Macao

• Chinese/Japanese: 澳門 (Àomén / Makao)

Macao (or Macau) is a city in southern China, historically a major Portuguese colony in the region, and today administered as a Special Administrative Region (SAR) as part of the People's Republic of China. It lies on the southern coast of Guangdong province, facing Hong Kong across the Pearl River delta.

History

When the Portuguese first came to China in the early 16th century, they caused considerable trouble, and were expelled. After helping to expel pirates from the south China coast, however, in 1557 they were permitted to return and to engage in trade, but were restricted to the city of Macao, on a small peninsula walled off in 1574 from direct access to the Chinese mainland.

Macao quickly grew into a major Portuguese base of operations in the region, and trading port, along with Goa and Nagasaki. By 1562, only five years after the first Portuguese arrival, there were already as many as 1,000 Portuguese living in or operating out of Macao. Other residents included Africans, Indians, and Melakans. Trade routes were established between Nagasaki and Malacca by way of Macao by 1570, and in the early 17th century, beginning in 1614 and continuing in the 1630s, many Japanese Christians fled to Macao as the Tokugawa shogunate began to enforce bans on Christianity. Despite being denied direct overland access to Chinese domestic markets, the Portuguese at Macao played an active and lucrative role in the regional and worldwide trade in Chinese porcelains and silks, and for a brief time dominated the trade in Japanese silver.

The city continued to be officially Chinese land, albeit given over to use by the Portuguese, until 1887, when it was formally ceded to Portugal. Portugal relinquished all control of the city in 1999, returning it to Chinese administration.

References

• Albert M. Craig, The Heritage of Chinese Civilization, Third Edition, Prentice Hall (2011), 118.