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Trade with China
Britain needed a country to trade with, and they decided china because:
A. China was large and their relations were neutral (unlike other countries)
B. There was silk, porcelain, and TEA.
C. there really wasn't another country that had goods they really wanted There was only one problem, in china, there was many trade regulations that stopped Britain from trade a lot, and they only accepted silver as payment, but for now, trading develops slowly. -
Period: to
Canton system
1.The only trading port that foreigners could trade in was Canton
2.Foreign "barbarians" could not trade in the winter
3.trading only commence in foreign trade houses designed for that purpose
4.all vessels by foreign traders must be inspected before being able to trade
5. foreigners can't be employed and can't borrow money from banks
6.Chinese citizens cannot learn about the economic landscape from foreigners
7. foreigners can't learn Chinese from Chinese citizens -
Britain illegally selling opium
There was a trading unbalances between China and Great Britain, but then great Britain then found a trade with opium.Opium had been illegal in china when Portuguese started smuggling opium a addiction started developing, but nonetheless, the trade was not hindered, then Britain found out that high quality opium could be grown in next door India and a large addiction of the drug massively increased demand for opium and the trading inbalance was shifted. -
Diplomatic mission to China to open up trade
As much of Britains wealth was being drained by the unfair trading regulations by China, Britain decides to send George Mcartney to negotiate to have more ports opened up, and to tell the Qianlong emperor the marvels and wonders of western technologies and not just accept silver as the only payment, but the emperor did not comply to Britains requests and soon after, even more strict trade regulations were put to place -
Emperor Jiaqing tries to band opium trade
as 2,000 chests of opium was being smuggled to china every year, a monopoly was commencing with the drug. As the trade was harmful for chinas economy and thousands was addicted to the drug, the chinese emperor bans the trade completely, but as corrupt officials were getting rich from the trade, they never really enforced the law, and trading with resumed. -
Economic crisis in china
China was literally having an economic crisis because by now there was over 5,000 chests being smuggled and the silver that was once acquired by trading with the British was now being moved back to Britain at an unbelievable rate. -
Lian Zexu Destroying Opium
The Chinese emperor desperately needed the revenue that was flowing out in the form of opium, he did ban the opium trade, but corrupt officials that were actually jumping in to the trade never actually enforced the law. Enter Lin Zexu, ingenius, incorruptable and brutally honest. the emperor decided to call on to him to ban the trade, and ban he did. 1,016 tons of opium was destroyed after seizing the traders storehouses, the smugglers punished, and even stricter trade regulations enforced. -
First opium war starts (1839 – 1842)
The British stops all trade and heads for macau, with tensions rising, but when 4 Chinese war junks are destroyed and a local villager was beaten to death by some drunk British sailors, the news galvanized China to act, the Yanzte was blocked and Britain was forced to, Charles Elliot, the superintendent of trade, and commander of much of the battles in the first opium wars steamboats absolutely destroyed the weaker Chinese war junks, then cantons forts were occupied. and so they draft a treaty. -
Opium war elevates
the Chinese emperor was furious at Zexu because China was a soverign nation and how dare Lin Zexu give away some of Chinas land to another nation? and so the emperor decided to punish Zexu to death. Britain was also angry at Elliot because the British was thinking more about the more cities next to the Yangtze, rather than a barren rock, and he didn't even mention legalizing opium? and so Elliot was dismissed and his successor henry Pottinger was much more ruthless. -
The Treaty of nanking
Because of the draft treaty, Elliot was dismissed and his successor was a man called Sir Henry Pottinger, and he was much less sympathetic, he quickly used Britains superior navel forces to besiege Guangzhou and occupies a number of ports and cities near the Yangtze river, including the all important Shanghai, when this happens, the Emperor decides to negotiate a treaty to make peace, so they they signed the unfair treaty of nanking. -
The Second Opium War (1856 - 1860)
The second opium war was quite similar with the first, a brief rundown is that as hostilities were rising again, the British team up with France to go to Bejing and burn down the emperors summer palace. This forces the court to sign the Treaty of Tientsin which allowed Britain to have the Kowloon peninsula and more importantly, Victoria harbour. -
Peak tram opened
As much of the wealthy and middle class lived in near Victoria peak, the British built a tram from the Central district to Victoria peak. -
New territories leased for 99 years
Britain once again forced China to give away another part of land to the British, this time new territories, the British wanted this part of land because they did not want a reconquer HK, so they wanted the most northern part of Kowloon. -
Extreme economic growth to hong kong from all the immigrants from China
Extreme economic growth to hong kong from all the immigrants from China -
The Japanese Occupation starting (1941–1945)
Right after japan bombed Pearl Harbour, Japan set to conquer hong kong due to it being part of China and is a good harbour to resupply japans forces. hundreds of Japanese warships battled the the desperate allied forces, but they eventually surrendered after 18 days of holding back. -
During the Japanese Occupation
During this time, Trade stagnated, The Japanese stripped factories and warehouses and Allied forces were put into camps. Food shortages were common and two thirds of the population fled into china to escape from this occupation. -
Japan surrenders Ending the Occupation
Japan Has surrendered from W.W.I.I after two devastating attacks from the U.S and surrender most of what they have conquered during the war. This included hong kong and when the British finally controlled hong kong again, they set out to rebuild what had been lost from the occupation. -
Mao Zedong's "great leap foward"
This was a period of when Mao's communist party won over the nationalists. During this period, chinas economy would stagnate from such a rush to "industrialize" china. Millions fled to hong kong to escape Mao's rule and The Colonial government tries to limit the amount of refugees. -
Economic Growth from the "Great Leap Forward"
Although much of the refugees from china were poor, there were also a lot of businessmen, bankers and entrepreneurs that were fleeing from the communist party, and although they may have lost their fortunes, they also knew how to make them back, and so there was a boost in economy. -
The handover
As the 99 year lease was coming to a close, Britain would have to give back Lantau and New territories, but as Hong kong was so closely interconnected with those other two areas, it became impractical to not give back hong kong to China, and as Britain wanted to be in good terms with China, Britain agrees. Although under something called "1 country 2 systems" which basically means that Hong kong stays pretty much independent from china for 50 years and thats how its been to today. -
Typhoon Hato
Typhoon Hato was the first
