History of Macau - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...

is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

. It was administered by Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

for 442 years, first as a trading post

Trading post

A trading post was a place or establishment in historic Northern America where the trading of goods took place. The preferred travel route to a trading post or between trading posts, was known as a trade route....

, however self administration was not achieved until the 1840's, it was subsequently turned as a Portuguese territory, until its handover to China in 1999. It was the last European territory in continental (on-shore) Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

Early history

The human history of Macau stretches back up to 6,000 years, and includes many different and diverse civilizations and periods of existence. Evidence of human and culture dating back 4,000 to 6,000 years has been discovered on the Macau Peninsula

Macau Peninsula

Macau Peninsula is the oldest and most populous part of Macau. It has an area of 8.5 km² and is geographically connected to Guandong province, at the northeast, through an isthmus 200-metre wide. The peninsula, together with the city centre of Zhuhai, sits on an island separated from the...

and dating back 5,000 years on Coloane Island.

During the Qin Dynasty

Qin Dynasty

The Qin Dynasty was the first imperial dynasty of China, lasting from 221 to 207 BC. The Qin state derived its name from its heartland of Qin, in modern-day Shaanxi. The strength of the Qin state was greatly increased by the legalist reforms of Shang Yang in the 4th century BC, during the Warring...

(221–206 BC), the region now called Macau came under the jurisdiction of Panyu County, Nanhai Prefecture

Nanhai

Nanhai District , historically known as Namhoi, is a district of Foshan prefecture-level city, in Guangdong province, southern China. It is the first city to have developed e-government informatization at the county level in China.-Administration:...

of the province of Guangdong

Guangdong

Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...

. It was administratively part of Dongguan Prefecture in the Jin Dynasty

Jìn Dynasty (265-420)

The Jìn Dynasty , was a dynasty in Chinese history, lasting between the years 265 and 420 AD. There are two main divisions in the history of the Dynasty, the first being Western Jin and the second Eastern Jin...

(265–420 AD), and alternated under the control of Nanhai and Dongguan in later dynasties. In 1152, during the Song Dynasty

Song Dynasty

The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...

(960–1279 AD), it was under the jurisdiction of the new Xiangshan County

Xiangshan County

Hsiang-shan County was a county in southern China. Since 1912, it was a county in Kwangtung Province, in the Republic of China...

.

Since the 5th century, merchant ships traveling between Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

and Guangzhou

Guangzhou

Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...

used the region as a way stop for refuge, fresh water, and food. The first recorded inhabitants of the area are some 50,000 people seeking refuge in Macau from invading Mongols

Mongols

Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...

in 1277, during the Southern Song Dynasty. They were able to defend their settlements and establish themselves there. Mong Há has long been the center of Chinese life in Macau and the site of what may be the region's oldest temple, a shrine devoted to the Buddhist Guanyin (Goddess of Mercy). Later in the Ming Dynasty

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

(1368–1644 AD), fishermen migrated to Macau from various parts of Guangdong and Fujian

Fujian

' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...

provinces and built the A-Ma Temple

A-Ma Temple

A-Ma Temple , situated on the southwest tip of the Macau Peninsula, is one of the oldest and most famous Taoist temples in Macau. Built in 1488, the temple is dedicated to Matsu, the goddess of seafarers and fishermen....

where they prayed for safety on the sea. The Hoklo Boat people

Hoklo people

The Hoklo people are Han Chinese people whose traditional Ancestral homes are in southern Fujian of South China...

were the first to show interest in Macau as a trading centre for the southern provinces. However, Macau did not develop as a major settlement until the Portuguese arrived in the 16th century.

