Macau (Portuguese)

Origins

Portuguese merchants, after years of informal trade on the south China coast, were allowed by local Ming officials to settle on the Macau peninsula around 1557, paying an annual ground rent. The port grew quickly as the link between Ming China and Japan.

Rule and society

Macau's merchants carried Chinese silk to Nagasaki and Japanese silver back to China, and the city became a base for Jesuit missions to China and Japan; the ruined façade of St Paul's dates from this era. A municipal Senate governed with a Portuguese captain, while China kept authority over the Chinese population. The colony repulsed a Dutch attack in 1622, declined when the Japan trade ended in 1639, and later relied on the Canton trade and gambling.

Decline and legacy

Governor Ferreira do Amaral expelled Chinese officials in 1849, and an 1887 treaty recognised perpetual Portuguese occupation. After Portugal's 1974 revolution, the 1987 Joint Declaration arranged its return, and on 20 December 1999 Macau became a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.