What began on this day in 1843 ended in a strange form of decolonisation. The UK handed over a territory to China, not by popular demand, but to abide by international treaties, knowing that to the other side such agreements were worthless, says Eliot Wilson

If you have any real memory of the handover of the British Dependent Territory of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China at midnight on 1 July 1997, then you will now be uncomfortably close to middle age.

The ceremony was held in driving rain and watched by a global audience of hundreds of millions: the then-Prince of Wales, now King Charles III, gave a farewell speech on behalf of the Queen before the Union flag and the Hong Kong flag were lowered for the last time. At midnight, the territory became a “special administrative region” of China.

It began, in a way, on this day, 26 June, in 1843. With the formal exchange of ratifications, the Treaty of Nanking, agreed the previous summer, came into force and ended the First Opium War between the United Kingdom and imperial China. The terms, dictated by the victorious British, provided for “the Island of Hong-Kong, to be possessed in perpetuity by Her Britannic Majesty, Her Heirs and Successors”.

A Victorian transformation

Hong Kong Island and its harbour had been occupied by a force of Royal Marines aboard HMS Sulphur in January 1841. Although the harbour offered a good anchorage, there was not much else to look at: a population of 6,000 fishermen and charcoal burners in a string of small coastal villages. But Victorian imperial trade,........

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