Portuguese settlement

Portuguese sailors in the Age of Discovery

Portugal in the Age of Discovery

During the history of Portugal between 1415 and 1578, Portugal discovered an eastern route to India that rounded the Cape of Good Hope, discovered Brazil, established trading routes throughout most of southern Asia, colonized selected areas of Africa, and sent the first direct European maritime...

were exploring the coasts of Africa and Asia, later established posts at Goa

Old Goa

Old Goa or Velha Goa is a historical city in North Goa district in the Indian state of Goa. The city was constructed by the Bijapur Sultanate in the 15th century, and served as capital of Portuguese India from the 16th century until its abandonment in the 18th century due to plague...

in 1510, and conquered Malacca

Malacca

Malacca , dubbed The Historic State or Negeri Bersejarah among locals) is the third smallest Malaysian state, after Perlis and Penang. It is located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, on the Straits of Malacca. It borders Negeri Sembilan to the north and the state of Johor to the south...

in 1511, driving its Sultan to the southern tip of the Malay Peninsular from where he kept making raids on the Portuguese. The Portuguese under Jorge Álvares

Jorge Álvares

Jorge Álvares is credited as the first Portuguese explorer to have reached China and Hong Kong. The Fundação Jorge Álvares , founded by Vasco Joaquim Rocha Vieira prior to the handover of Macau, got its name from him also having reached there.-Exploration:In May 1513 Álvares sailed under the...

landed at Lintin Island in the Pearl River Delta

Pearl River Delta

The Pearl River Delta , Zhujiang Delta or Zhusanjiao in Guangdong province, People's Republic of China is the low-lying area surrounding the Pearl River estuary where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea...

of China in 1513 with a hired junk sailing from Portuguese Malacca

Portuguese Malacca

Portuguese Malacca was the territory of Malacca that, for 130 years , was a Portuguese colony.- History :From the writing of the Portuguese historian Emanuel Godinho de Erédia in the middle of the 16th century, the site of the old city of Malacca was named after the Myrobalans, fruit-bearing trees...

. They erected a stone marker at Lintin Island claiming it for the King of Portugal, Manuel I

Manuel I of Portugal

Manuel I , the Fortunate , 14th king of Portugal and the Algarves was the son of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu, , by his wife, Infanta Beatrice of Portugal...

. In the same year, the Indian Viceroy Afonso de Albuquerque

Afonso de Albuquerque

Afonso de Albuquerque[p][n] was a Portuguese fidalgo, or nobleman, an admiral whose military and administrative activities as second governor of Portuguese India conquered and established the Portuguese colonial empire in the Indian Ocean...

commissioned Rafael Perestrello

Rafael Perestrello

Rafael Perestrello was a Portuguese explorer and a cousin of Filipa Moniz Perestrello, the wife of the famed explorer Christopher Columbus...

—a cousin of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...

—to sail to China in order to open up trade relations; Rafael traded with the Chinese merchants in Canton

Guangzhou

in that year and in 1516, but was not allowed to move further.
Portugal’s king Manuel I

Manuel I of Portugal

Manuel I , the Fortunate , 14th king of Portugal and the Algarves was the son of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu, , by his wife, Infanta Beatrice of Portugal...

in 1517 commissioned a diplomatic and trade mission to Canton headed by Tomé Pires

Tomé Pires

Tomé Pires was an apothecary from Lisbon who spent 1512 to 1515 in Malacca immediately after the Portuguese conquest, at a time when Europeans were only first arriving in South East Asia...

and Fernão Pires de Andrade

Fernão Pires de Andrade

Captain Fernão Pires de Andrade was a Portuguese merchant, pharmacist, and official diplomat under the explorer and Malacca governor Afonso de Albuquerque...

.
Their embassy lasted until 1521, they even received a quick audience from emperor Zhengde

Zhengde Emperor

The Zhengde Emperor was emperor of China between 1505-1521. Born Zhu Houzhao, he was the Hongzhi Emperor's eldest son...

in Nanjing

Nanjing

' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...

