventually King decided to enforce the warrant and force the door. As soon as he began, Johnson shot him through the wooden door. A brief firefight broke out, and the team managed to return the wounded King to Aklavik, where he eventually recovered.

Manhunt

A larger group of RCMP officers, special constables and local volunteers returned to Johnson's cabin on 9 January 1932. During a 15-hour siege, hundreds of shots were fired into the cabin and dynamite was used to blow off part of the roof, but Johnson remained inside. After surrounding the cabin, they thawed the dynamite inside their coats. The common version states that this charge was thrown onto the roof of the cabin, collapsing it in the following explosion. After the explosion, the men tried to rush in. Johnson opened fire from a 1.5 m (5 ft) deep dugout beneath the ruins. No one was hit, and after a 15-hour standoff (ending at 4:00 am) in the −40 °C (−40 °F) weather, the posse retreated to Aklavik for further assistance. Again, the RCMP investigative report partially contradicts this, claiming that the dynamite charge barely damaged the cabin, but it was later purposely destroyed to prevent him from returning to it, which may have led to the impression that the blast had destroyed it.

Word of the confrontation was relayed south through the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals station at Aklavik, and the story became front-page news. After being delayed because of blizzard conditions, the reinforced posse returned on 14 January to find that Johnson had left the cabin, and the posse struck out after him. Eventually, they caught up with him on 30 January, surrounding him in a thicket. In the ensuing firefight, Johnson shot Constable Edgar Millen through the heart, killing him. Once again the pursuers retreated. The posse continued to grow, enlisting local Inuvialuit and Gwichʼin who were better able to move in the back country. Johnson had apparently decided to leave for the Yukon, but the RCMP blocked the only two passes over the Richardson Mountains. That did not stop Johnson, who climbed a 2,100 m (7,000 ft) peak and once again disappeared.

After Millen's death, the RCMP requested an aircraft for the search. Canadian Airways pilot Wilfrid "Wop" May, a First World War flying ace and postwar aviator, flew north with mechanic Jack Bowen to assist. They arrived at Aklavik in a ski-equipped Bellanca monoplane on 5 February. May spotted Johnson's tracks beyond the Richardson Mountains, showing that Johnson had crossed the range despite the RCMP blocking the main passes. On 14 February, May found tracks on the Bell River and followed them to where they turned south up the Eagle River. He noticed a set of footprints leading from the centre of the frozen river to the bank. Johnson had been following caribou tracks in the middle of the river, where the animals walked for visibility against predators. Walking in their tracks concealed his footprints and allowed him to travel on compacted snow without using his snowshoes. He left the trail at night to make camp on the river bank, leaving the tracks May had spotted. May radioed his findings to the RCMP, and the pursuit followed Johnson up the river. Officers reached him on 17 February.

Death

The pursuit team rounded a bend in the river to find Johnson only a few hundred metres (a few hundred yards) standing in front of them. Johnson attempted to run for the bank but was not wearing his snowshoes and could not make it. A firefight broke out in which RCMP Constable Alfred King was seriously wounded, and Johnson was killed after being shot in the left side of the pelvis at an acute angle. It is believed that the bullet passed through vital tissues, bowels, and main arteries, which led to his death. May landed the plane, picked up the injured King, and flew him to help, for which May was credited with saving King's life.

After Johnson's death, RCMP officials realized that he had travelled over 137 km (85 mi) away from his cabin in 33 days, burning approximately 42 MJ (10,000 kcal) a day in the cold weather and hostile terrain. Seventy-five years later, in 2007, forensics teams found that his tailbone was not actually symmetrical, causing his spine to curve slightly left and right. In addition, one foot was longer than the other.

