History of Hong Kong

The first permanent settlement in what is today Hong Kong probably occurred about 2,000 years ago during the Han dynasty (206 bc-ad 220).

Little growth took place until the 19th century, owing to China’s imperial policy of inward development, with a focus away from developing the resources of coastal areas.

Also, despite Hong Kong’s proximity to the port city of Guangzhou, all foreign trade with China was controlled through a small Chinese merchant guild in Guangzhou known as the Co-hong, and contact with foreigners was highly restricted.

The British, who wished to expand their trading opportunities along China’s coast, became interested in Hong Kong in the early 19th century. They also desired a location to serve as a naval resupply point, similar to the role Singapore was playing at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula.

The trade of opium, a highly profitable product for British merchants and eventually an illegal import into China, led to the Opium Wars and Britain’s acquisition of Hong Kong.

In 1839 the Chinese Special Commissioner imprisoned some British merchants in Guangzhou and confiscated opium warehouses. The merchants were released, but the British foreign secretary, Lord Palmerston, dispatched naval forces and war ensued. The British had a superior naval force and won easily, occupying Hong Kong Island in 1841.

One year later, China and Britain signed the Treaty of Nanjing (Nanking) which ceded Hong Kong Island and adjacent small islands in perpetuity to Britain.

Treaty disputes and other incidents led to the Second Opium War in 1856, also won by Britain. The conflict ended with the ratification of the Treaty of Tianjin in 1860.

Among other provisions, this treaty ceded 10 sq km (4 sq mi) of the Kowloon Peninsula to Britain, thereby allowing the British to establish firm control over the excellent natural harbor between Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula.

In 1898 China leased the New Territories to Britain for 99 years, adding more than 900 sq km (350 sq mi) of land and considerable territorial waters to Hong Kong.

Hong Kong grew slowly during the 19th century, although gaining the New Territories added a substantial rural population.

By 1900 there were perhaps as many as 100,000 people. The territory began to grow more rapidly in the 20th century as employment in Hong Kong’s developing light industries attracted Chinese immigrants.

Instability in China associated with the Republican Revolution of 1911 and World War I (1914-1918) also stimulated Chinese to move to Hong Kong. This wave of population growth was halted during World War II (1939-1945) when Japanese forces invaded and occupied Hong Kong for almost four years.

After the war Hong Kong had a population of about 600,000 people. A new wave of population growth occurred when Chinese immigration resumed after World War II and a growing civil war in China further prompted migrants to move to Hong Kong.

By 1947 the population had reached about 1.8 million.

Hong Kong’s greatest growth and development occurred after the Communist takeover of China in 1949, when the commercial and shipping functions of Guangzhou and Shanghai shifted to Hong Kong.

In addition, new industrial investments based on low-cost and productive labor led to rapid expansion of industrial employment.

Although officially cut off from easy ties with China during the early decades of the Communist regime, trade and travel between Hong Kong and China in fact flourished.

( Mao Zedong )
Hong Kong served as China’s window to the world during the Chinese administration of Mao Zedong.

After Mao’s death in 1976, Hong Kong’s role as a banker to China, and as its supplier of information, technology, and capital, intensified.

In the 1980s the impending 1997 expiration of Britain’s lease of the New Territories necessitated negotiations between Britain and China.

Britain agreed to return all of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty at the end of the lease and the Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed in 1984.

Despite the change in Hong Kong’s political status to a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China on July 1, 1997, the territory has continued to strive to maintain its economic role and the confidence of the world community in its banking, trading, and shipping.

( Tung Chee-hwa )
Tung Chee-hwa served as the Hong Kong SAR’s first chief executive from 1997 to 2005; he resigned before the end of his second term in 2007, citing health reasons. His deputy, Donald Tsang, took over as acting chief executive until a successor could be determined.

( Donald Tsang )
Tsang won nominations from 710 of the 800 election committee members and was formally named chief executive in June 2005. Tsang was appointed to serve out the remaining two years of Tung’s term, rather than to a full five-year term.