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MACAO: A Colonial Heritage
When China turned Hong Kong over to Britain in 1842 Macao’s fate was sealed. From around 1560 until 1842 Macao dominated European trade in China and held an effective trade monopoly through the need for Europeans to enter China by way of The Barrier Gate at the northern boundary. This advantage ended with Britain opening China ports to free trade and consequently, the economy of Macao slumped. The colonial legacy however, remained. |
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SWATOW: A Colonial Heritage
The city of Swatow grew from a small community of fishermen and farmers after the Americans asked the Ch’ing authorities to classify the area as an ‘Open Port’ in 1859. The city quickly became an opium distribution centre, a recruitment ground for emigree labour and a small manufacturing centre. The city’s decline began with the Japanese occupation of the late 1930s and it wasn’t until 1979, when the city became a Special Economic Zone, that general prosperity returned. Now a city of 1.2 million, there is little to remind visitors of Swatow’s colonial heritage. |
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HONG KONG:
A Colonial Heritage
The four principle events that have shaped the character of Hong Kong are the First and Second Trade Wars of 1840 and 1860, the influx of refugees from the Mainland and the Colonial Administration’s policy of unrestricted free trade. These events enabled and facilitated the building of one of the world’s wealthiest communities. And since the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997 the former British colony has continued to surprise and dazzle as it strives to become Asia’s ‘World City’. And Hong Kong’s colonial heritage is now little more than an international tourist attraction. |
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SHAMEEN:
A Colonial Heritage
The Portuguese first explored the China coast around 1513 and established Macao as a trading post around 1557. By the early 1600s both the Dutch and the Spanish began to extend their trade from The Dutch East Indies and The Philippines into East Asia and Portuguese trade interests began to wane. By 1750 the Portuguese were no longer the major European traders of East Asia and British clippers were increasingly present along the China coast. By 1800 the British began an aggressive push for trade that culminated in the Opium Wars of 1839-41 and 1857-60, the cession of Hong Kong as a British Colony and the establishment of International Settlements in cities such as Canton, Amoy, Shanghai and Peking. |
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KU LANG HSU:
A Colonial Heritage
Ku Lang Hsu was one of the International Settlements in China during the late Ch’ing Dynasty of the 19th century and the Republican period of the early 20th century. Between the early 1850s and the late 1930s many European colonial-style buildings were built on Ku Lang Hsu and the island became renowned amongst Europeans for its trading opportunities, benign climate, architectural splendour and convivial lifestyle. Europeans finally left Ku Lang Hsu in the early 1940s as the Imperial Japanese Army attempted to conquer China. |
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Wikipedia Glossary - Europeans in China
This glossary of Wikipedia websites gives a broad introduction to “Europeans in China”. It is not exhaustive, but rather, provides a general overview of the complexity of relations between the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, British, French and Americans with Imperial China. These websites provide an informative background to events in China that are of particular interest to me. |
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