Hong Kong: A Survey of its Political and Economic Development over the Past 150 Years

Abstract

Hong Kong has been part of Chinese territory since ancient times. Before the British occupation, Hong Kong had achieved considerable development in agriculture, fisheries, the salt industry, transportation, cultural undertakings and education. It was by no means a desolate and barren land at that time. British troops occupied Hong Kong Island on 25 January 1841 during the Opium War. In August 1842, the British government formally annexed Hong Kong Island by forcing the Qing government to conclude the Sino-British Treaty of Nanking. In the Second Opium War, British troops forcibly occupied Kowloon in 1860. In October the same year, the British government annexed Kowloon after forcing the Qing government to conclude the Sino-British Convention of Peking. When imperialist powers were locked in their bid to carve up and grab spheres of influence in China, Britain again forced the Qing government into signing the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory in June 1898 by which it leased a large expanse of Chinese territory south of Shenzhen River and north of Boundary Street and some 235 islands, renamed later as the “New Territories,” thus achieving its occupation and control over the entire Hong Kong region.