An examination of Johnson's body yielded over $2,000 in both U.S. and Canadian dollars, as well as some gold, a pocket compass, a razor, a knife, fish hooks, nails, a dead squirrel, a dead bird, a large quantity of Beecham's Pills (one of the very few patent medicines with actual benefits, namely a digestive aid), and teeth with gold fillings that were believed to be his. His dental work was of exceptional quality, suggesting poverty was not a reason for him to relocate North. Johnson had led a successful solitary life, if not a middle-class background, making his actions even more mysterious. During the entire chase, the Mounties had never heard Johnson utter a single word. At the time, the only person known to have heard his spoken voice was the RCMP constable who had interviewed him over his business in the town. The constable believed Johnson to be of Scandinavian origin, which modern DNA tests seem to confirm. All that the posse had heard from Johnson was his laugh after he shot Constable Edgar Millen. To this day, people debate who he was, why he moved to the Arctic, and if he was actually responsible for interfering with the trap lines as alleged.

Identity

The RCMP sent a series of photographs throughout Canada and the United States in an unsuccessful effort to learn his real identity, which has never been definitively established.

Proposed identities

Arthur Nelson

In the 1930s, the initial investigation about the identity of Albert Johnson primarily focused on an obscure individual named Arthur Nelson. Details of Nelson's life were recorded by Yukon researcher and author Richard North. Nelson apparently travelled from Dease Lake, British Columbia, up into the Yukon in the 1927 to 1931 period. He had similar guns (a Savage Model 99, a .30-30 Winchester calibre lever action rifle, a sawn-off Iver-Johnson 16 gauge shotgun and a sawn-off Winchester Model 58 .22 Long Rifle) as Albert Johnson. Nelson was also remembered by Kaska Dena elders Art John Sr. and others who knew him by the alias "Mickey Nelson" when he trapped and prospected in the Ross River region in west-central Yukon.

John Johnson

North's 1989 book Trackdown put forward his theory that Albert Johnson, Arthur Nelson, and a North Dakota repeat criminal by the name of John Johnson were one and the same person. John Johnson did time in San Quentin Prison and Folsom Prison, and his physical description is well documented and similar to the Mad Trapper's. North traced John Johnson's identity back to Norway. "Johnny Johnson" was born Johan Konrad Jonsen (1898) in Bardu Municipality in Norway, north of the Arctic Circle. However, the Mad Trapper's expensive dental work was not likely to belong to the criminal Johnson. Also, DNA tests involving John Johnson's great-nephew Ole Getz disproved that Johnny Johnson and the Mad Trapper were the same people.

Owen Albert Johnston

The Johnston family of Pictou, Nova Scotia, have long believed that Albert Johnson is actually Owen Albert Johnston, a relative who had left Pictou at the beginning of the Great Depression to find work in the United States. The family's last letter from Johnston was posted from Revelstoke, British Columbia, early in 1931. They never heard from him again. According to a 2009 Halifax radio interview, a relative was arranging for DNA tests.

Sigvald Pedersen Haaskjold

Previous theories were challenged with the release of Mark Fremmerlid's book What Became of Sigvald Anyway. He proposed too many coincidences to ignore the possibility of Sigvald Pedersen Haaskjold from Norway emerging as Albert Johnson. Sigvald was last known as a highly self-sufficient 32-year-old in 1927, 4+1⁄2 years before the chase and death of Albert Johnson, who was estimated to be between 35 and 40 years old. Sigvald had become obsessed with the notion that the authorities were still looking for him after evading conscription during the First World War. He had built a fortress-like cabin on Digby Island on the north coast of B.C. before disappearing. This author points out circumstantial evidence for this case.

Contemporary analysis

Exhumation and forensic examination

A 2007 forensic examination found that Johnson was approximately 30 to 40 years old, had scoliosis, had undergone sophisticated dental work for the period, and had isotope results suggesting he had spent his youth in the U.S. Midwest.

It took place in August 2007 when a forensic team was assembled by Myth Merchant Films, located and exhumed Johnson's grave near the cemetery in Aklavik, and then conducted a modern forensic examination on his remains; these were presented in the documentary film The Hunt for the Mad Trapper and the book The Mad Trapper: Unearthing a Mystery by Barbara Smith.

