The war that included The First Battle of Taku Forts took place in what years?
Second Opium War The Second Opium War, the Second Anglo-Chinese War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a war pitting the British Empire and the French Empire against the Qing dynasty of China, lasting from 1856 to 1860.
Soviet invasion of Manchuria The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, also known as the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation ("Манчжурская стратегическая наступательная операция" , lit. "Manchzhurskaya Strategicheskaya Nastupatelnaya Operaciya") or simply the Manchurian Operation ("Маньчжурская операция"), began on 9 August 1945 with the Soviet invasion of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. It was the last campaign of the Second World War, and the largest of the 1945 Soviet–Japanese War which resumed hostilities between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Empire of Japan after almost six years of peace. Soviet gains on the continent were Manchukuo, Mengjiang (Inner Mongolia) and northern Korea. The Soviet entry into the war and the defeat of the Kwantung Army was a significant factor in the Japanese government's decision to surrender unconditionally, as it made apparent the Soviet Union would no longer be willing to act as a third party in negotiating an end to hostilities on conditional terms.