 | Prior to the arrival of the British, Hong Kong was a small fishing
community and a haven for travelers and pirates in the South China Sea. |
| During the Opium Wars with China in the Nineteenth Century, Britain used
the territory as a naval base. Following the end of the first Opium War, the Treaty of
Nanking ceded the territory to the British in perpetuity. |
| Following additional conflicts with the Chinese in 1860 Britain gained
Kowloon and Stonecutters Island. Later in 1898 Britain acquired the New Territories on a
99-year lease. |
| Hong Kong served as a refuge for exiles from China following the
establishment of the Chinese Republic in 1912. |
| After Japan seized Manchuria in 1932 and the Sino-Japanese war broke out
in 1938, China turned to Britain for supplies. As a result of this relationship, relations
between Britain, Hong Kong and China became warmer. |
| As Japan advanced into China, hundreds of thousands of Chinese took
refuge in Hong Kong. |
| World War II distupted the social and economic life of Hong Kong. On
December 8, 1941, Japanese aircraft bombed Kowloon and Japanese troops forced the British
to surrender Hong Kong on Christmas Day 1941. |
| Following Japan's surrender on August 14, 1945 Britain recaimed the
territory. |
| Hong Kong was again a major trading center. |
| When the Nationalist/Communist Civil War was won by the Communists,
hundreds of thousands of people again fled to Hong Kong. |
| The colony was forced to develop internal industries taking advantage of
local and regional resources in order to continue to grow. |
| The constant influx from China of capital and manpower led to the
establishment of light manufacturing throughout the territory by the 1950s and 1960s. |
| During the 1980s Hong Kong started to work with China on a series of
joint projects that brought the two closer together. |
| In 1984, Britain and China reached an agreement that Hong Kong would
revert back to Chinese authority in 1997. The commercial, social and legal life of
Hong Kong will remain as it is until 2047 at which time China will be able to exercise its
authority. |