This team found that isotope analysis of his teeth suggested he may have grown up in Scandinavia or the U.S. Midwest, that he had scoliosis which would have led to chronic back pain, that he was approximately 35 years of age, and that he had been struck multiple times in his final gun battle, including his leg, thorax, and a debilitating shot from behind through his pelvis. A spiral fracture of his femur supports the anecdote that a bullet had hit and exploded an ammunition pouch on his hip. His dental work was of very high quality for the time, suggesting he was able to afford expensive state-of-the-art work at a major centre such as Chicago or New York. DNA samples were also obtained for comparison work.

After the examination, his remains were re-interred with full religious rites by both the local priest and native elders, something that had not been afforded to him at his original burial.

Outcome

While many people had offered convincing circumstantial and anecdotal evidence that they were related to him, the DNA analysis ruled out all of the candidates, and his identity remains a mystery.

In 2017, it was decided to attempt a familial DNA investigation; however, technical problems with the DNA prevented analysis until an adequate sequence was developed by Othram Inc. in 2021. Further investigation by Othram traced his ancestors to Sweden, linking him to multiple descendants of Gustaf Magnusson (1776–1853) and Britta Svensdotter (1781–1846), suggesting that he was either their descendant or the descendant of one of their close relatives. Many of his genetic matches traced their ancestry to the Swedish towns of Hånger, Kävsjö, and Kulltorp. As of July 2021, further DNA samples and family history were being sought from possible descendants to further the investigation.

In popular culture

Films and music

Sign in Aklavik

In August 2007, Myth Merchant Films produced a documentary of the exhumation of Johnson's grave and the subsequent modern forensic examination seeking information about his identity. The documentary was released in 2009.

The event is the subject of the songs "The Capture of Albert Johnson," by Wilf Carter, and "The Mad Trapper of Rat River", by Stanley G. Triggs on his 1961 album Bunkhouse and Forecastle Songs of the North West (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings).

"Rat River Trapper", written and performed by Doug Hutton, was released on the 1974 RCMP tribute album Scarlet and Gold (Denali Records Ltd.).

The Mad Trapper, a highly fictionalized film based on these events, was released in 1972, and in 1975, Challenge to Be Free was released. An U.S. production, it referred to Johnson's character merely as "Trapper", or in the theme song, "Trapper Man". It portrayed Johnson as a man who lived in peace and harmony with wild animals, similar to Johnny Appleseed, and whose initial interference with other traps was due to rival trappers' inhumane techniques.

Death Hunt, a 1981 film starring Charles Bronson as Albert Johnson and Lee Marvin as Constable Edgar Millen, is a fictionalized version of the story.

Books

Rudy Wiebe, The Mad Trapper, 1980, Jackpine House Ltd., 186 pages, ISBN 0-88995-268-X

Thomas York, Trapper, 1981, Avon Books, 476 pages, ISBN 0-380-63156-3

Anderson, Frank W.; Downs, Art (1986). The Death of Albert Johnson, Mad Trapper of Rat River. Surrey, British Columbia, Canada: Heritage House. ISBN 978-1-89438-403-2. Retrieved 22 September 2025 – via Internet Archive.

Dick North, The Mad Trapper of Rat River, 2003, The Lyons Press, 338 pages, ISBN 1-59228-771-9

Hélèna Katz, The Mad Trapper, 2004, Altitude Publishing Canada Ltd., 133 pages, ISBN 1-55153-787-7

Dick North, The Man Who Didn't Fit In, 2005, The Lyons Press, 259 pages, ISBN 1-59228-838-3

Barbara Smith, The Mad Trapper: Unearthing a Mystery, 2009, Heritage House Publishing Co., 160 pages, ISBN 1-894974-53-0

Mark Fremmerlid, What Became of Sigvald Anyway? Was He The Mad Trapper of Rat River? 66 pages, ISBN 978-0-9784270-0-9

Thomas P. Kelley, Rat River Trapper, 1972, Paper Jacks, 141 pages, ISBN 0-7737-7004-6

Dick North, Trackdown, 1989, Macmillan of Canada, 202 pages, ISBN 0-7715-9209-4

Ian Manook, Ravage, 2023, Éditions Paulsen, 352 pages, ISBN 9-782375-021958

References

Millen was later to have a tributary of the Rat River, Millen Creek, named for him. A memorial is located in the area.

