 A powerful faction of Chinese reformers began to call for political and educational change, calling for the shedding of old educational ways and an increase of dealing with and learning from the West in order to reform and save China.Following the Convention of Peking which concluded the Second Opium War, the Qing Empire created Zongli Yamen, the first Qing office for foreign affairs, in 1861, and one year later, founded the Tongwen Guan to supply the language skills required for the Zongli Yamen.When the college was first started in 1862, it only had ten students and only English instruction under John S. Burdon, a British missionary.