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What did the Treaty of Nanjing require Guangzhou to do after the First Opium War?
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Guangzhou
Nighttime view of central Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China.
The Treaty of Nanjing (1842), which concluded the First Opium War, required Guangzhou to be opened as a treaty port.1
Prior to this treaty, the city operated under the Canton system, a restrictive trading pattern that confined foreign commerce exclusively to Guangzhou and mandated that foreign merchants trade only through licensed Chinese firms known as cohongs. The Treaty of Nanjing effectively abolished this system, allowing British merchants to trade at five different ports and to conduct business with whomever they pleased.23
Although the treaty mandated that the city be opened, strong antiforeign sentiment in the region led local authorities to refuse to open the city gates until 1857.1