ABSTRACT
China also lost the second Opium War, 1856–1860. Instead of merely fighting one country and one navy, China found itself fighting the scientific fruits of the Industrial Revolution. Engineering changes in foreign shipbuilding—most importantly the widespread use of steam engines, adoption of coal and then oil, the introduction of metal keels, more effective watertight compartmentalization, and longer-range precision armaments—undermined China’s existing and new coastal defense strategy. In addition, the extension of foreign strongholds from China’s offshore islands, like Hong Kong, to its neighboring tributaries, such as Japan’s efforts to take Okinawa and France’s expanding position in Annam, would gradually give foreign powers staging areas from which to access the Chinese coastline and attack inland China.
