Early Colonial Hong Kong I

8/3/2019 Early Colonial Hong Kong I

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EARLY COLONIALHONG KONG



There is controversy if there is a possible ancientHong Kong history.

China claims it is, although they have not

undertaken the task. England claims it isn’t but has researched to write

about the modern one.

Richard Hughes even wrote that Hong Kong was a

“borrowed place living on borrowed land” that “didnot exist, so it was necessary to invent it”.



Hong Kong was not a mere barren rock island thatmany British historians have claimed it was beforethe colonial times.

There have been archeological discoveries thathave been dated down to 4000 b. C., that meansthe Neolithic era.

According to Chinese historical records, Part of

southern India, which would comprehend HongKong, was inhabited by the Hundred Yue Tribes.



These tribes were actually descendants of other ones inMalasi, Vietnam and Polynesia. They were, therefore,not Han Chinese (The ethnic majority in China).

Hong Kong had been ruled by the Yue Kingdom of the

south until 111 b. C. The Yues were dethroned by the army of Wu Di, who

belonged to the Han dynasty.

It is to be mentioned that there was a strange form of

historical progress discontinuity due to the constantmigrations from north to south China and backwardsthat obeyed to economy.



Therefore it cannot be claimed that Hong Kong was always an important part of Chinese history.

Its mentioning in historical ancient records reduce

themselves to anecdotes such as when the emperorof the Southern Sing dynasty sought refuge inKowloon from the Mongolic invasions.



Other facts found

During the Mongol Yuan Dynasty (1276 – 1368)Hong Kong was inhabited by farmers, fishermen,pirates. By the end of the Yan Dynasty, the island

was ruled de facto (economically) by sevenfamilies, all of them tenants.

During the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644) Kowloongot settled by peoples coming from Guangdongand Fujian, two of the most important coastalprovinces in southeastern China.



During the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911), as theManchus ruled China, Hong Kong fiunally wasintegrated to the Chinese inter-regional life. Its

harbors began being used by merchants andfishermen from other regions.

It was known to be a part of a country named Xinan and had protocol relations with Kowloon

with whom it had a tributary obligation. During the early 1800’s it serves as a shelter for a

legendary character, the Pirate Zang Baozai.



The Western comes

The British control was not the beginning of Europeancolonization rather than its conclusion.

The European expansion in China began at times even beforeanywhere else in the world and lasted until the end of WWI.

The first contacts from which there is a record date from theepochs of the Tuan and Yuan Dynasties (618 – 907) via the(famous) Silk Road.

The contact increased during the Mongolian ruling (known asthe Pax Mongolica), because these were eager to trade withEuropeans. Some western men were even hired by the court.

In 1300, after the fall of the Mongolic Dynasty Yuan, thecontact abruptly ceased.



The contacts began again in during the 1500’sthanks to the Portuguese incursions into Asia.

The Portuguese helped Chinese rulers to cmbatpiracy and were rewarded the right to commercealong the southern Chinese coast. It was, however,a strategy of the Emperor to stop them frommoving inland.

The Portuguese established a permanentcommercial base in Macau (Macao) which soonbecame the center of inter-economic trade, itbecame a “hemispheric exchange of commodities”.



Macao, logically, became as well the door forChristianity into China.

It was not until the 1600’s when Britain began to be acompetitor with Portugal and the Netherlands in

matters of world trading. In 1654, the Portuguese allowed the British East India

company to land in Macau.

By 1684, after the prohibition to trade with foreigners

was banned, the British used Macau as their maintrading port, from which they sailed to Huangpu(Whampoa) which is ten miles away from Canton.



The Qing

The Qing Dynasty played a major role in the inclusion of theBritish in Hong Kong.

1771 The British were granted a concession to open a post inCanton that was actually the only place where it was legal to

trade with foreigners after a decree issued in 1759 during theQing Dynasty.

Under what is known as the Canton or Cohong (meaning:authorized companies) system, The trade in China was

conducted by groups of merchants houses known as thehongs.

The foreigners could trade in Canton from October to March, while from April to September, they sailed toward otherplaces like Macau.



The earnings while trading silk, porcelain, tea andopium were very rewarding and compensated forall the restrictions.

By 1840, about 100 British companies were already trading in the southern coast of China.

Because of this reason, British colonization inChina is seen not as a territorial expansion but as a

safety measure for the economic interests of theCrown.

In their own words:



“Hong Kong was occupied not with view of colonization, but for diplomatic, cxommercial andmilitary purposes” (Lord Stanley, Secretary for the

Colonies -1843-). “A healthy trade demanded settled conditios,

suppression of robbery, guarantee of contract andof imparcial justice. Since the Chinese were

thiught to be unable to provide these conditions,the British had to provide them. Tis isfundamental to understanding any history of Hoing Kong” (G. B. Endacott -1970-)



That these sort of statements were some how true,can be seen in the facts that theBritish neitherassimilated the Chinese nor Christianized them.

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Early Colonial Hong Kong I