Britain Seizes Hong Kong: Opium War Begins
The British seized Hong Kong on August 23, 1839, during the opening phase of the First Opium War, establishing a military foothold that would become one of the most valuable territories in the British Empire. The war was fought because China had destroyed British merchants' opium stocks and banned the drug trade. Britain wanted to force China to allow the sale of opium and to open more ports to foreign commerce. The Treaty of Nanking in 1842 ceded Hong Kong Island to Britain "in perpetuity" and opened five treaty ports. The Opium War is remembered in China as the beginning of the "century of humiliation" and remains central to Chinese national identity and its distrust of Western intervention.
August 23, 1839
187 years ago
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