British rule

Kellet Island and Victoria City at the late nineteenth century

The British established a Crown Colony here after the Opium Wars.

In 1839, the Qing Dynasty authorities of China refused to import opium which resulted in the First Opium War between China and Britain.

Hong Kong Island was first occupied by British forces in 1841, and then formally ceded from China under the Treaty of Nanking at the end of the war.

The British established a Crown Colony with the founding of Victoria City the following year.

In 1860, after China’s defeat in the Second Opium War, the Kowloon Peninsula south of Boundary Street and Stonecutter’s Island were ceded to Britain in perpetuity under the Convention of Peking.

In 1898, Britain obtained a 99-year lease of the adjacent northern lands and Lantau Island, which became known as the New Territories.

Hong Kong in the late nineteenth century was a major trading post of the British Empire, and declared a free port to serve as an "entrepôt" of the British Empire.

The transfer to China again of the sovereignty of Hong Kong occurred at midnight on July 1, 1997.