, but when Zhengde died in 1521, their embassy was further rejected by the Chinese Ming

Ming Dynasty

court, which now became less interested in new foreign contacts, and was also influenced by reports of misbehaviour of Portuguese elsewhere in China, and by the deposed Sultan of Malacca seeking Chinese assistance to drive the Portuguese out of Malacca.
In 1521 and 1522 several more Portuguese ships reached trading island Tuen Mun

Tuen Mun

Tuen Mun is a town near the mouth of Tuen Mun River and Castle Peak Bay in the New Territories, Hong Kong. It was one of the earliest settlements in Hong Kong which can be dated back to the Neolithic period. In the more recent past, it was home to many Tanka fishermen who gathered at the Castle...

off the coast near Canton, but were forcibly driven away by the now hostile Ming authorities.
The Malay Malacca Sultanate

Malacca Sultanate

Established by the Malay ruler Parameswara, the Sultanate of Malacca was first a Hindu kingdom in 1402 and later became Muslim following the marriage of the princess of Pasai in 1409. Centered in the modern town of Malacca, the sultanate bordered the Ayutthaya Kingdom of Siam in the north to...

was a tributary state and ally to Ming Dynasty

Ming Dynasty

China. When Portugal conquered Malacca in 1511 and committed atrocities against the Malay Sultanate, the Chinese responded with violent force against Portugal.

The Chinese Imperial Government imprisoned and executed multiple Portuguese envoys after torturing them in Guangzhou

Guangzhou

. The Malaccans had informed the Chinese of the Portuguese seizure of Malacca, to which the Chinese responded with hostility toward the Portuguese. The Malaccans told the Chinese of the deception the Portuguese used, disguising plans for conquering territory as mere trading activities, and told of all the atrocities committed by the Portuguese.

Due to the Malaccan Sultan lodging a complaint against the Portuguese invasion to the Chinese Emperor, the Portuguese were greeted with hostility from the Chinese when they arrived in China. The Malaccan Sultan, based in Bintan after fleeing Malacca, sent a message to the Chinese, which combined with Portuguese banditry and violent activity in China, led the Chinese authorities to execute 23 Portuguese and torture the rest of them in jails. After the Portuguese set up posts for trading in China and committed piratical activities and raids in China, the Chinese responded with the complete extermination of the Portuguese in Ningbo

Ningbo

Ningbo is a seaport city of northeastern Zhejiang province, Eastern China. Holding sub-provincial administrative status, the municipality has a population of 7,605,700 inhabitants at the 2010 census whom 3,089,180 in the built up area made of 6 urban districts. It lies south of the Hangzhou Bay,...

and Quanzhou

Quanzhou

Quanzhou is a prefecture-level city in Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It borders all other prefecture-level cities in Fujian but two and faces the Taiwan Strait...

Pires, a Portuguese trade envoy, was among those who died in the Chinese dungeons.

Good relations between the Portuguese and Chinese Ming Dynasty resumed in the 1540s, when Portuguese aided China at eliminating coastal pirates, and could in 1549 start annual trade missions to Shangchuan Island

Shangchuan Island

Shangchuan Island also written is the main island of Chuanshan Archipelago on the southern coast of China. Its name originated from São João - Saint John in Portuguese. It is part of the Guangdong province, in the South China Sea...

. Diplomatic relations were salvaged by Leonel de Sousa agreement with Cantonese authorities in 1554

Luso-Chinese agreement (1554)

The Luso-Chinese agreement of 1554 was a trade agreement between the Portuguese headed by Leonel de Sousa, and the authorities of Guangzhou headed by Haitao Wang Po, which allowed for the legalization of Portuguese trade in China by paying taxes. It opened a new era in Sino-Portuguese relations, as...

. In 1557 the Ming court finally gave consent for a permanent and official Portuguese trade base at Macau. In 1558 Leonel de Sousa became the second Portuguese Governor of Macau

Governor of Macau

The Governor of Macau was a Portuguese colonial official who headed the colony of Macau, before 1623 called Captain-major . The post was replaced on December 20, 1999 upon the transfer of administration to the People's Republic of China by the office of the Chief Executive of the Macau Special...

.

