ABSTRACT
Hong Kong became a British possession at the end of the Opium War (1839-42). The island of Hong Kong was ceded to the British Crown in perpetuity under the Treaty of Nanjing which was concluded in 1842 and which marked the formal end of the war. The Kowloon peninsula, which is on the mainland, was acquired in 1860 and in 1898 Britain was given a ninety-nine-year lease to the New Territories which lie to the north of Hong Kong on the border with Guangdong province. This lease expired in 1997 and consequently 1997 was the date set for the return of the colony to China. In theory, Hong Kong island could have been retained by Britain but in practice, it could not have functioned independently without resources and labour from the mainland parts of the colony.
