In March1839, the Emperor appointed a new strict Confucianist commissioner, Lin Zexu to control the opium trade at the port of Canton. His first course of action was to enforce the imperial demand that there be a permanent halt to drug shipments into China. On 27 March 1839 Charles Elliot, British Superintendent of Trade, demanded that all British subjects turn over their opium to him, to be confiscated by Commissioner Lin Zexu, amounting to nearly a year's supply of the drug. After it was surrendered, trade between them restarted under the strict condition that no more drugs would be brought into China. Lin Zexu had all British merchants sign a bond promising not to deal opium or they would be killed. They oposed signing this bond. So Lin had the opium disposed of dissolving it in water, salt, and lime, and dumping it into the ocean. The British Government said Lin was destroying their property and when they heard what was happening in Canton they sent a British Indian army that arrived in June 1840.
This lead to the first opium war. The British had a powerful fleet of steam engine warships were not only virtually indestructible but also highly mobile and able to support a gun platform with very heavy guns. The Chinese ships were not nearly as powerful and were destroyed. Now the British were destoying towns and trade barges. In 1842 the treaty of Nanjing, Bogue, Wanghia, and Whampoa were signed and ended the first opium war.