Following a ship wreck in 1535, Portuguese traders were allowed to anchor ships in Macau's harbors and the right to carry out trading activities, though not the right to stay onshore. Around 1552–1553, they obtained a temporary permission to erect storage sheds onshore, in order to dry out goods drenched by sea water. They later built some rudimentary stone-houses around the area now called Nam Van. But not until 1557 did the Portuguese establish a permanent settlement in Macau, at an annual rent of 500 tael

Tael

Tael can refer to any one of several weight measures of the Far East. Most commonly, it refers to the Chinese tael, a part of the Chinese system of weights and currency....

s ( 20 kilogram

Kilogram

The kilogram or kilogramme , also known as the kilo, is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units and is defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram , which is almost exactly equal to the mass of one liter of water...

s/44 pound

Pound (mass)

The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the Imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...

s ) of silver. Later that year, the Portuguese established a walled village there. Ground rent payments began in 1573. China retained sovereignty and Chinese residents were subject to Chinese law, but the territory was under Portuguese administration. In 1582 a land lease was signed, and annual rent was paid to Xiangshan County.

The Portuguese continued to pay an annual tribute up to 1863 in order to stay in Macau.

In 1564, Portugal commanded the trade of India, Japan, and China, though their pride was deeply shocked at the supreme indifference with which the Chinese treated them. Their atrocities at Ningpo and Macao, and their subsequent servility, had opened the eyes of the Celestials to their true character, and unfortunately for other European adventurers, they had come to the conclusion that all western nations were alike. The senate of Macao

Mação

Mação is a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 400.0 km² and a total population of 7,763 inhabitants.The municipality is composed of eight parishes, and is located in the Santarém District....

complained to the viceroy of Goa, of the contempt with which the Chinese authorities treated them, confessing however that, “it was owing more to the Portuguese themselves than to the Chinese.” The Chinese were obliged to restrict the commerce of Portugal to the port of Macao, in 1631.

On June 24, 1622, the Dutch attacked Macau in the Battle of Macau

Battle of Macau

The Battle of Macau in 1622 was a conflict of the Dutch-Portuguese War fought in the Portuguese settlement of Macau, in southeastern China. The Portuguese, outnumbered and without adequate fortification, managed to repel the Dutch in a much-celebrated victory on June 24 after a three-day battle...

, expecting to turn it into a Dutch possession after its conquest. African slaves who fought for the Portuguese repulsed the Dutch attack, and the Dutch never tried to conquer Macau again. The majority of the defenders were Africans slaves, with only a few Portuguese soldiers and Priests. Captain Kornelis Reyerszoon was commander of the 800 Dutch strong invasion force.

The Dutch Governor Jan Coen said after the defeat that "The slaves of the Portuguese at Macao served them so well and faithfully, that it was they who defeated and drove away our people there last year", and "Our people saw very few Portuguese" during the battle.

Macau's golden age

After Portuguese permanent settlement in Macau, both Chinese and Portuguese merchants flocked to Macau, although the Portuguese were never numerous (numbering just 900 in 1583 and only 1,200 out of 26,000 in 1640). It quickly became an important node in the development of Portugal's trade along three major routes: Macau-Malacca-Goa-Lisbon, Guangzhou-Macau-Nagasaki and Macau-Manila-Mexico. The Guangzhou-Macau-Nagasaki route was particularly profitable because the Portuguese acted as middlemen, shipping Chinese silks to Japan and Japanese silver to China, pocketing huge markups in the process. This already lucrative trade became even more so when Chinese officials handed Macau's Portuguese traders a monopoly by banning direct trade with Japan in 1547, due to piracy by Chinese and Japanese nationals.

Macau's golden age coincided with the union

Iberian Union

The Iberian union was a political unit that governed all of the Iberian Peninsula south of the Pyrenees from 1580–1640, through a dynastic union between the monarchies of Portugal and Spain after the War of the Portuguese Succession...

of the Spanish and Portuguese crowns, between 1580 and 1640. King Philip II of Spain

Philip II of Spain

Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....

was encouraged to not harm the status quo, to allow trade to continue between Portuguese Macau and Spanish Manila, and to not interfere with Portuguese trade with China. In 1587, Philip promoted Macau from "Settlement or Port of the Name of God" to "City of the Name of God" (Cidade do Nome de Deus de Macau).