Zuehlke, Mark (22 January 2008). "Albert Johnson, 'The Mad Trapper of Rat River '." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Retrieved 7 June 2026.

"Mad Trapper". www.rcmpgraves.com. Retrieved 11 June 2026.

Phillips, Alan (1 October 1955). "Who was the Mad Trapper of Rat River?" Macleans.ca. Archived from the original on 28 July 2020. Retrieved 19 July 2019.

"Mad Trapper not a Canadian, scientific tests discover". CBC News. 20 February 2009.

Smith, Barbara (2009). The Mad Trapper - Unearthing a Mystery. Heritage House Publishing Company. ISBN 978-1-894974-53-0.

RCMP Investigative Report. Cst. William Carter - 1932

"The Mad Trapper of Rat River". Northwest Territories Timeline. Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. Retrieved 7 June 2026.

Smith, Barbara. "The Mad Trapper: Unearthing a Mystery". Discovery Channel. Archived from the original on 23 April 2014.

"Constable Millen's Cairn Territorial Historic Site". Archived from the original on 24 September 2020. Retrieved 4 November 2015.

Anderson, Frank W.; Downs, Art (1986). The Death of Albert Johnson: Mad Trapper of Rat River. Heritage House. ISBN 978-1-89438-403-2.

Dabbs, Will (26 October 2022). "Albert Johnson: The Mad Trapper of Rat River". Gun Reviews and News | GunsAmerica.com/Digest. Retrieved 20 October 2025.

"3362UMYT - Unidentified Male". The Doe Network. 22 April 2020. Retrieved 22 November 2020.

Smith, The Mad Trapper Unearthing a Mystery (Heritage Publishing, 2009), p. 126, 144

Interview, Information Morning, CBC Radio 1, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 6:20 am 15 January 2009

"Mad Trapper - What Became Of Sigvald, Anyway? - Official Website". www.wassigvaldthemadtrapper.com. Archived from the original on 27 May 2009. Retrieved 10 June 2026.

"Who is the Mad Trapper of Rat River?". NA Solves. Othram Inc. 26 July 2021. Retrieved 7 June 2026.

"The Hunt for the Mad Trapper". Myth Merchant Films. 2007. Archived from the original on 3 August 2020.

"Scientists Narrow Search For Mysterious Mad Trapper To Sweden". GlobeNewswire. 30 July 2021. Retrieved 11 June 2026.

"Scarlet And Gold, 1974"

"Details: The Mad Trapper (1972)." The New York Times. Retrieved: 1 December 2014.

"Death Hunt". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 7 June 2026.

External links

Wikimedia Commons logo

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Albert Johnson (criminal).

CBC Program on the Mad Trapper

Northwest Territories and Yukon Radio System Account of the Pursuit

Wop May's story of the hunt

"Albert Johnson" at The Doe Network

Opium Wars

 

The Opium Wars (simplified Chinese: 鸦片战争; traditional Chinese: 鴉片戰爭; pinyin: Yāpiàn zhànzhēng) were two conflicts waged between the Qing dynasty and the Western powers during the mid-19th century.

The First Opium War was fought from 1839 to 1842 between China and the British Empire. It was triggered by the Qing government's campaign to enforce its prohibition of opium, which included destroying opium stocks owned by British merchants and the British East India Company. The British government responded by sending a naval expedition to force the Chinese government to pay reparations and allow the opium trade. The Second Opium War was waged by Britain and France against China from 1856 to 1860, and resulted in China being forced to legalise opium.

