The Second World War saw Hong Kong falling into the hands of the Japanese who transformed it into a military centre for their campaign in Asia. In 1937, during China's war with Japan over Manchuria, it again became a place of asylum for hundreds of thousands of Chinese people displaced by the Japanese invasion. After the Chinese Revolution of 1911 and the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912, Hong Kong became a political refuge for Chinese exiles from the mainland. The signing of the second Convention of Beijing in 1898 increased the area of the colony significantly with the New Territories, part of the Kowloon peninsula and Lantau Island, which were leased to Britain for 99 years from 1 July 1898 to 30 June 1997.ĭespite plague and typhoons, the population of colonial Hong Kong eventually grew. Britain occupied the island of Hong Kong in 1841, defeating China and concluding the war with the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, in which part of Hong Kong was ceded to the United Kingdom.įollowing the Second Opium War and the 1860 Convention of Beijing, further cessions were agreed: part of the Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island, giving Britain complete control of Victoria Harbour. The Qing dynasty, who ruled China at the time, declared their opposition to the illegal trade, kicking off First Opium War in 1839. Opium had long been used in Chinese medicine, but it began to be used as a recreational drug, leading to mass addiction, which the British Empire used to export more and more. Hong Kong as a British Colonyīy the early 19th century, the British Empire was dependant on importation of tea from China, but could not keep up with the country's demands for silver in exchange and instead started illegally importing opium to China. Hong Kong's population originally relied on fishing, pearl farming and salt production for their income, but the coastal area eventually became an important free port involved in trade with the British Empire.

Inhabited since the Stone Age, the region of Hong Kong was incorporated into Imperial China around the 2nd century BC, and its history reflected that of the mainland for the next two thousand years.

Modern history of hong kong