The alliance of Portugal with Spain meant that Portuguese colonies became targets for the Netherlands, which was embroiled at the time in a lengthy struggle for its independence from Spain, the Eighty Years' War. After the Dutch East India Company

Dutch East India Company

The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...

was founded in 1602, the Dutch unsuccessfully attacked Macau several times, culminating in a full scale invasion attempt in 1622

Battle of Macau

, when 800 attackers were successfully repelled by 150 Macanese and Portuguese defenders. One of the first actions of Macau's first governor, who arrived the following year, was to strengthen the city's defenses, which included the construction of the Guia Fortress

Guia Fortress

The Guia Fortress is a historical military fort, chapel, and lighthouse complex in the St. Lazarus Parish. The complex is a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the Historic Centre of Macau....

Religious activity

As well as being an important trading post, Macau was a center of activity for Catholic missionaries, as it was seen as a gateway for the conversion of the vast populations of China and Japan. Jesuits had first arrived in the 1560s and were followed by Dominican

Dominican Order

The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...

s in the 1580s. Both orders soon set about constructing churches and schools, the most notable of which were the Jesuit Cathedral of Saint Paul and the St. Dominic’s Church built by the Dominicans. In 1576, Macau was established as an episcopal see

Episcopal See

An episcopal see is, in the original sense, the official seat of a bishop. This seat, which is also referred to as the bishop's cathedra, is placed in the bishop's principal church, which is therefore called the bishop's cathedral...

by Pope Gregory XIII

Pope Gregory XIII

Pope Gregory XIII , born Ugo Boncompagni, was Pope from 1572 to 1585. He is best known for commissioning and being the namesake for the Gregorian calendar, which remains the internationally-accepted civil calendar to this date.-Youth:He was born the son of Cristoforo Boncompagni and wife Angela...

with Melchior Carneiro appointed as the first bishop.

Decline

In 1637, increasing suspicion of the intentions of Spanish and Portuguese Catholic missionaries in Japan finally led the shogun

Shogun

A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...

to seal Japan off from all foreign influence. Later named the sakoku

Sakoku

was the foreign relations policy of Japan under which no foreigner could enter nor could any Japanese leave the country on penalty of death. The policy was enacted by the Tokugawa shogunate under Tokugawa Iemitsu through a number of edicts and policies from 1633–39 and remained in effect until...

period, this meant that no Japanese were allowed to leave the country (or return if they were living abroad), and no foreign ship was allowed to dock in a Japanese port. An exception was made for the Protestant Dutch, who were allowed to continue to trade with Japan from the confines of a small man-made island in Nagasaki, Deshima. Macau's most profitable trade route, that between Japan and China, had been severed. The crisis was compounded two years later by the loss of Malacca to the Dutch in 1641, damaging the link with Goa.

The news that the Portuguese House of Braganza

House of Braganza

The Most Serene House of Braganza , an important Portuguese noble family, ruled the Kingdom of Portugal and its colonial Empire, from 1640 to 1910...

had regained control of the Crown from the Spanish Habsburgs took two years to reach Macau, arriving in 1642. A ten week celebration ensued, and despite its new-found poverty, Macau sent gifts to the new King João IV along with expressions of loyalty. In return, the King rewarded Macau with the addition of the words "There is none more Loyal" to its existing title. Macau was now "City of the Name of God in China, There is none more loyal". ("Não há outra mais Leal" []).

In 1685, the privileged position of the Portuguese in trade with China ended, following a decision by the emperor of China to allow trade with all foreign countries. Over the next century, England, Holland, France, Denmark, Sweden, the United States and Russia moved in, establishing factories and offices in Guangzhou

Guangzhou

and Macau.

