Feature History - Second Opium War

This one isn't an April Fools, promise. CORRECTIONS AND DISCLAIMERS: 12:24 - I seemed to have had a stroke 8:57 - It's called the Eight Mile Bridge, but it isn't eight miles long

Russia & America: We're neutral guys, we're neither with China nor against the British

Ah, yes. I always knew the Brits were fellow experts at clubbing seals.

Taiping Rebellion happens because some dude conviced a lot of people that he was a brother of Jesus Christ

Last time I was this early Hong Kong was still a fishing village

Ah yes, The Expedition. The polite word of Invasion

8:57 it's the "8-mile bridge" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baliqiao) because it's 8 miles from Beijing proper, not 8 miles long, that would be absolutely mental even by today's standards.

Meanwhile the Portuguese in Macau: "Oh no! Anyway."

The beginnings of the new blossoming Franco-Albion friendship after a near millennium of rivalry.

So this is why he gave us the crash course on Bri ish history

The Qing made an unexpected victory at Taku, The British made an unexpected victory in turn. Perfectly bal- lol, no, the British still roflstomped them.

the amount the firepower advantage the British could bring with their fleets was truly staggering

Fun fact: everyone here hasn’t finished the entire video except feature history.

Britian: Hello there. Chinese: who are you? Britain: we are the most civilised nation on earth. Chinese: what do you want? Britain: we want WAR

For a second I thought this was also an april fools joke

I feel like these videos often forget that the Qing dynasty wasn't viewed that favorably in China at the time. The manchurian ruling class was viewed as an external invader that forced manchurian customs and culture on China, far different than the preceeding MIng dynasty. China had a long history of many dynasties of domestic and foreign origin. The Qing dynasty always had a tenous grasp of rule, and the imperialist westerners only further weakened that rule. Cixi was able to hold the dynasty together for the rest of the century, but i am not sure if the path of total westernization, similar to japan, would have saved the Qing in the long run.

The arrow wasn't a pirate vessel, it was a vessel with crewmen who had been pirates in the past. Minor but still important detail.

DRUG WAAARRR wait wrong century

Frankly absolutly amazing, every episode is a step up and this was a leap, thankyou feature, i think once you said your name was Sam, thankyou. This was a gift in a trying time for me, you have always got this.

You should do a boxer rebellion vid