British Hong Kong

Hong Kong
香港
Crown colony (1843–1941, 1945–1981) British Dependent Territory (1981–1997)
1841–1941 1945–1997
Flag (1959–1997) Coat of arms (1959–1997)
Motto "Dieu et mon droit" (French) "God and my right"
Anthem "God Save the Queen"
Map of Hong Kong
Capital		Victoria (de facto)
Languages		English, Chinese
Government		Crown colony (1843–1941, 1945–1981) British Dependent Territory (1981–1997)
Monarch
•	1841–1901	Victoria (first)
•	1952–1997	Elizabeth II (last)
Governor
•	1843–1844	Sir Henry Pottinger (first)
•	1992–1997	Chris Patten (last)
Chief Secretary1
•	1843–1844	George Malcolm (first)
•	1993–1997	Anson Chan (last)
Legislature		Legislative Council
Historical era		New Imperialism
•	Convention of Chuenpi	20 January 1841
•	Treaty of Nanking	29 August 1842
•	Convention of Peking	24 October 1860
•	Second Convention of Peking	9 June 1898
•	Battle of Hong Kong	8–25 December 1941
•	End of British Sovereignty	30 June 1997
Area
•	1848	80.4 km² (31 sq mi)
•	1901	1,042 km² (402 sq mi)
Population
•	1848 est.	24,000
Density		298.5 /km²  (773.1 /sq mi)
•	1901 est.	283,978
Density		272.5 /km²  (705.9 /sq mi)
•	1945 est.	750,000
Density		719.8 /km²  (1,864.2 /sq mi)
•	1995 est.	6,300,000
Density		6,046.1 /km²  (15,659.2 /sq mi)
Currency		Hong Kong dollar (since 1937)
Preceded by Succeeded by Qing dynasty Japanese occupation of Hong Kong Japanese occupation of Hong Kong Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
Today part of		Hong Kong (under  China)  China Some of the Territorial Water is now China through Reclaimation of land
1 The title changed from "Colonial Secretary" to "Chief Secretary" in 1976.

British Hong Kong (Chinese: 英屬香港; Jyutping: jing1 suk6 hoeng1 gong2) was the period during which Hong Kong was under British Crown rule from 1841 to 1997 (excluding the Japanese occupation from 1941 to 1945). It was established as a Crown colony and later designated a British Dependent Territory in 1981. Hong Kong Island was ceded to Great Britain by the Qing dynasty of China after the First Anglo-Chinese War (1839–42). The Kowloon Peninsula was added to the colony after the Second Anglo-Chinese War (1856–60). Finally, in 1898, the New Territories were added under a 99-year lease. Although Hong Kong Island and Kowloon were ceded to Britain in perpetuity, the New Territories – which comprised over 90 per cent of Hong Kong's land – had such a vital role in the economy that the British government agreed to transfer sovereignty of the entirety of Hong Kong to China upon the expiration of the lease in 1997.

In 1836, the Manchu Qing government undertook a major policy review of the opium trade. Lin Zexu volunteered to take on the task of suppressing opium. In March 1839, he became Special Imperial Commissioner in Canton, where he ordered the foreign traders to surrender their opium stock. He confined the British to the Canton Factories and cut off their supplies. Chief Superintendent of Trade, Charles Elliot, complied with Lin's demands to secure a safe exit for the British, with the costs involved to be resolved between the two governments. When Elliot promised that the British government would pay for their opium stock, the merchants surrendered their 20,283 chests of opium, which were destroyed in public.