The Treaty of Nanking , formally called the Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Commerce between Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and the Emperor of China, was signed on the 29August 1842 to mark the end of the First Opium War (1839–42) between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Qing dynasty of China. It was the first of the unequal treaties against the Chinese, as Britain had no obligations in return.