Wars

First Opium War

The First Opium War also known as the 'Anglo Chinese War', left an permanent mark on China. China lost Hong Kong and  was forced to open up trade to the foreigners.

(1839 - 1842 and 1856 - 1860, two wars between China and Western countries)

The first was between Great Britain and China. In the early 19 century, British merchants began smuggling opium into China in order to balance their purchases of tea for export to Britain. In 1839, China enforced its prohibitions on the importations of opium by destroying at Guangzhou Canton, a large quantity of opium was confiscated from British merchants. Britain looked for a way to end China's restrictions on foreign trade, so they responded by sending gunboats to attack several Chinese coastal cities. China was unable to withstand the modern arms and was defeated and forced to sign the 'Treaty of Nanjing' and 'The British Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue'. These provided that the ports of Guangzhou, Jinmen, Fuzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai should be opened to the British trade and residence. Another addition, Hong Kong was ceded to the British. Within a few years other Western powers signed similar treaties with China and received commercial and residential privileges and the Western domination of China's treaty ports started to begin. In 1856 a second war broke out following an allegedly illegal Chinese search of a British registered ship, 'The Arrow'. in Guangzhou. The British and The French troops took Guangzhou and Tianjin and compelled the Chinese to accept the treaties of Tianjin, to which France, Russia and the US were also part of it. China agreed to open 11 more ports, permit foreign legations in Beijing, and the legalised the import of opium.

Since Chinese officials once again refused to accomplish a treaty supplies, namely the establishment of Western committees in Peking, an Anglo-French force launched a fresh offensive from Hong Kong in 1860, ultimately destroying the Emperor Xianfeng's Summer Palace in Chengde, and the Summer Palace and the Old Summer Palace in Peking among wide-spread looting by both troops and civilians.

Japanese Occupation

The Japanese occupation began when the Governor of Hong Kong (Sir Mark Young) surrendered the British Crown colony of Hong Kong to Japan on 26 of December 1941. The surrender happened after about 18 days of violent fighting against the Japanese forces which had invaded the territory. The Occupation lasted for about three years and eight months until Japan decided to surrender at the end of WW2. 

During the Japanese invasion of China, Hong Kong being a part of the British empire was not under attack. Around in the early March 1939, during a huge Japanese bombing raid on Shenzhen, few bombs accidentally fell on Hong Kong's territory which destroyed a bridge and a train station.