History of Macau

Macau is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China. Macau became a colony of the Portuguese empire in 1557. It was lent to the Portugal as a trading post but remained under Chinese authority and sovereignty. Self administration was next achieved in the 1840s. WhenQing dynasty China and Portugal signed the Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Peking in 1885, the treaty terms made Macau a Portuguese territory again until 1999, when it was handed over to China. Macau was the last extant European territory in continental (on-shore) Asia.

• 1 Early history
• 2 Portuguese settlement
• 3 Macau's golden age
  • 3.1 Religious activity
• 4 1637 - 1844: Decline
• 5 1844 - 1938: The Hong Kong effect
  • 5.1 1848-1870s: Slave trade
• 6 1938-1949: World War II
• 7 1949 - 1999: Macau and communist China
• 8 1999: Handover to the People's Republic of China
• 9 Recent history of Macau (1999 - today)
  
  
  • 9.1 1999-2007: The rise of Macau as the Las Vegas of Asia
  • 9.2 2007-2008: The Financial Crisis hits Macau
  • 9.3 2008-today: Expansion into Hengqin and further Casino boom.
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  • The human history of Macau stretches back up to 6,000 years, and includes many different and diverse civilisations and periods of existence. Evidence of human and culture dating back 4,000 to 6,000 years has been discovered on the Macau Peninsula and dating back 5,000 years on Coloane Island.
  • The first recorded inhabitants of the area are some 50,000 people seeking refuge in Macau from invading Mongols in 1277, during the Southern Song Dynasty. They were able to defend their settlements and establish themselves there. Mong Há has long been the center of Chinese life in Macau and the site of what may be the region's oldest temple, a shrine devoted to the Buddhist Guanyin (Goddess of Mercy). Later in the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 AD), fishermen migrated to Macau from various parts of Guangdong and Fujian provinces and built the A-Ma Temple where they prayed for safety on the sea. The Hoklo Boat people were the first to show interest in Macau as a trading centre for the southern provinces. However, Macau did not develop as a major settlement until the Portuguese arrived in the 16th century.
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  • Vasco da gama
  • Vasco da Gama (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈvaʃku ðɐ ˈɣɐmɐ]) (c. 1460-1469? – 23 December 1524), 1st Count of Vidigueira, was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India.
    He is one of the most famous and celebrated explorers from the Discovery Ages, being the first European to reach India by sea. This discovery was very significant and paved the way for the Portuguese to establish a long lasting colonial empire in Asia. The route meant that the Portuguese would not need to cross the highly disputed Mediterranean nor the dangerous Arabia, and that the whole voyage would be made by sea.
    After decades of sailors trying to reach India with thousands of lives and dozens of vessels lost in shipwrecks and attacks, Gama landed in Calicut on 20 May 1498. Reaching the legendary Indian spice routes unopposed helped the Portuguese Empire improve its economy that, until Gama, was mainly based on trades along Northern and coastal West Africa. These spices were mostly pepper and cinnamon at first, but soon included other products, all new to Europe which led to a commercial monopoly for several decades.
    Gama headed two of the armadas destined for India, the first and the fourth, the biggest armada, only four years after his arrival from the first one. For his contributions he was named in 1524 as the Governor of India, under the title of Viceroy, and given the newly created County of Vidigueira in 1519.
    Numerous homages have been made worldwide in Vasco da Gama's honour for his explorations and accomplishments. He remains as a leading exploration figure to this day. The Portuguese national epic, Os Lusíadas, was written to celebrate Vasco da Gama. His first trip to India is widely considered a pinnacle of world history as it marked the beginning of the first wave of global multiculturalism.
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