HISTORY
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The Tai Ping Rebellion, which began in 1850 and spread over South China, created unsettled conditions on the mainland resulting in thousands seeking refuge in the Colony. By 1861 the population had risen to 119,321, of whom 116,335 were Chinese. This pattern was to be repeated and is significant among the factors which have made Hong Kong a predominantly Chinese community.
EXTENSIONS TO THE COLONY, 1860–99
The Treaties of Tientsin at the conclusion of the Second Anglo- Chinese War of 1856-8, gave Britain and France the privilege of diplomatic representation at Peking. However, the first British envoy, Sir Frederick Bruce, who had served as Colonial Secretary in Hong Kong in 1844-5, was met by armed Chinese opposition at Taku Bar on his way to the Chinese capital. In the ensuing hostilities, Kowloon peninsula was occupied and used as a camp for the British forces and Sir Harry Parkes, at Canton, secured from the Viceroy there the perpetual lease of the peninsula as far as Boundary Street, including Stonecutters Island. The Convention of Peking, 1860, converted the lease into an outright cession.
By the Convention of Peking of 1898, negotiated_with_China because of rivalry between the western powers over concessions in China and because of fear of French and Russian ambitions in the Far East following the alliance of these two powers in 1893, Hong Kong's boundaries were again extended by a 99-year lease of the mainland north of Kowloon, together with some 235 islands in the vicinity. This extension soon acquired the name New Territories. The British take-over in April 1899 met with some initial ill-organised armed opposition, but Sir Henry Blake based the administration on the maintenance of Chinese law and custom, in co-operation with village committees and headmen, and by extensive visits to the villages to explain his policy in person he was able to build up confidence. Steps were taken to improve economic conditions and check widespread malaria, so that the population of the New Territories has gradually increased from about 100,000 to nearly half a million as shown by the 1961 Census.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLONY UP TO 1941
The history of Hong Kong is one of steady expansion in trade and population, and of consequent material and social improvements.
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