Happy Chinese New Year! The Wars of the French Revolution actually did reach China (or at least Chinese waters). On January 27th, 1799, there was a brief, inconclusive naval engagement between the Royal Navy and a Franco-Spanish force just off the Wanshan Archipelago in Guangdong

The Age of Napoleon The British tried to enter Portuguese Macao in 1802 to prevent France from taking it and had problems with the Qing authorities.