History of Hong Kong - From Pre-Historic Village to British Colony

Lately, massive protests in Hong Kong have been drawing the attention of the world, but as many look on they do so with very little context for the events that are unfolding. In this video, I hope to help educate audiences by providing an overview of the history of Hong Kong and its relationship with both China and the West. A quick thanks is owed to Squarespace for sponsoring this video. Let's start with some basics on geography. When we talk about Hong Kong, we're talking about an area in southern China along the Pearl River Delta. The region of Hong Kong is about one-tenth the size of Iceland, or half the size of Rhode Island. The landmass consists primarily of a chunk of the mainland separated from the rest of China by the Sham Chun River, and includes over 200 islands, the largest of which are Lantau and Hong Kong Island proper. Much of the terrain is mountainous or hilly, with many forested areas unsuitable for construction. The coastlines are quite rugged as well, but do feature many bays and inlets which provide ready access to the sea. Most people live near these low-lying areas. It is here that significant land reclamation projects have taken place to expand the habitable zones for one of the most densely populated areas of the world. Now for a quick and dirty overview of Hong Kong's history. The region was inhabited as far back as Stone Age, and developed into a farming and fishing community that would be incorporated into the various Chinese dynasties from the Qin's of the 2nd century BC to the Qing's of the 1800s. At this point, it passed into the hands of the colonizing British, who briefly lost control to the invading Japanese during the Second World War before recovering the territory in 1945. 156 years of British rule would end in 1997 when the colony of Hong Kong was transferred to the People's Republic of China as part of broader 20th century decolonization trends. Hong Kong would be designated a Special Administrative Region which featured both governmental and economic systems separate from those of mainland China. Over the years, these lines have been increasingly blurred. Today, we are watching as the nature of this relationship is being tested. Okay, with that out of the way, let's do a deeper dive on the history of Hong Kong. As we've stated, the early history of Hong Kong dates back almost 6000 years to a time when Neolithic tribes found refuge along its shores. These early humans set up basic houses, and provided for themselves by farming and fishing. They left behind rock carvings of religious significance, 8 of which have been discovered in the area today. Over the years, these various small family groups would consolidate into larger villages and eventually form relationships with their neighbors. Ancient Chinese scholars referred to these southern communities as the Hundred Yue Tribes. This distinct indigenous group stretched out along the southern coast of China. Their kingdoms greatly benefited from a temperate climate, fertile fields, bountiful fishing grounds, and lucrative maritime trade routes. For a time, they also enjoyed relative safety from the warring factions to the north. However, in the 3rd century BC, Qin Shi Huang would complete his conquest of six warring states and found the first imperial dynasty of China. This new Qin Dynasty empire would turn greedily to the south. Five successive campaigns were launched against the Yue tribes. While the area was sparsely populated, its wild jungle terrain made it possible for the outnumbered defenders to put up a fierce guerrilla resistance. However, by 214 BC, they would largely be defeated. What followed was a concerted effort by the Qin Dynasty to sinicize the area. The territories were broken up into new administrative zones for easier control, while massive numbers of colonists were brought in to settle the area, and the Chinese script was imposed on the locals. When Emperor Qin died, his empire barely outlasted him as insurrections rapidly spread across the land. In the south, the Yue regions once again regained their independence. In particular, a Qin general named Zhao Tuo would use this movement to found his own kingdom. Sending troops to garrison the mountain passes and eliminating all rival Qin officials, he proclaimed himself king of Nanyue in 204 BC with its capital in Panyu. He would find success in conquering his neighbors, and the kingdom even managed to take over part of northern Vietnam. Eventually, however, northern China was able to emerge from its infighting and This new empire quickly sought to re-exert power on the south. As tensions escalated, Nanyue formally submitted itself as a subject state, but in reality maintained much of its autonomy. In 111 BC, this would end when Nanyue was invaded in force by several Han armies. From this point on, the southern lands would be caught up in the greater cycle of imperial dynasties that oversaw China's unification and division over the centuries. In these matters, there is relatively little to be said of Hong Kong specifically. It fell under the administration of the Guangdong province, but would have been of little note as its communities remained quite small, with a population in the low thousands. The inhabitants of early Hong Kong therefore would not have played a large role in affairs beyond their local region, and remained fairly isolated, maintaining their traditional way of life for many centuries. Yet they were not completely unaffected by the larger tides of history we have just discussed. The people of Hong Kong increasingly fell under the sway of Chinese influence, making its way down from the north, which gradually displaced or assimilated with the local Yue culture. For now, this was a rather slow process, but as we shall see, the trend would accelerate during the later imperial years. Between the 2nd and 20th centuries, China would go through numerous dynasties. The years of peace led to a flourishing of opportunity which attracted a steady flow of Chinese immigrants to the south. The years of war turned this flow into a torrent. This was particularly the case during periods of imperial transition which were accompanied by years of widespread warfare and disunity. Such turbulent events often centered around the more prosperous areas of northern China, which would drive huge civilian caravans into the safer regions of the south. As an example, it's reported that the An Lushan rebellion during the Tang dynasty of the 8th century led to an almost doubling of the Guangzhou prefecture. An even more dramatic migration would take place during the 13th century with the Mongol invasions. These terrifyingly brutal affairs devastated the north. Huge