A Study On The Coastal Defense Construction Of Canton Intermediate Division During The First Opium War And The Second Opium War

Following the defeat of The First Opium War, the Qing Dynasty tried to resistthe enemy and protect the sovereign by reforming Canton coastal defense armamentand started to strengthen the Coastal Defense Construction of Canton IntermediateDivision. Kowloon Walled City represented as a series of coastal defenseconstructions, reflected changes of policies adopting by Qing Dynasty to resist theBritain enemy, and also reflected defects and progress of the Coastal DefenseConstruction of Canton Intermediate Division. A large amount of fund donated forKowloon Walled City construction was not only provided an opportunity for the QingDynasty which was lacking financial resources to strengthen the DefenseConstruction of Canton Intermediate Division, but also for the defense constructionof the whole Canton indirectly.Located on Kowloon Peninsula, Kowloon Walled City, which was the foremostposition to guard the Coastal Defense Construction of Canton Intermediate Divisionand was critical to the whole coastal defense. Its construction was oversaw by GuBingzhang, with usage of some parts of military engineering which before The FirstOpium War and some improvement, Kowloon Walled City possessed its advantagesand defects which were difficult to improve, and its tottering destiny was doomed asabove mentioned.The whole amount of fund donated for Kowloon Walled City is as much as432,673taels of silver, besides the expenditure of construction of Kowloon WalledCity, the remaining funds was used for QinSha Fort, the inner and outer cities ofGuangzhou, Yongsheng Bureau of gunpowder and other6military engineerings,which not only strengthened the coastal defense of intermediate division greatly, butalso improved treatment of officers and soldiers and combat effectiveness.The Qing Dynasty’s endeavor did not gain a good result. The coastal defense ofintermediate division represented by Kowloon suffered great damaged during the Second Opium War, failed to shoulder its responsibilities of resisting the enemy andprotecting the dignity of Qing Dynasty.The construction of Kowloon Walled City, reflecting solutions which QingDynasty adopted to defend the British after Hong Kong was took over by the Britain,is fundamental for the research of Sino-British relations of the day. Besides, KowloonWalled City, completed in Dao Guang27, is typical enough to represent the wholeforts and it is a key to understand the history of Canton coastal defense, which is notonly reflecting the typical characters of fort buildings of that time, but also thethought of coastal defense and changes of Qing Dynasty..