How did the Treaty of Nanjing affect China?The treaty of nanjing 1842.

The impact of the Treaty of Nanjing was very much like the impact of the Opium War, since the Treaty of Nanjing came out of the Opium War.

In this treaty, the British were given Hong Kong, as well as free access to five ports.  In these five ports, the British residents had the right of extraterritoriality.  That is, they were not subject to Chinese law.

In immediate terms, these were not all that important.  However, they represented the beginning of a series of humiliating episodes in which the Chinese were forced to open up more and more to the West.