numbers of refugees and even the entire Song dynasty government was forced to relocate away from the threat. As the empire was slowly conquered, the boy emperor Zhao Bing temporarily sought shelter atop a sacred mountain hill in Hong Kong. Upon hearing that the Mongols had defeated his fleet at the naval battle of Yamen, the emperor along with much of his royal clan committed suicide. This event and the collapse of the Song is preserved today in stone carvings located within Kowloon in Hong Kong. During the years of Mongol rule, much of the population was a mix of farmers, fishermen, pearl divers, and pirates. Over the following centuries, more people would arrive to populate the various regions of Hong Kong, which still remained quite wild. These would build up walled cities to protect themselves from bandits, wild animals, and rival clans. By the 15th century, Chinese maritime activity was kicked up a notch as foreign trade and contact with the outside world exploded under the Ming dynasty. This was typified by the incredible voyages of Zhang He's treasure fleet. With increasing traffic throughout the South China Seas, yet more people were drawn to seaside communities such as Hong Kong. However, things weren't always in a state of influx. For instance, in the late 1600s, the Qing dynasty was stamping out resistance to its rule and issued the edicts of the Great Clearance which mandated the evacuation of coastal regions. Tens of thousands of families were relocated as government forces were deployed to enforce the decree. Beacon Hill in Hong Kong was the location of one such garrison which oversaw the transformation of the region into a barren wasteland. While the edict was eventually lifted and the people allowed to return home, the event led to an even greater mixing of the population. All of the immigration we have just described further diluted the original population of However, rather than outright replace it, new cultural groups such as the Cantonese emerged. As the centuries rolled on, there would be a great layering of immigrant groups one on top of another. Today, there are many distinct groups recognized throughout the region of Hong Kong such as the Pungti, Hakka, Tonka, and Hokkien people who can trace their origins back to one or another of these early communities. It wasn't just the other Chinese who were increasingly interested in southern China. In the 16th century, maritime trade links with the rest of the world were opening up and European merchants were now making frequent stops along the coast of Guangdong province. The Ming government of the time wished to maintain a watchful eye on these foreigners. As a result, they allowed the Portuguese to establish a singular permanent settlement at Macau in 1557 where they could be relatively contained. The result was that Macau soon became the center of a hemispheric exchange of commodities. This had many benefits for the economies of local neighbors like Hong Kong. By the 17th century, the British had overtaken the Portuguese as masters of the sea and were granted their own trading post in Canton which the Qing government decreed was to be the only legal Chinese port for overseas trade. Fortunes were to be made in southern China. This was a fact well understood by the many European merchants and envoys flooding the region as well as the numerous pirates who followed in their wake. We just produced a whole video on one such famous pirate, pirate Jing Shi, who operated out of the Pearl River Delta and who often set up shop around Hong Kong. To the foreigners, these pirates and the overly controlling Qing government were hurting their bottom line. For these reasons, they sought out ways to protect their commercial interests. As one would imagine, this interest quickly manifested itself through armed conflict. The greatest of these aggressive negotiations would be the Opium Wars. Fought between the British and the Qing empires, they would see the Chinese government severely weakened and forced to open up trade with the outside world. Hong Kong would be caught up in these affairs. In 1841, the British Navy made its way to the Pearl River Delta and after winning several encounters occupied Hong Kong as a base of operations. The British flag was raised on the 26th of January when Commodore Sir Gordon Bremmer claimed the island as a colony. However, it wasn't until the 29th of August 1842 that the subdued Qing dynasty would officially cede the island of Hong Kong to the British under the Treaty of Nanking that ended the First Opium War. When hostilities again flared up with the outbreak of the Second Opium War, the British used the Peace Treaty of 1860 at the Convention of Peking to get even more land. The terms of the treaty specified that Southern Kowloon and Stonecutters Island would be leased rent-free in perpetuity. A fancy way of saying it was conquered. Further concessions were obtained in 1868 at the Second Convention of Peking in order to safeguard Hong Kong Island. The treaty extended British control up to the Sham Chun River, an area known today as the New Territories, and included an additional 200 islands in the vicinity. The terms of the deal stipulated a 99-year lease would expire at midnight on June 30th, 1997. Surely enough time to kick things down the road far enough so they could get sorted out. For now, this is where we will end our episode, at a point in time where most videos on the history of Hong Kong begin. In the next part, we'll continue the story by covering the colonial period and the transformation to a special administrative region of China. See you then. I wanted to thank Squarespace for sponsoring this video. Their awesome platform makes it super easy to build and customize your own website. They've got a number of great features for your online needs. For instance, AudioBlock allows you to embed audio on your site and tag it for iTunes within a blog. This is great for setting up your own podcast. Additionally, as a content creator, you'll be thrilled to hear about their Sync feature which allows you to link up all your social media accounts to the website and post simultaneously across all of them. There's a ton more to be excited about. You can start your own free trial today and enjoy 10% off your first purchase by going to squarespace.com slash Invicta. A huge thanks is owed to our supporters on Patreon as well, and the many talented researchers, writers, and artists who made this video possible. Please consider contributing to fund future content. If you found this topic interesting, check out these related videos about our fascinating past. Be sure to like and subscribe for more history, and check out our description for ways to support the channel. Thanks for watching!