This is a subject near and dear to my own heart and research.
On this date in 1856, French missionary Auguste Chapdelaine (1814-1856) was executed in Guangxi province on the orders of the Xilin County magistrate. Prior to 1860, missionaries were forbidden to travel outside of the ‘treaty ports,’ an injunction that many routinely ignored at their own peril.
In 1856, Father Chapedelaine traveled illegally to Guangxi where he ran afoul of Qing officials. The French priest and 26 of his followers were rounded up by the local constabulary and on February 29, County Magistrate Zhang Mingfeng ordered Chapdelaine and two of his followers put to death. (Another account says that Chapdelaine died in custody, a result of having been beaten and locked in a small iron cage following his arrest. A stickler for details, the magistrate had the body beheaded anyway.)
Needless to say, the French were not amused.
The French used Chapdelaine’s execution as a pretext to join with the British (who would later in 1856 find their own, sketchier, excuse) to shake China down for more treaty concessions–including the right for missionaries to travel freely and build churches in the interior provinces.
Needless to say, the Qing