Many Chinese embraced religeon as an alternative or enhancement to the old paradigm. Religeon was behind the Jintian Uprising, which was followed by the Taiping Rebellion.

The Jintian Uprising was an armed revolt formally declared by Hong Xiuquan. It marked the beginning of the Taiping Rebellion.

At first it seemed as if the Manchus would be able to cope unaided with the Taiping, but the Mongols, and some Chinese, had lost their military skill in the long years of peace. Now three men came to the fore - a Mongol named Sengge Rinchen, a man of great personal bravery, who defended the interests of the Manchu rulers; and two Chinese, Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang, who were in the service of the Manchus but used their position simply to further the interests of the gentry. The Mongol saved Beijing from capture by the Taiping. The two Chinese were living in central China, and there the Manchus recruited, Li and Zeng. Thus, the peasants of central China, all suffering from impoverishment, were divided into two groups, one following the Taiping, the other following Zeng Guofan. This led to a number of Taiping Clashes

The terms of the Treaty of Nanjing were not observed by either side; both evaded them and a consequence was the Lorcha War.

The Second Opium War refers to one of Britain's strategic objectives, the legalising of the opium trade. The Arrow Incident became the starting point of the conflict. When the second war ended, the Treaty of Tientsin was signed explicitly covering the details of reparations and trade that had been attempted in the Treaty of Nanking

While in the central provinces the Taiping Rebellion was raging, China was suffering grave setbacks owing to the Lorcha War of 1856; and there were also great and serious risings in other parts of the country such as the Nian Rebellion and the Mohammedan Risings.

Britain's focus was to deal with the non-fulfilment of treaty terms and conflict was seen again in the First Battle of Canton in late 1856 followed by the Second Battle of Canton at the end of 1857.

On 28 May 1858, the separate Treaty of Aigun was signed with Russia to revise the Chinese and Russian border as determined by the Nerchinsk Treaty in 1689.

The second phase of the opium war lasted from 1858 to 1860 beginning with three Battles of Taku Forts. This was a period of retaliation and counter-retaliation with the Battle of Palikao where the result was the burning of the Summer Palaces being a significant event.

On 24 October, the emperor's brother, Prince Gong, conceded to the allied demands. British and French troops entered Beijing, where the Treaty of Tientsin was ratified by the Convention of Peking.

Anglo-Chinese relations came under strain again later in 1868 with the opposition to the presence of foreign missionaries culminating in the Yangzhou Riot. At the time of the Yangzhou Riot, Japan was developing with the Restoration of the Meiji.