In the wars, the military advantages enjoyed by Europeans led to several easy victories over the Chinese military, and China was compelled to sign the unequal treaties to grant favourable tariffs, trade concessions, reparations, and territory to Western powers. The two conflicts, along with the treaties imposed during the century of humiliation, weakened Chinese sovereignty and forced China to open treaty ports (including Shanghai) to Western merchants. China ceded sovereignty over Hong Kong to the British in 1841, which maintained control over the region until 1997. These developments later became central to Nationalist narratives in China and were cited by movements such as the Chinese Communist Party to legitimize efforts to restore sovereignty and resist foreign influence.

History

First Opium War

The First Opium War broke out in 1839 between China and Britain and was fought over trading rights (including the right of free trade) and Britain's diplomatic status among Chinese officials. In the eighteenth century, China enjoyed a trade surplus with Europe, trading porcelain, silk, and tea in exchange for silver. Trade between China and Britain was heavily imbalanced in China's favor. As Britain's demands for tea, silk, and porcelain exceeded Chinese demands for British goods, British merchants started exporting opium in India. This shift reversed the balance of trade. By the late 18th century, the British East India Company (EIC) expanded the cultivation of opium in the Bengal Presidency, selling it to private merchants who transported it to China and covertly sold it on to Chinese smugglers. At the time, foreign trade was restricted under the Canton System, limiting Western merchants to a single port and conducting business through specific licensed Chinese merchants. By 1797, the EIC was selling 4,000 chests of opium a year (each weighing 77 kilograms or 170 pounds) to private merchants; that is, 308 tonnes (680 thousand pounds) per year.

In earlier centuries, opium was utilised as a medicine with anesthetic qualities, but new Chinese practices of smoking opium recreationally increased demand tremendously and led to smokers developing addictions. Successive Chinese emperors issued edicts making opium illegal in 1729, 1799, 1814, and 1831, but imports grew as smugglers and colluding officials in China sought profit. Some American merchants entered the trade by smuggling opium from Turkey into China, including Warren Delano Jr. and Francis Blackwell Forbes; in American historiography, this is sometimes referred to as the Old China Trade. By 1833, the Chinese opium trade soared to 30,000 chests, that is, 2,310 tonnes (5.1 million pounds). The trade led to a "silver drainage" within the Chinese economy, essentially counteracting some of the gains from the Silk Road trade.

British and American merchants sent opium to warehouses in the free-trade port of Canton, and sold it to Chinese smugglers.

In 1834, the EIC's monopoly on British trade with China ceased, and the opium trade burgeoned. Partly concerned with moral issues over the consumption of opium and partly with the outflow of silver, the Daoguang Emperor charged Governor General Lin Zexu with ending the trade. In addition to concerns about silver outflow, the Qing government viewed opium as a serious social and moral threat to Chinese society. Widespread addiction weakened the workforce, reduced productivity, and contributed to corruption among government officials who participated in illegal trade. Confucianism strongly emphasized social order and moral order; opium use was seen as something that went against these values. The Daoguang Emperor and his officials believed that banning opium was necessary to protect their stability and well-being. Ultimately, enforcement efforts focused on economic impacts, public health, and morality. In 1839, Lin published in Canton an open letter to Queen Victoria requesting her cooperation in halting the opium trade. The letter never reached the queen. It was later published in The Times as a direct appeal to the British public for their cooperation. An edict from the Daoguang Emperor followed on 18 March, emphasising the serious penalties for opium smuggling that would now apply henceforth. Lin ordered the seizure of all opium in Canton, including that held by foreign governments and trading companies (called factories), and the companies prepared to hand over a token amount to placate him. Charles Elliot, Chief Superintendent of British Trade in China, arrived 3 days after the expiry of Lin's deadline, as Chinese troops enforced a shutdown and blockade of the factories. The standoff ended after Elliot paid for all the opium on credit from the British government (despite lacking official authority to make the purchase) and handed the 20,000 chests (with 1,300 tonnes or 2.9 million pounds) over to Lin, who had them destroyed at Humen.

