Scene depicting Old Macau Port at Bahia da Praia Grande, now Lagos de Nam Van, in diorama
Macau history is intertwined with the history of the Portuguese in the Far East. In 1511, the Portuguese had overthrown the Sultanate of Malacca and established themselves in Southeast Asia. This allowed them to control the lucrative spice trade which until then was under the monopoly of Venetian merchants. It was another in their string of success that began with Goa, India, in 1510. Now they set their sight on gaining a foothold in China, to exploit trade opportunities with the massive Chinese market.
Macau History before the Portuguese
Human habitation of the islands of Macau has been documented even prior to the establishment of the Portuguese settlement there. On the Macau Peninsula as well as at Coloane, evidence of human culture has been discovered dating back to between 4000 and 6000 years. In the earliest recorded time, Macau peninsula was an island. The island of Taipa comprises three islands which eventually merged into one through silting.
These islands now called Macau was part of Panyu County, in Nanhai Prefecture, Guangdong Province during the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC). It became part of Dongguan Prefecture during the Jin Dynasty (265-420 AD). Through the ages in subsequent dynasties, the islands of Macau alternated in control between Nanhai and Dongguan prefectures. By 1152, it came under the administration of the newly created Xiangshan County.
Since the 5th century, the islands of Macau were a stopover for merchant ships plying the route between Southeast Asia and Guangzhou. It was a place to take refuge under bad weather, as well as a place to get fresh water and food. During the 13th century, the islands receive refugees numbering around 50,000 from people fleeing the Mongol invasion.
The A-Ma Temple, which dates to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD), was built by seafarers and fisherfolk who settled in Macau and brought their belief with them. Macau remained an insignificant fishing hamlet until the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century.
Old Macau dioramas
as depicted in Macau Museum
Old Macau Inner Harbour diorama
Guia Hill diorama
Macau History during Portuguese Administration
The Portuguese arrived at the southern coast of China in 1513. The explorer Jorge Álvares sailed from Malacca and landed at Lintin Island in the Pearl River Delta. The Portuguese viceroy to India, Afonso de Albuquerque, sent Rafael Perestrello, cousin to Christopher Columbus, to China, to negotiate the establishment of trade relations. Perestrello managed to establish a trading network with the merchants in Canton in 1516, but was not allowed to go any further inland.
In 1517, King Manuel I of Portugal sent Tomé Pires and Fernão Pries de Andrade to establish a diplomatic and trade mission in Canton. The mission was not entirely successful. Although they managed to obtain a brief audience with Emperor Zhengde in Nanjing, after the emperor died in 1521, the new Ming imperial court rejected their presence in China, partly influenced by reports of unruliness of the Portuguese as well as by the Sultan of Malacca who was deposed by the Portuguese. In 1521 and 1522, Ming authorities forcibly drove the Portuguese trading vessels off the coast.
The hostility towards Portugal subsided somewhat in the 1530's, when Portuguese traders were finally allowed to anchor off shore from Macau and to carry on trading activities from their ship, albeit not on shore. When the Portuguese aided the Chinese in eliminating coastal pirates in 1540, it paved the way for relations with China to be on the mend again. This allowed them to initial an annual trade mission on the island of Shangchuan, in 1549. Diplomatic relations was once again reestablished in the early 1550's under Leonel de Sousa. Around 1552-1553, the Portuguese obtained the rights to erect a storage shed onshore. They built warehouses in what is today Nam Van on the Macau Peninsula. In 1557, the Ming court finally consented to the establishment a permanent Portuguese trading base in Macau.
The Portugese paid an annual rent of 500 taels of silver for use of the settlement, paid to Xiangshan County. China retained sovereignty of the settlement and the Chinese residents were subject to Chinese law, but the settlement operated under Portuguese administration. This land lease was signed in 1582.
The Prosperous Years of Portuguese Macau
With the opening of a trading settlement in Macau, Chinese and Portuguese merchants flocked there to trade. There were three important trade routes involving Macau: Macau-Malacca-Goa-Lisbon, Guangzhou-Macau-Nagasaki and Macau-Manila-Mexico. Of these, the most profitable was the
Guangzhou-Macau-Nagasaki trade route. Chinese silk was in high demand in Japan while the Japanese silver was in demand in China. Macau profited as the middleman in this trade. This was further aided when China imposed a ban on direct trade with Japan in 1547 to curb piracy.
The union of the Spanish and Portuguese crowns, between 1580 and 1640, further helped Macau in its golden age. It allowed trade between Portuguese Macau and Spanish Manila to grow. In 1587, King Philip II of Spain elevated the status of Macau from "Settlement or Port of the Name of God in China" to "City of the Name of God in China" (Cidade do Nome de Deus de Macau).
However, the alliance between Portugal and Spain made it a target of attack by the Netherlands. With the creation of the Dutch East India Company in 1602, the Dutch began to make their presence felt in the Far East. They launched several unsuccessful attempts to capture Macau, culminating with a full scale invasion in 1622. The Macau governor responded by beefing up defenses. The construction of Guia Fortress was the direct result of that invasion.
