Why did the British think a 99-year lease on Hong Kong's New Territories was "as good as forever"?
score:18
They didn't. Wikipedia is misleading.
In fact, Britain had set out with the intent of securing a cession in perpetuity (i.e. forever), and was negotiated down to a 99-year lease by the Chinese.
[MacDonald's] instructions required him to secure another cession in perpetuity. What he negotiated was a 99-year lease: MacDonald was persuaded by imperial officials that it would be awkward if Britain did not follow the precedent of recent grants of territory.
McLaren, Robin. Britain's Record in Hong Kong. Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1997.
It's useful to put this in context. The British scheme was in part motivated (and/or excused) as a reaction to France's lease of Kouang-Tchéou-Wan earlier the same year, which was also a 99-year lease. Under traditional balance-of-power thinking, the British reaction should not be so provocative as to trigger its own reactions from France. In fact, this philosophy is what stopped Britain from pushing to enlarge Hong Kong earlier:
[In 1895] an official report commending an extension and readjustment of the Hong Kong frontier for naval and military reasons met with a divided response due to fears that any action could provoke France to retaliate. Therefore, the French lease of Kwang-chow-wan only 210 miles to the southwest of Hong Kong made it necessary and also possible for Britain to launch negotiations.
Becker, Bert. "French Kwang-Chow-Wan and British Hong Kong: Politics and Shipping, 1890s–1920s." British and French Colonialism in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2019. 181–221.
The same mentality was clearly evident in 1898. As mentioned previously, the British negotiator, Sir Claude McDonald, originally sought to acquire the New Territories permanently. He was persuaded to accept a lease when the Chinese argued that the other Great Powers would follow suit. In MacDonald's own words:
The question of the nature of our title to the extension of territory was more troublesome. I tried to obtain an absolute cession, but could not resist the force of the argument that all other nations who have obtained leases of territory would follow suit, which might be inconvenient for ourselves. The principle of a lease having been admitted a term of ninety-nine years seemed sufficient.
Britain, Great. Correspondence Respecting the Affairs of China. HM Stationery Office, 1898.
Clearly MacDonald did not consider a 99-year lease to be literally "as good as forever", only that it "seemed sufficient". This was a compromise over strategic concerns.
A 99-year lease seemed sufficient.
It's easy to see why MacDonald thought so. Europeans of the time generally believed (correctly) that Qing China was in terminal decline. British rule in Hong Kong expanded in 1842, 1860 and 1898: only a few decades apart each time. For all they know there would be another opportunity soon enough. No one could know at the time that European imperialism was itself heading towards terminal decline within a few decades.
Moreover, remember that Britain was in China for commercial interests, and not the land per se. The general trend of the time was to ensure trade access, e.g. Open Door Policy or the 1900 Yangtze Agreement. Land did not inherently benefit this.
As we see today, ownership of Hong Kong is no longer vital to British commercial interests. Nor is it tenable in the face of an industrialising China, as demonstrated by the return of Macau and the perpetually ceded parts of Hong Kong, or the seizure of Goa by India.
So indeed, the 99 year lease ended up being as good as "forever".
Upvote:0
It is worth noting that in 1997, China got "more" of Hong Kong than it was entitled to. It's true that the so-called "New Territories" were supposed to revert to China in 1997. But the 19th century treaties called for two parts of Hong Kong, the island of that name, and Kowloon to remain with the British in perpetuity. But Britain ceded all of Hong Kong, because its portion of the city was not viable without the New Territories. This, in turn, was related to the fact that China's level of economic development (in the Hong Kong area) was comparable to the British level of development, and it had far greater "mass," both in the New Territories themselves, and in South China, than British Hong Kong enjoyed.
In 1898, on the other hand, the most developed parts of "Hong Kong" were the British parts of the city. The "New Territories" were a backwater at the time. More to the point, China was then a highly "underdeveloped" nation, while Britain was arguably the world's most advanced. The British reasoned that if they concentrated development on the "British" part of Hong Kong and left the New Territories backward and dependent on the advanced part, the New Territories could be made so dependent on British Hong Kong that it would not make sense for China to reclaim it.
If this were the case, "99 years was as good as forever." The issue was that the balance of power changed greatly in favor of China, and against the British (in fact, almost reversed) during that time. But no Britisher in 1898 was likely to foresee that this would be the case.
It's true that the Chinese government "talked down" the British envoy to "99" years. But China has a much longer history than Britain, going back perhaps 3000 years, while Britain (in its modern form) has a history more like 1000 years. The Chinese simply thought in longer time spans.
More post
- 📝 Are there ancient Greek historians who wrote about Mycenae?
