History of Hong Kong (1800s–1930s)
[1] After the First Opium War, the territory was ceded by the Qing Empire to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland through Treaty of Nanjing (1842) and Convention of Peking (1860) in perpetuity.
[1] Some of the earliest items sold to China in exchange for tea were British clocks, watches and musical boxes known as "sing-songs".
Lin Zexu, a special Chinese commissioner appointed by the Qing Daoguang Emperor, wrote a letter to Queen Victoria in 1839 taking a stance against the acceptance of opium in trade.
[6] Commodore Sir Gordon Bremer raised the Union Jack and claimed Hong Kong as a colony on 26 January 1841.
With a base in Hong Kong, British traders, opium dealers, and merchants including Jardine Matheson & Co. and Dent & Co. launched the city which would become the 'free trade' nexus of the East.
Later, in 1898, the Qing government reluctantly agreed to the Convention between Great Britain and China Respecting an Extension of Hong Kong Territory (also known as the Second Convention of Peking) that compelled China to cede a further area north of Boundary Street to the Sham Chun River along with more than two hundred nearby islands.
[8] When the union flag was raised over Possession Point on 26 January 1841, the population of Hong Kong island was about 6,000, mostly Tanka fishermen and Hakka charcoal burners living in a number of coastal villages.
Other events such as floods, typhoons and famine in mainland China would also play a role in establishing Hong Kong as a place to escape the mayhem.
[10] In 1914 despite an exodus of 60,000 Chinese fearing an attack on the colony during World War I, Hong Kong's population continued to increase from 530,000 in 1916 to 725,000 in 1925 and 1.6 million by 1941.
[12] The establishment of the free port made Hong Kong a major entrepôt from the start, attracting people from China and Europe alike.
There were, however, a small number of Chinese elites that the British governors relied on, including Sir Kai Ho and Robert Hotung.
[14] They accepted their place in the Hong Kong hierarchy, and served as main communicators and mediators between the government and the Chinese population.
Robert Hotung wanted Chinese citizens to recognise Hong Kong as the new home after the fall of China's last dynasty in 1911.
[15] The east portion of Colonial Hong Kong was mostly dedicated to the British; filled with race courses, parade grounds, barracks, cricket and polo fields.
In the mid-19th century many of the merchants would sell silk, jade and consult feng shui to open shops that favoured better spiritual arrangements.
Due to the commercial success of merchants, boatmen, carters and fishermen there, Hong Kong overtook China's most populous port in Canton.
[1] A British traveller, Isabella Bird, described Hong Kong in the 1870s as a colony filled with comforts and entertainment only a Victorian society would be able to enjoy.
Other descriptions mentioned courts, hotels, post offices, shops, city hall complexes, museums, libraries and structures in impressive manner for the era.
[1] Court sessions for criminal and admiralty matters were first held on 4 March 1844 under the aegis of the first governor, Lieutenant General Sir Henry Pottinger and the Lieutenant-governor George D'Aguilar.
After raising funds for the 1877 famine in China, a number of the hospital officials became Tung Wah elites with much authority and power representing the Chinese majority.
He called this "synarchy", an extension of John K. Fairbank's use of the word to describe the mechanisms of government under the late Qing dynasty in China.
When modern China began after the fall of the last dynasty, one of the first political statements made in Hong Kong was the immediate change from long queue hairstyles to short haircuts.
[14] In 1938, Guangzhou fell to the hands of the Japanese, Hong Kong was considered a strategic military outpost for all trades in the far east.
Though Winston Churchill assured that Hong Kong was an "impregnable fortress",[14] it was taken as a reality check response since the British Army actually stretched too thin to battle on two fronts.