Daily Life in Old Macau
as depicted in Macau Museum
Chinese Opera wardrobe
Chinese bridal chamber
Traditional Chinese home scene
Shop selling religious paraphernalia
Macau History following the decline of the Portuguese influence
In 1637, as a result of zealous missionary activities of the Portuguese and Spanish in Japan, the shogun closed its doors to foreigners. This self-imposed isolation, called sakoku, meant that no Japanese was allowed to leave the country, and those outside Japan was forbidden from returning. Foreign ships were not allowed to dock in any Japanese port. Only the Protestant Dutch was allowed to continue trading from the man-made island of Deshima off Nagasaki.
The imposition of sakoku dealt a terrible blow to Macau, as it severed the lucrative Guangzhou-Macau-Nagasaki trade route. In 1641, the Dutch wrestled Malacca from the Portuguese after a five-month siege, further weakening Macau's position as a trade center, and a distance between it and the next Portuguese colony in Goa. When the Portuguese House of Braganza regained control of the throne from the Spanish House of Habsburg, the news took two years to reach Macau, in 1642. Despite their new-found state of destitute, Macau sent gifts to the newly crowned King João IV (King John the Restorer). In response, the monarch rewarded the colony the title of Cidade do Nome de Deus de Macau, Não há outra mais Leal (City of the Name of God, Macau, there is none more loyal).
The position of Macau was further eroded in 1685, when China opened trade relations with all foreign parties, breaking the monopoly the Portuguese had enjoyed so far. This enabled the English, Dutch, French, Danes, Swedes, Russian and American to establish a presence in Guangzhou and Macau. The signing of the Treaty of Peace, Amity and Commerce between China and the United States took place at the Kun Iam Temple in Mong Ha village, Macau, on 3 July, 1844. This marked the beginning of official Sino-US relationship.
When China allowed the British to found Hong Kong in 1842m it effectively sealed Macau's fate. Traders preferred to use Hong Kong for its superior deep water port at Victoria Harbour which allows larger ships to dock. To check Macau's decline, the Portuguese declared it a free port. They expelled Chinese officials and soldiers from Macau, and in 1849, proclaimed Macau's "independence" from China. Chinese retaliation over this resulted in the assassination of Macau Governor Ferreira do Amaral. Fighting to keep its hold to the Far East, the Portuguese expanded Macau terrifoty by claiming the island of Wanzai, in present-day Zhuhai, in 1849, only to give it up in 1887. They took over Taipa and Coloane between 1851 and 1864. Eventually the position of Macau as a Portuguese colony was recognized by China with the signing of the Treaty of Tianjin in 1862. The Protocal of Lisbon, signed in Lisbon on 26 March 1887, and the Beijing Treaty, signed in Beijing on 1 December of the same year, confirmed the "perpetual occupation and government" of Macau by Portugal
Macau remained under Portuguese control into the 20th century, albeit playing second fiddle to the younger, rapidly developing Hong Kong. During World War II, it enjoyed a brief period of prosperity under the Japanese, when it remained a neutral port. When the Communist seized power in China in 1949, they declared the 1887 Protocol of Lisbon invalid, as it was one-sided imposed on a weak China. Nevertheless the new Chinese government was not ready to take back Macau, and maintained the status quo over the Portuguese territory for then.
In 1966, rioting erupted in Macau. The riots, inspired by the Cultural Revolution in China, was sparked by the Portuguese authorities repeatedly rejecting the application to build a Chinese private school in Taipa. The applicants went ahead to build the school without obtaining permits. In response, the Portuguese authorities sent in the police to arrest the school officials and beat up the construction workers. This resulted in massive protest, with Chinese students and teachers demonstrating at the Governor's Palace and citing quotations of Mao Zedong. It gave birth to nationalist fever in Macau, and the locals adopted the "Three No's Approach" towards the Portuguese authorities: no taxes, no service, no selling out. It was successful, for the Portuguese government was forced to issue a statement of apology. This apology is significant, for it signalled that the administration of Macau by the Portugese existed henceforth only at the behest of the mainland Chinese government.
In 1974, the Carnation Revolution in Portugal changed the government in Lisbon from authoritation dictatorship to democracy. The effect of the revolution is that the new Portuguese government wanted to pull out of all its overseas colonies. It had far-reaching effect around the globe. The Indonesia invasion of East Timor was a direct consequence. Similarly, Angola went into a decades-long war, as did Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. The Portuguese wanted to hand Macau back to China, but the Chinese government declined it, postponing the handover to a later date.
When Portugal and the People's Republic of China established diplomatic relations in 1979, Beijing recognized Macau as "Chinese territory under Portuguese administration", a position not disputed by Portugal. Formal negotiaton over the question of Macau's future began on 20 May, 1986, and culminated with the Joint Declaration on the Question of Macau, signed in Beijing on 13 April, 1987, which set the stage for the return of Macau to full Chinese sovereignty as a Special Administrative Region. Under the agreement, Beijing promised to adopt a "one country, two systems" formula whereby China's socialist economic system will not be forced upon Macau, and that Macau will continue to enjoy a high degree of autonomy in all matters except foreign policy and defense affairs, for the next 50 years, until at least 2049.
Macau was finally handed over to China on 20 December, 1999, closing the chapter of European colonialization of mainland Asia.
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