Elliot then wrote to London advising the use of military force to resolve the dispute with the Chinese government. A small skirmish occurred between British and Chinese warships in the Kowloon Estuary on 4 September 1839. After almost a year, the British government decided, in May 1840, to send a military expedition to impose reparations for the financial losses experienced by opium traders in Canton and to guarantee future security for the trade. On 21 June 1840, a British naval force arrived off Macao and moved to bombard the port of Dinghai. In the ensuing conflict, the Royal Navy used its superior ships and guns to inflict a series of decisive defeats on Chinese forces.

The war was concluded by the Treaty of Nanking (Nanjing) in 1842, the first of the Unequal treaties between China and Western powers. The treaty ceded Hong Kong Island and surrounding smaller islands to Britain, and established five cities as treaty ports open to Western traders: Shanghai, Canton, Ningbo, Fuzhou, and Xiamen (Amoy). The treaty also stipulated that China would pay a twenty-one million dollar payment to Britain as reparations for the destroyed opium, with six million to be paid immediately, and the rest through specified installments thereafter. Another treaty the following year gave most favoured nation status to Britain and added provisions for British extraterritoriality, making Britain exempt from Chinese law. France secured several of the same concessions from China in the Treaty of Whampoa in 1844.

Historian Xin Zhang argues that the economic changes associated with the first Opium War also depended on developments already under way within China. The opening of Shanghai to foreign trade, alongside the deterioration of the Grand Canal, helped shift commerce towards routes connecting the Yangzi River with the coast. Shanghai consequently became a hub linking inland trade with overseas markets.

Second Opium War

In 1853, northern China was convulsed by the Taiping Rebellion, which established its capital at Nanjing. Despite this, a new Imperial Commissioner, Ye Mingchen, was appointed at Canton, determined to stamp out the opium trade, which was still technically illegal. On 8 October 1856, Chinese authorities boarded the Chinese-owned Arrow at Canton and detained twelve crew members. The vessel's Hong Kong registration had expired eleven days earlier. British officials protested that the British flag had expired eleven days earlier. British officials protested that the British flag had been lowered during the boarding, but accounts differed over whether a flag had been flying. He seized the Arrow, a ship claiming British registration, and threw its crew into chains. Sir John Bowring, Governor of British Hong Kong, called up Rear Admiral Sir Michael Seymour's East Indies and China Station fleet, which, on 23 October, bombarded and captured the Pearl River forts on the approach to Canton and proceeded to bombard Canton itself, but had insufficient forces to take and hold the city. On 15 December, during a riot in Canton, European commercial properties were set on fire, and Bowring appealed for military intervention. The execution of a French missionary inspired support from France. The United States and Russia also became involved in the conflict, primarily through diplomatic efforts, and later obtained similar concessions from China through treaties such as the Treaty of Tientsin.

Britain and France now sought greater concessions from China, including the legalization of the opium trade, expansion of the transportation of labourers (pejoratively called coolies) to European colonies, opening all of China to British and French citizens and exempting imports from internal transit duties. The war resulted in the 1858 Treaty of Tientsin (Tianjin), in which the Chinese government agreed to pay war reparations for the expenses of the recent conflict, open a second group of ten ports to European commerce, legalize the opium trade, and grant foreign traders and missionaries rights to travel within China.

China was also required to use diplomacy in the Western, egalitarian style instead of its normal way of conducting business with lesser states through a tribute system. This treaty led to the era in Chinese history known as the Century of Humiliation. This term refers to China's loss of control of many territories to its enemies after being forced into treaties which they considered unfair. China's defeat in the Opium Wars was a sign that the Chinese state's legitimacy and ability to project power were weakening, which also contributed to this era. Even though the treaties were signed in 1858, there was still Chinese resistance to their principles, including the residence of foreign ambassadors in Beijing. The British continued to attack the Chinese. After a second phase of fighting, which included the sack of the Old Summer Palace and the occupation of the Forbidden City palace complex in Beijing, the treaty was confirmed by the Convention of Peking in 1860.

