After a series of Chinese defeats during the First Opium War (1839-1842) at the hands of Capt. Charles Elliot of the Royal Navy and Capt. Anthony Blaxland Stransham of the Royal Marines, Hong Kong Island was occupied by the British on January 20, 1841. The ostensible authority for the occupation was negotiated between Captain Eliot and the Governor of Kwangtung Province. The Convention of Chuenpeh was concluded but had not been recognized by the court of Qing Dynasty at Beijing. Economic History of Hong Kong From Queen Victoria to the Second World War Treaty of Nanking Kowloon Treaty Cession of the New Territories Shiping, Banking, Industry Sino-Japanese War Hong Kong After the War Chinas Civil War Communist Victory, HKs Isolation Benefits to the Mainland of HKs... Seven years after the first flight of a heavier-than-air controlled aeroplane in 1903, planes were already flying in Hong Kong. ... As of March 26, 2004, there are 79 declared monuments in Hong Kong. ... China is one of the worlds oldest continuous major civilizations, with written records dating back 3,500 years. ... The United Kingdom is the sovereign state or realm that covers England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and which for over one hundred years included the whole of the island of Ireland. ... The First Opium War was a trade-inspired war between the Great Britain and the Qing Empire in China from 1839 to 1842. ... Charles Elliot, also Charles Elliott (義律, b. ... General Sir Anthony Blaxland Stransham (d. ... The night view of the Island side as seen from the Kowloon side - the opposite side of the Victoria Harbour Hong Kong Island (香港島, colloquially the Island side) is the island where the colonial settlement of the Hong Kong territory, Victoria City, was founded. ... January 20 is the 20th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... take you to calendar). ... Guangdong (Simplified Chinese: 广东; Traditional Chinese: 廣東; pinyin: Guǎngdōng; Wade-Giles: Kuang-tung; Kwangtung in older transliteration; Cantonese: gwong2 dung1), is a province on the south coast of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Under this convention, China would need to cede Hong Kong Island to Britain in 1841. ...

Subsequently, Hong Kong Island was ceded to Britain in 1842 under the Treaty of Nanking, at which point in time the territory became a Crown Colony. 1842 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Nanking, August 29, 1842, Peace Treaty between the Queen of Great Britain and the Emperor of China The Treaty of Nanking (南京條約, pinyin: Nánjīng Tiáoyuē) is the agreement which marked the end of the First Opium War between the United Kingdom and China. ... A United Kingdom overseas territory (formerly known as a dependent territory or earlier as a crown colony) is a territory that is under the sovereignty and formal control of the United Kingdom but is not part of the United Kingdom proper (Great Britain and Northern Ireland). ...

The Opium War was ostensibly fought to liberalize trade to China. With a base in Hong Kong, British traders, opium dealers, and merchants launched the city which would become the 'free trade' nexus of the East. American opium traders and merchant bankers soon joined in the trade (See Russell family; Perkins family; Forbes family). This article is about the Forbes family related to US Senator John Kerry. ...

Britain was granted a perpetual lease on the Kowloon Peninsula under the 1860 Convention of Beijing, which formally ended hostilities in the Second Opium War (1856-1858). The Kowloon Peninsula, commonly referred to as Kowloon, is a peninsula, in the south of the mainland part of the Hong Kong territory. ... 1860 is the leap year starting on Sunday. ... The Convention of Peking (October 18, 1860), also known as the First Convention of Peking, was a treaty between the Qing Government of China and the British Empire, and between China and France, and China and Russia. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

During the 1890s, an epidemic of bubonic plague broke out in southern China. In the spring of 1894, about 100,000 dead were reported from Guangzhou. In May 1894, the disease erupted in Hong Kong's overcrowded Chinese quarter of Tai Ping Shan. At its height, the epidemic was killing 100 people per day in Hong Kong, and it killed a total of 2,552 people that year. The disease was greatly detrimental to trade and produced a temporary exodus of 100,000 Chinese from the colony. Plague continued to be a problem in the territory for the next 30 years. 1,290 people died of the disease between 1898 and 1900. Bubonic plague is an infectious disease that is believed to have caused several epidemics or pandemics throughout history. ... 1894 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Tai Ping Shan can refer to: Victoria Peak, Hong Kong the tenant areas near Tai Ping Shan Street 太平山街 on Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong This is a disambiguation page — a list of articles associated with the same title. ...

In 1898, the United Kingdom, concerned that Hong Kong could not be defended unless surrounding areas were also under British control, executed a 99-year lease of the New Territories, significantly expanding the size of the Hong Kong colony. The lease would expire at midnight, on June 30, 1997. 1898 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... The New Territories (Chinese: 新界, Pinyin: Xīnjiè) is the area of land in Hong Kong, north of the Kowloon peninsula, south of Shenzhen He / Shum Chun River (深圳河) and Hong Kongs outlying islands (including Lantau Island, Lamma Island, Cheung Chau, and Peng Chau), leased from Qing China to Britain in... June 30 is the 181st day of the year (182nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 184 days remaining, and the last day of June. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In 1914, despite an exodus of 60,000 Chinese fearing an attack on the colony after the World War I, Hong Kong's population begins its evermore claustrophobic climb - to 530,000 in 1916, 725,000 in 1925 and 1.6 million by 1941. 1914 (MCMXIV) is a common year starting on Thursday. ...

In the late 19th century and early 20th centuries, Hong Kong developed into a warehousing and distribution center for U.K. trade with southern China.

See also

• Technical standards in colonial Hong Kong