Until 20 April 1844 Macau was under the jurisdiction of Portugal's Indian colonies, the so-called “Estado português da India” (Portuguese State of India), but after this date, it, along with East Timor

East Timor

The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...

, was accorded recognition by Lisbon (but not by Beijing) as an overseas province of Portugal. The Treaty of Peace, Amity, and Commerce between China and the United States

Treaty of Wanghia

The Treaty of Wanghia , is a diplomatic agreement between the Qing Dynasty of China and the United States, signed on 3 July 1844 in the Kun Iam Temple...

was signed in a temple in Macau on 3 July 1844. The temple was used by a Chinese judicial administrator, who also oversaw matters concerning foreigners, and was located in the village of Mong Há. The Templo de Kun Iam was the site where, on 3 July 1844, the treaty of Wangxia (named after the village of Mong Ha where the temple was located) was signed by representatives of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

and China. This marked the official beginning of Sino-US relations.

The Hong Kong effect

After China ceded Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

to the British in 1842, Macau's position as a major regional trading centre declined further still because larger ships were drawn to the deep water port of Victoria Harbour

Victoria Harbour

Victoria Harbour is a natural landform harbour situated between Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula in Hong Kong. The harbour's deep, sheltered waters and strategic location on the South China Sea were instrumental in Hong Kong's establishment as a British colony and its subsequent...

.

In an attempt to reverse the decline, Portugal declared Macau a free port

Free port

A free port or free zone , sometimes also called a bonded area is a port, port area or other area with relaxed jurisdiction with respect to the country of location...

, expelled Chinese officials and soldiers, and thereafter levied taxes on Chinese residents. In 1849, Portugal declared the colony independent of China.

Portugal continued to pay rent to China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

until 1849, when the Portuguese abolished the Chinese customs house and declared Macau's “independence”, a year which also saw Chinese retaliation and finally the assassination of Gov. Ferreira do Amaral

João Maria Ferreira do Amaral

João Maria Ferreira do Amaral was a Portuguese military and politician.-Background:He was the first son of Francisco Joaquim Ferreira do Amaral, born in Lisbon, Alcântara, on 3 May 1773, whose male line was de Macedo, a Fidalgo of the Royal Household and a Sergeant of the Portuguese Army and the...

. Portugal gained control of the island of Wanzai (Lapa

Lapa, Dom João e Montanha

Lapa, Dom João e Montanha were three islands inhabited by small Chinese populations, located to the west of the Macau Peninsula and the Macau islands of Taipa and Coloane...

by the Portugese and now as Wanzaizhen), to the northwest of Macau and which now is under the jurisdiction of Zhuhai

Zhuhai

Zhuhai is a prefecture-level city on the southern coast of Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in the Pearl River Delta, Zhuhai borders Jiangmen to the northwest, Zhongshan to the north, and Macau to the south. Zhuhai was one of the original Special Economic Zones...

(Xiangzhou District), in 1849 but relinquished it in 1887. Control over Taipa

Taipa

Taipa is the smaller of the two islands in the Chinese special administrative region of Macao .- Geography :It is 2.5 kilometres from Macau Peninsula and east of the Lesser Hengqin Island of Zhuhai, Guangdong Province...

( in Chinese, Jyutping

Jyutping

Jyutping is a romanization system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong in 1993. Its formal name is The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme...

: Tam5 Zai2; pinyin

Pinyin

Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...

: Dàngzǎi) and Coloane ( in Chinese, Jyutping: Lou6 Waan4; pinying: Lùhuán), two islands south of Macau, was obtained between 1851 and 1864. Macau and East Timor were again combined as an overseas province of Portugal under control of Goa in 1883. The Protocol Respecting the Relations Between the Two Countries (signed in Lisbon 26 March 1887) and the Beijing Treaty

Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Peking

Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Peking signed December 1, 1887, was a trade treaty signed between Portugal and Qing dynasty China.-Signing:On 13 August 1862 an attempt was made between China and Portugal to sign a trade treaty in Tientsin. If the treaty was not ratified in 2 years, it would become null....

