3.0 From trade to war

The three and a half centuries from the coming of the Portuguese in 1498 to the outbreak of the Opium War in 1840 witnessed the transition of Sino-Western relations from an era of peaceful trade to one of direct confrontation ending in the use of force.

The Opium War was the watershed of Hong Kong's history, demarcating the time when from a few scattered fishing villages and rural hamlets under the jurisdiction of Xim'an county it became a British colony, with all the cataclysmic changes that resulted.

Through this film it is hoped that the audience would re-live this chapter of history.

Credit : History Museum of HK.