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Panama: 'The Capture of Puerto Bello, 21 November 1739'. Oil on canvas painting by George Chambers Senior (1803-1840), 1838.<br/><br/> Portobello was founded in 1597 by Spanish explorer Francisco Velarde y Mercado. From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries it was an important silver-exporting port in New Granada on the Spanish Main and one of the ports on the route of the Spanish treasure fleets. It was attacked on November 21, 1739, and captured by a British fleet, commanded by Admiral Edward Vernon during the War of Jenkins' Ear.
Maritime: 'The Battle of Leghorn, 4 March 1653'. Oil on canvas painting by Willem Hermansz van Diest (c. 1600-1678), mid-17th century. The naval Battle of Leghorn (the Dutch call the encounter by the Italian name Livorno) took place on 14 March (4 March Old Style) 1653, during the First Anglo-Dutch War, near Leghorn (Livorno), Italy. It was a victory of a Dutch fleet under Commodore Johan van Galen over an English squadron under Captain Henry Appleton. Afterward an English fleet under Captain Richard Badiley, which Appleton had been trying to reach, came up but was outnumbered and fled.
Netherlands: 'The Battle of Scheveningen, August 10, 1653'. Ink and oil on canvas painting by Willem van de Velde the Elder (c. 1611-1693), 1657. The Battle of Scheveningen was the final naval battle of the First Anglo-Dutch War. In June 1653, the English fleet had begun a blockade of the Dutch coast. On August 10, English and Dutch ships engaged, resulting in heavy damage to both sides. The blockade was lifted, but Dutch Admiral Maarten Tromp's death was a severe blow, leading eventually to Dutch concessions in the Treaty of Westminster.
The First Anglo-Chinese War (1839–42), known popularly as the First Opium War or simply the Opium War, was fought between the United Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty of China over their conflicting viewpoints on diplomatic relations, trade, and the administration of justice.<br/><br/> Chinese officials wished to stop what was perceived as an outflow of silver and to control the spread of opium, and confiscated supplies of opium from British traders. The British government, although not officially denying China's right to control imports, objected to this seizure and used its newly developed military power to enforce violent redress.<br/><br/> In 1842, the Treaty of Nanking—the first of what the Chinese later called the unequal treaties—granted an indemnity to Britain, the opening of five treaty ports, and the cession of Hong Kong Island, thereby ending the trade monopoly of the Canton System. The failure of the treaty to satisfy British goals of improved trade and diplomatic relations led to the Second Opium War (1856–60). The war is now considered in China as the beginning of modern Chinese history.