17
1914, so Guam was quickly invaded
after the Pearl Harbor attack on
8 December 1941. US personnel were
interned in Japan. The Japanese
treated Guam’s people brutally, largely
because of their continuing support
for the US.
In July 1944, after heavy naval
bombardment, Allied forces invaded.
Weeks of deadly fighting ended with
a Japanese surrender in early August.
As the war with Japan continued, the
navy base was expanded and an
airfield constructed.
After the war Guam continued as
a key part of the USA’s Pacific defence
strategy. Pressured by Chamorro
leaders, President Harry Truman
signed the Guam Organic Act in 1950.
Guam became an unincorporated,
organised territory of the USA with a
civilian government. Two years later
most Guamians were granted American
citizenship. In 1963 restrictions on
visitors (for security reasons) ended
and tourism began.
Hong Kong
Colony of Great Britain 1842–1997
HONG Kong as a British colony came
into existence as a result of drug
trafficking. By the early 19th century
Britain had developed a massive
appetite for tea, grown only in China.
Tea exports had to be paid for in silver
bullion until British merchants devised
a scheme to pay with opium grown in
British India.
All European trade with China
was conducted through Portuguese
Macau on the Pearl River delta. From
Nanjing on 29 August 1842 ceded
Hong Kong to Britain in perpetuity.
After victory in the Second Opium
War in the late 1850s, Britain secured
the Kowloon peninsula under the
Convention of Peking. The final
expansion of the Crown Colony
occurred on 1 July 1898 with a lease
on a much larger area — the New
Territories — for 99 years. Hong Kong
was a favoured destination for Chinese
escaping the control of the Emperors.
Signing the Treaty of Nanjing, 1842
A typical Guam house
On 11 September 1968 the US
Congress granted the right to elect
their own Governor and LieutenantGovernor. Four years later the colony
elected a non-voting delegate to the
US House of Representatives.
In January 1982 a referendum on
self-determination saw the option of
becoming a commonwealth within
the USA defeat full statehood. Despite
this, and despite pressure from the
United Nations, Guam remains an
unincorporated territory.
Guam is a key base for US armed
forces. In the 1990s large numbers of
personnel moved to Guam after US
bases in the Philippines were closed.
the 1820s British traders began using
a deepwater port on the opposite side
of the delta, known as Hong Kong. A
barren and mountainous island
inhabited only by fishers and pirates,
its harbour gave protection from the
devastating typhoons (cyclones) that
swept in each year.
In the 1840s the Chinese expelled
all traders, provoking the First Opium
War in which Britain crushed China.
The Convention of Chuenpee on
20 January 1841 and the Treaty of
As the opium trade diminished the
large trading companies established
strong business ties in China. Hong
Kong was overshadowed by Shanghai,
where many European nations had
settlements. It became a favoured
place of transit for migrants and
drifters passing through Asia.
Japan invaded Hong Kong in
December 1941 and defeated the
British, Canadian and Indian garrison.
The Governor surrendered on
Christmas Day 1941. Most Europeans
were interned. Many Chinese fled
back to China, reducing the population
by 60 per cent.
After the British returned on
30 August 1945 there was a flood of
refugees from the civil war raging in
China. Many more arrived after the
1949 Communist takeover, despite
British attempts to control the border.
Vast insanitary slums riddled with