Fragrant Harbour 1839

57 x 57 cm
acrylic & pencil on canvas
 
Pre 1839 China was a self-reliant country, with thousands of years of culture and imperialism. There was a huge peasant population with widespread poverty. Towards the end of the eighteenth century the vast “European” powers, having already conquered and exploited many regions and countries, enforcing slavery, Christianity and trade on many indigenous peoples of the world. The British attempted to undermine the local trade and workers inferring with local governments and economies, supplying and trading opium to the local communities. Many local peoples and settlements became addicted which in turn led to a crumbling of the local infrastructure, almost allowing the British and others to have free reign of the trade in the region, it also allowed the British to set up many Christian missionaries in an attempt to save the souls of the Chinese peoples who had fallen into poverty due to addiction and lack of employment. The Opium was cultivated from poppies grown in India and Afghanistan possibly for this very reason.  The Chinese government was resistant to Europeans corrupting and exploiting its own people. To counter act this protest the British forces declared war on China by invading the island of Hong Kong. This was the start of the first Opium War the war continued in various forms for approximately twenty years finally Britain was able to take control due to its superior military power allowing Britain to trade freely and deploy missionaries all over China. Also the island of Hong Kong was handed over and became under British rule, a very important trading port in the Far East. The island of Hong Kong was finally handed back to China in 1997. Due to the amount of trade in exotic spices and perfumes Hong Kong has, for many centuries been known as “the Fragrant Harbour”.