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British Hong Kong

Hong Kong was a colony and later a dependent territory of the United Kingdom from 1841 to 1997, apart from a period of Japanese occupation from 1941 to 1945 during the Pacific War. The colonial period began with the British occupation of Hong Kong Island in 1841, during the First Opium War between the British and the Qing dynasty. The Qing had wanted to enforce its prohibition of opium importation within the dynasty that was being exported mostly from British India and was causing widespread addiction among the populace.

Hong Kong
香港

 

Chris Patten (last)

George Malcolm (first)

Anson Chan (last)

Victorian era to 20th century

26 January 1841

29 August 1842

18 October 1860

25 December 1941 –
30 August 1945

1 July 1997

6,217,556[1]

5,796/km2 (15,011.6/sq mi)

1996[2] estimate

$154 billion

$23,843

1996[2] estimate

$160 billion

$24,698

Negative increase 51.8[3]
high

Increase 0.808[4]
very high

英屬香港

英属香港

Yīngshǔ Xiānggǎng

Yīngshǔ Xiānggǎng

ㄧㄥ ㄕㄨˇ ㄒㄧㄤ ㄍㄤˇ

Ying1-shu3 Hsiang1-kang3

Ying-shǔ Sianggǎng

Yīng suhk hēung góng

jing1 suk6 hoeng1 gong2

The island was ceded to Britain by the Treaty of Nanking, ratified by the Daoguang Emperor in the aftermath of the war of 1842. It was established as a crown colony in 1843. In 1860, the British took the opportunity to expand the colony with the addition of the Kowloon Peninsula after the Second Opium War, while the Qing was embroiled in handling the Taiping Rebellion. With the Qing further weakened after the First Sino-Japanese War, Hong Kong's territory was further extended in 1898 when the British obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories.


Although the Qing dynasty had to cede Hong Kong Island and Kowloon in perpetuity as per the treaty, the leased New Territories comprised 86.2% of the colony and more than half of the entire colony's population. With the lease nearing its end during the late 20th century, Britain did not see any viable way to administer the colony by dividing it, whilst the People's Republic of China (PRC) would not consider extending the lease or allow continued British administration thereafter.


With the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984, which stated that the economic and social systems in Hong Kong would remain relatively unchanged for 50 years, the British government agreed to transfer the entire territory to China upon the expiration of the New Territories lease in 1997 – with Hong Kong becoming a special administrative region (SAR) until at least 2047.[5][6]

Emperor of India

British Military Hospital

British Education

Royal Hong Kong Regiment

Political Department

Flags of Elizabeth II

British Forces Overseas Hong Kong

Commander British Forces in Hong Kong

Clayton, Adam (2003). Hong Kong Since 1945: An Economic and Social History.

(1964). An Eastern Entrepôt: A Collection of Documents Illustrating the History of Hong Kong. Her Majesty's Stationery Office. p. 293. ASIN B0007J07G6. OCLC 632495979.

Endacott, G. B.

Lui, Adam Yuen-chung (1990). Forts and Pirates – A History of Hong Kong. Hong Kong History Society. p. 114.  962-7489-01-8.

ISBN

Liu, Shuyong; Wang, Wenjiong; Chang, Mingyu (1997). An Outline History of Hong Kong. . p. 291. ISBN 978-7-119-01946-8.

Foreign Languages Press

Ngo, Tak-Wing (1999). Hong Kong's History: State and Society Under Colonial Rule. Routledge. p. 205.  978-0-415-20868-0.

ISBN

(1993). A Borrowed Place: The History of Hong Kong. Kodansha International. p. 624. ISBN 978-1-56836-002-7.

Welsh, Frank

Chan, Ming K. (September 1997). . The China Quarterly. 151 (151). Cambridge University Press: 567–582. doi:10.1017/S0305741000046828. JSTOR 655254.

"The Legacy of the British Administration of Hong Kong: A View from Hong Kong"

"". Archived from the original on 24 December 1996. Retrieved 2013-03-26.

Official website of the British Hong Kong Government