Cultural relics

Four of the original Old Summer Palace bronze heads on display in the Poly MGM Museum

In February 1860, the British and French imperialist authorities again appointed Elgin and Grotto as plenipotentiaries respectively, leading more than 15,000 British troops and about 7,000 French troops to expand the war against China. The British and French forces invaded Beijing, and the Qing emperor fled to Chengde. The British and French forces broke into the Old Summer Palace, looted jewelry, and burned it. Among the cultural relics that were looted were the well-known Old Summer Palace bronze heads.

On the morning of 7 October, the French army broke into the Old Summer Palace and began to rob it. British soldiers who arrived in the afternoon also joined the robbery, and the most precious things in the Old Summer Palace were looted. All twelve bronze statues of animal heads were lost overseas. On 18 October, the Old Summer Palace was burned down by British soldiers, and France refused to provide aid. The fire burned for three days and nights, razing the buildings of the Old Summer Palace to the ground and destroying nearby royal properties.

As of December 2020, seven of the twelve bronze statues have been found and returned to China. The whereabouts of the remaining five are still unknown.

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Cited references and further reading

Beeching, Jack (1975). The Chinese Opium Wars. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 978-0-09-122730-2.

Fay, Peter Ward (1975). The Opium War, 1840–1842: Barbarians in the Celestial Empire in the Early Part of the Nineteenth Century and the War by Which They Forced Her Gates Ajar. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-1243-3.

Gelber, H. (2004). Opium, Soldiers and Evangelicals: England's 1840-42 War with China and Its Aftermath. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 978-0-230-00070-4.

Hanes, W. Travis III; Sanello, Frank (2004). Opium Wars: The Addiction of One Empire and the Corruption of Another. Naperville: Sourcebooks. ISBN 978-1-4022-2969-5.

Haythornthwaite, Philip J. (2000). The Colonial Wars Source Book. London. ISBN 1-84067-231-5.

Inglis, Brian (1976). The Opium War. London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-19390-5.

Kaufman, Alison A. (10 March 2011). The 'Century of Humiliation' and China's National Narratives (PDF) (Report). Retrieved 25 June 2025.

Kitson, Peter J. (Summer 2018). "The Last War of the Romantics: De Quincey, Macaulay, the First Chinese Opium War" (PDF). The Wordsworth Circle. 49 (3): 148–158. doi:10.1086/TWC4903148. ISSN 0043-8006. JSTOR 45213713.

Lovell, Julia (2011). The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China. London: Picador. ISBN 978-0-330-45747-7. OCLC 730402956.

Marchant, Leslie (May 2002). "The Wars of the Poppies". History Today. Vol. 52, no. 5. pp. 42–49.

Platt, Stephen R. (2018). Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-307-96173-0.

Pomeranz, Kenneth (6 June 2019). "Blundering into War". The New York Review of Books. Vol. 66, no. 10. pp. 38–41. ISSN 0028-7504.

Polachek, James M. (1992). The Inner Opium War. Harvard East Asian Monographs. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center. ISBN 978-0-674-45446-0.

Wakeman, Frederic Evans (1997) [1966]. Strangers at the Gate: Social Disorder in South China, 1839-1861. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-21239-8.

"The Opening to China Part II: the Second Opium War, the United States, and the Treaty of Tianjin, 1857–1859". Office of the Historian. US Department of State. Retrieved 20 December 2024.

Waley, Arthur (1958). The Opium War Through Chinese Eyes. London: George Allen & Unwin.

Wang, Helen (2023). Wang, H.; Bracey, R. (eds.). "The Canton Ransom – What Happened to the Six Million Dollars of Silver?" Look at the Coins. Papers in honour of Joe Cribb on his 75th Birthday. Oxford: Archaeopress: 58–69.

Wong, J. Y. (2002). Deadly Dreams: Opium and the Arrow War (1856-1860) in China. Cambridge studies in Chinese history, literature and institutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-52619-7.

Yu, Miles Maochun (3 July 2018). "Did China Have A Chance To Win The Opium War?"Military History in the News. Hoover Institution.

External links

"The Opium Wars", BBC Radio 4 discussion with Yangwen Zheng, Lars Laamann, and Xun Zhou (In Our Time, 12 April 2007)