(signed in Beijing on December 1, 1887) confirmed “perpetual occupation and government” of Macau by Portugal (with Portugal's promise “never to alienate Macau and dependencies without agreement with China” in the treaty). Taipa and Coloane were also ceded to Portugal, but the border with the mainland was not delimited. Ilha Verde ( in Chinese, Jyutping: Ceng1 Zau1 or Cing1 Zau1; pinyin: Qīngzhōu) was incorporated into Macau's territory in 1890, and, once a kilometer offshore, by 1923 it had been absorbed into peninsular Macau through land reclamation

Land reclamation

Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, is the process to create new land from sea or riverbeds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamation ground or landfill.- Habitation :...

Slave trade

From 1848 to about the early 1870s, Macau was the infamous transit port of a trade of coolies (or slave labourers) from southern China. Most of them were kidnapped from the Guangdong

Guangdong

Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...

province and were shipped off in packed vessels to Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

, Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

, or other South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

n ports to work on plantations or in mines. Many died on the way there due to malnutrition, disease, or other mistreatment. The Dea del Mar which had set sail to Callao

Callao

Callao is the largest and most important port in Peru. The city is coterminous with the Constitutional Province of Callao, the only province of the Callao Region. Callao is located west of Lima, the country's capital, and is part of the Lima Metropolitan Area, a large metropolis that holds almost...

from Macau in 1865 with 550 Chinese on board, arrived in Tahiti

Tahiti

Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...

with only 162 of them still alive.

World War II

Unlike in the case of Portuguese Timor

Portuguese Timor

Portuguese Timor was the name of East Timor when it was under Portuguese control. During this period, Portugal shared the island of Timor with the Netherlands East Indies, and later with Indonesia....

which was occupied by the Japanese in 1942 along with Dutch Timor, the Japanese respected Portuguese neutrality in Macau, but only up to a point. As such, Macau enjoyed a brief period of economic prosperity as the only neutral port in South China, after the Japanese had occupied Guangzhou (Canton) and Hong Kong. In August 1943, Japanese troops seized the British steamer Sian in Macau and killed about 20 guards. The next month they demanded the installation of Japanese "advisors" under the alternative of military occupation. The result was that a virtual Japanese protectorate

Protectorate

In history, the term protectorate has two different meanings. In its earliest inception, which has been adopted by modern international law, it is an autonomous territory that is protected diplomatically or militarily against third parties by a stronger state or entity...

was created over Macau. Japanese domination ended in August 1945.

Macau and communist China

When the Chinese communists

Communist Party of China

The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...

came to power in 1949, they declared the Protocol of Lisbon to be invalid as an “unequal treaty

Unequal Treaties

“Unequal treaty” is a term used in specific reference to a number of treaties imposed by Western powers, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, on Qing Dynasty China and late Tokugawa Japan...

” imposed by foreigners on China. However, Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

was not ready to settle the treaty question, leaving the maintenance of “the status quo” until a more appropriate time. Beijing took a similar position on treaties relating to the Hong Kong

Hong Kong

territories of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

In 1951, the Salazar

António de Oliveira Salazar

António de Oliveira Salazar, GColIH, GCTE, GCSE served as the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1932 to 1968. He also served as acting President of the Republic briefly in 1951. He founded and led the Estado Novo , the authoritarian, right-wing government that presided over and controlled Portugal...

regime declared Macau, as well as other Portuguese colonies, an "Overseas Province" of Portugal.

Riots broke out in 1966 when local Chinese and the Macau authority clashed, the most serious one being the so-called 12-3 incident

12-3 incident

The 12-3 incident refers to a riot in Macau that happened on December 3, 1966, inspired by the Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of China.-Tension:...

