Hong Kong, on the map of history

What was Hong Kong before it was Hong Kong? Below, every era of this land in the Maps of History collection — who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed — each line linked to the dated map that shows it. Modern borders stand in as an honest approximation; every atlas says so on the map itself.

Hong Kong (British) · China in Revolution, 1911–1949

The British colony at the revolution’s door: refuge for every era’s exiles (Sun Yat-sen was schooled and radicalized here), bank for every era’s capital flight, and target of the era’s greatest labor action — the Canton–Hong Kong strike and boycott of 1925–26 emptied the colony’s docks for sixteen months and taught the National Revolution its own strength. Taken by Japan in December 1941 and returned to Britain in 1945 (over Chiang’s objection), it ends the atlas as the aperture between red China and the world — a role it will play for forty years.

1912	Foreign empires — British, French, Russian, American — the opening position
1942	The Empire of Japan & its puppets
1945	Foreign empires — British, French, Russian, American

OPEN CHINA IN REVOLUTION ON THE LIVING MAP →