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The 'Convention of Peking' or the 'First Convention of Peking' is the name used for three different treaties, which were concluded between Qing China and each of the three European powers, namely the United Kingdom, France, and Russia.

Contents

Background

Terms

Aftermath

External links

References

See also

Background

On October 18, 1860, as part of the Second Opium War, the British and French troops would reach Forbidden city in Beijing. Following the decisive defeat of the Chinese side, the young Prince Gong signed two treaties on behalf of the Qing government with Lord Elgin and Baron Gros, who represented Britain and France respectively.^[1] Although Russia had not been a belligerent, Prince Gong also signed a treaty with Nikolay Muravyov-Amursky.
The original plan was to burn down the Forbidden city as a revenge against the mistreatment of European prisoners by Qing officials. Because doing so would jeopardize the treaty signing, the plan shifted to burning the Old Summer Palace instead.¹ The summer palace would become the location of the treaty signing on October 24, 1860.¹

Terms

The area known as Kowloon was originally leased in March 1860. The Convention of Peking ended the lease, and ceded the land formally to the British on October 24, 1860.^[2]
Article 6 of the Convention between China and the United Kingdom stipulated that China was to cede a part of the Kowloon Peninsula, south of the present day Boundary Street, Kowloon, Hong Kong, including the Stonecutter's Island, in perpetuity to Britain.
The treaty also ceded parts of Outer Manchuria to the Russian Empire. It granted Russia the right to the Ussuri krai, a part of the modern day Primorye, the territory that corresponded with the ancient Manchu province of East Tartary. The treaty remains as one of the unequal treaties.

Aftermath

The governments of the United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China (PRC) concluded the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong in 1984, under which the sovereignty of the leased territories, together with Hong Kong Island, ceded under the Treaty of Nanking (1842), and Kowloon (south of Boundary Street), was scheduled to be transferred to the PRC on July 1, 1997.

External links

★ A timeline of the history of Hong Kong from 1840 to 1999

References

1. Harris, David. Van Slyke, Lyman P. [2000] (2000). Of battle and Beauty: FElice Beato's Photographs of China. University of California Press. ISBN 0899511007
2. Endacott, George Beer. Carroll, John M. [2005] (2005). A Biographical Sketch-book of Early Hong Kong. HK University press. ISBN 9622097421

See also

★ Second Convention of Peking

★ History of Hong Kong

★ Imperialism in Asia