- 📝 What are other ancient encyclopaedic texts like Pliny's "Naturalis Historia" were available to medieval people?
- 📝 Isn't there any positive legacy of the Mongolian occupation in Russia?
- 📝 18th-century land surveyors Valentine and Collins
- 📝 Why the laws re the burial of slaves in the Twelve Tables?
- 📝 Have there ever been maximum age limits for public office in the United States?
- 📝 How to attack Fort Ross
- 📝 Why did the British Empire manage to conquer huge swaths of land abroad but couldn't supress nationalism within the British Isles?
- 📝 Did Hitler display gratitude towards Hugo Gutmann?
- 📝 Did the Kirk-Holden War happen?
- 📝 Why were the Merovingians so reviled?
- 📝 How effective were longbow archers against plate-armored infantry?
- 📝 Who were the earliest Californian university students?
- 📝 Did the Zapatistas actually kill anyone?
- 📝 Is there a British equivalent in architectural history to American cabins?
- 📝 What was lost when the British burned the White House in 1814?
- 📝 World History - Big Bang to TODAY
- 📝 Bears on Bicycles - What are early examples of photographs or paintings showing bicycles used with animals in circus acts?
- 📝 What do men in the middle of a phalanx contribute?
- 📝 Could there have been wars between the Aztecs and the Persians?
- 📝 Was early marriage of queens not considered pedophilia?
- 📝 Help identifying image of winged robed figure and young man
- 📝 How does Louise Bryant's assessment of how the Soviet Union would fall hold up at the beginning of the 21st century?
- 📝 What happened in 1914 that ended the golden age of microbiology?
- 📝 What was the first example of a foreign mercenary unit?
- 📝 Are there archaeological sites of Drusus‘ campaign 9 BC?
- 📝 Did the Mayans view the gods as antagonistic to humanity?
- 📝 In regards to Vichy vs Free France, what was the status of Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy?
- 📝 What was wrong with carrying a bag on one's back in a town in the USA in the first decades of the 1900?
- 📝 Was Napoleon's General Joachim Murat of Turkish descent?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Why did the British think a 99-year lease on Hong Kong's New Territories was "as good as forever"?
- 📝 Why did the British take Hong Kong instead of any other of the later treaty ports?
- 📝 Was there anyone involved in the negotiations of New Territories (Hong Kong) lease still alive at the time of the negotiations of its return to China?
- 📝 Why weren't the New Territories ceded to the British instead of leased in 1898?
- 📝 Why did the British control Hong Kong over 99 years?
- 📝 Why did Hitler attack the Soviet Union when he was still busy fighting the United Kingdom?
- 📝 Why did Native Americans die from European diseases while Europeans didn't catch serious diseases from the New World?
- 📝 Why did the Confederacy think they could win the American Civil War?
- 📝 Why did archery not make a comeback when armor was phased out in the 18th century?
- 📝 Why did the British scuttle the u-boats surrendered after WWII?
- 📝 ‘Avoid sleeping on your back’ & ‘breathe in toilet smells’ were seen as precautions against the Black Death. Why did doctors think these would work?
- 📝 Why did the Dutch, French & British acquire minor colonies in South America?
- 📝 Why did Mozambique join the British Commonwealth?
- 📝 Why did the UK allow India to be a republic rather than a democratic parliament under the British Monarch?
- 📝 Why did the British not introduce the sterling in India?
- 📝 Why did Canada, Australia and New Zealand separate from the UK?
- 📝 Why does Japan celebrate the Gregorian New Year but China still celebrates Chinese New Year?
- 📝 Why was the British army so short of rifles after Dunkirk?
- 📝 Why was the last battle of the War of 1812 fought fully half a year after the official end of the war?
- 📝 Why was the Spanish kingdom in America called New Spain if Spain didn't exist as a country back then?
- 📝 Why did Operation Market Garden go ahead when the allies knew German armor was in the area?
- 📝 Why did the British have so few destroyers going into World War II?
- 📝 Why was slavery profitable in the Southern colonies and not New England?
- 📝 Before entering WW II, why was the US so against Japanese aggression in China but did nothing about Germany in Europe?
- 📝 Why did Japan not withdraw from China as its pacific front was crumbling and the threat of US invasion imminent?
- 📝 Did Andrew Jackson think the earth was flat?
- 📝 Why was New Guinea not colonized by Austronesians the way Indonesia was?
- 📝 Why did the British "Indian" army come disproportionately from particular regions?
- 📝 Why did not Spain manage to keep any colonial possessions in the new world?
- 📝 Why did the start of the Roman consular year move?