. It was sparked by the overreaction of some Portuguese officials to what was a regular minor dispute concerning building permits. The riots caused 8 deaths and the end was a total climbdown by the Portuguese Government, which signed two agreements, one with Macau's Chinese community, and the other with mainland China. The latter committed the Government to compensate local Chinese community leaders with as much as 2 million Macau Pataca

Macanese pataca

The pataca is the currency of Macau. It is subdivided into 100 avos , with 10 avos called ho in Cantonese. The abbreviation MOP$ is commonly used....

s and to prohibit all Kuomintang activities in Macau. This move ended the conflict, and relations between the government and the leftist organizations remained largely peaceful. This success in Macau encouraged leftists in Hong Kong to "do the same", leading to riots by leftists in Hong Kong in 1967. A Portuguese proposal to return the colony to China was declined by China.

In 1974, following the anti-colonialist Carnation Revolution

Carnation Revolution

The Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril , was a military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, coupled with an unanticipated and extensive campaign of civil resistance...

, Portugal relinquished all colonial claims and proposed Chinese sovereignty over Macau.

Handover to the People's Republic of China

Portugal and the People's Republic of China

People's Republic of China

established diplomatic relations on 8 February 1979, and Beijing acknowledged Macau as “Chinese territory under Portuguese administration.” A year later, Gen. Melo Egidio became the first governor of Macau to pay an official visit to Beijing.

The visit underscored both parties' interest in finding a mutually agreeable solution to Macau's status. A joint communiqué signed 20 May 1986 called for negotiations on the Macau question, and four rounds of talks followed between 30 June 1986 and 26 March 1987. The Joint Declaration on the Question of Macau

Joint Declaration on the Question of Macau

The Joint Declaration on the Question of Macau, or Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration, was an important treaty between Portugal and the People's Republic of China over the status of Macau. The full name of the treaty is Joint Declaration of the Government of the People's Republic of China and the...

was signed in Beijing on 13 April 1987, setting the stage for the return of Macau to full Chinese sovereignty as a Special Administrative Region on 20 December 1999.

After four rounds of talks, "the Joint Declaration of the Government of the People's Republic of China

People's Republic of China

and the Government of the Republic of Portugal on the Question of Macau" was officially signed in April 1987. The two sides exchanged instruments of ratification

Ratification

Ratification is a principal's approval of an act of its agent where the agent lacked authority to legally bind the principal. The term applies to private contract law, international treaties, and constitutionals in federations such as the United States and Canada.- Private law :In contract law, the...

on 15 January 1988 and the Joint Declaration entered into force. During the transitional period between the date of the entry into force of the Joint Declaration and 19 December 1999 the Portuguese government was responsible for the administration of Macau.

The Basic Law of the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China

Macau Basic Law

The Basic Law of the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China is the constitution of Macau, replacing the Estatuto Orgânico de Macau, which was effective since 1976, on 20 December 1999....

, was adopted by the National People's Congress

National People's Congress

The National People's Congress , abbreviated NPC , is the highest state body and the only legislative house in the People's Republic of China. The National People's Congress is held in the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, capital of the People's Republic of China; with 2,987 members, it is the...

(NPC) on 31 March 1993 as the constitutional law for Macau, taking effect on 20 December 1999.
The PRC has promised that, under its “one country, two systems

One country, two systems

"One country, two systems" is an idea originally proposed by Deng Xiaoping, then Paramount Leader of the People's Republic of China , for the reunification of China during the early 1980s...

” formula, China's socialist economic system will not be practiced in Macau and that Macau will enjoy a high degree of autonomy in all matters except foreign and defense affairs until at least 2049, fifty years after the handover.

Thus the history of European colonization of Asia ended where it began. Although offered control of Macau in the 1970s, the Chinese deemed the time "not yet ripe" and preferred to wait until December 1999—the very end of the millennium

Millennium

A millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years —from the Latin phrase , thousand, and , year—often but not necessarily related numerically to a particular dating system....

, two years after the Hong Kong handover--to close this chapter of history.

External links

Macau handover: Asia's last colony

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Early history

Portuguese settlement

Macau's golden age

Religious activity

Decline

The Hong Kong effect

Slave trade

World War II

Macau and communist China

Handover to the People's Republic of China

See also

Further reading

External links