【明報專訊】Hong Kong's history as a British colony began 174 years ago today, when the British navy seized (奪取) Hong Kong Island.

1. Background of the First Opium War

The cession (割讓) of Hong Kong Island and that of Kowloon were due to the weakness of the Qing Dynasty and its constant conflicts with the British Empire over free trade and, particularly, opium (鴉片) trade.

To protect the Chinese economy from the threat of Western goods, the Qing government set up a trade barrier in 1759. Guangzhou was then the only port where foreign trade was permissible. British merchants' limited ability to sell their goods to China, together with the enormous demand from Europe for Chinese luxuries such as tea, silk and chinaware, had resulted in a huge trade imbalance. Furthermore, the British government was irritated by China's insistence that only silver should be accepted in payment.

Opium trade further intensified conflicts between the two countries. Banned by the Chinese government in the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor (雍正帝), the narcotic (毒品) had caught on with all ranks of people in China since the British first exported it to the country. Worried by opium's health hazards, the Qing government appointed Lin Zexu (林則徐) to deal with opium traders. Lin forced British merchants to surrender their opium and had it destroyed in Humen (虎門). That further irritated the British government. It was against this backdrop that the First Opium War broke out in 1839.

2. The cession of Hong Kong

In the First Opium War, Charles Elliot was deputy to George Elliot, his cousin and commander of the British fleet. He took over the reins in 1840 and became Plenipotentiary (英方全權代表) and Chief Superintendent of the Trade of British Subjects in China (英國駐華商務總監) after George Elliot had resigned on grounds of illness.

His fleet having defeated the Chinese navy on 20 January 1841, Charles Elliot formulated the terms of the Convention of Chuanbi (《穿鼻草約》) with a Chinese official, which stipulated that Hong Kong Island should be ceded to Britain. Six days later, he commanded British vessel HMS Sulphur and seized Hong Kong Island, thus beginning Hong Kong's history as a British colony.

3. The aftermath

The British government was unhappy with the Convention of Chuanbi, believing that the Qing government should make more concessions. It vetoed the convention, removed Elliot and had him replaced by Henry Pottinger (砵甸乍), who was to become the first governor of Hong Kong. War between the two countries resumed. It ended in 1842 with the signing of the Treaty of Nanking (《南京條約》), which stipulated that the Qing Dynasty should open five cities for trading. The Qing government also agreed to cede Hong Kong Island to the British Queen in order to provide British traders with a harbour where they could unload their goods.

In 1860, the colony was extended to the Kowloon peninsula. In 1898, the Second Convention of Peking further expanded the colony with the 99-year lease of the New Territories. In 1984, the governments of the United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China concluded the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong, under which the leased territories, Hong Kong Island and Kowloon reverted to Chinese sovereignty on 1 July 1997.