The Taking of Hong Kong Was First Proposed in August 1834

On January 26, 1841, Commodore Bremer formally took possession of Hong Kong Island, after Plenipotentiary Charles Elliot had successfully negotiated the island's cession. Yet, although the island’s cession took place in late 1840 and early 1841, it had been proposed as early as 1834.

In April 1834, the British government abolished the East India Company’s monopoly on the China trade—which it had held for over a century. In this context, Lord William John Napier was appointed Chief Superintendent of Trade in China. His task was to oversee the transition from the company’s monopoly to free trade.

Napier arrived in the Pearl River Delta in July 1834. However, he refused to communicate with the Chinese Viceroy in Canton through local merchants, or Cohong. He further refused to label his letters to the Viceroy with the mandatory Chinese character 禀, meaning “humble petition.”

In retaliation, Qing authorities cut off food supplies to the British ships waiting in the Pearl River Delta. Realizing the vulnerability of British merchant ships, Napier understood the necessity for Great Britain to possess a trading port in the region. On August 14, 1834, Lord Napier wrote a dispatch to Lord Palmerston, the British Foreign Secretary, recommending that Great Britain seize the island of Hong Kong.

Seven years later, Great Britain finally took possession of Hong Kong Island. As for Lord Napier, following the so-called “Napier Fizzle”, he died of typhus fever in Macau on October 11, 1834.