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Battle of Kowloon

1839 in ChinaBattles of the First Opium WarConflicts in 1839History of Hong KongKowloon
Naval battles of the Opium WarsSeptember 1839 eventsUse British English from September 2019
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The Battle of Kowloon (Chinese: 九龍海戰) was a skirmish between British and Chinese vessels off the Kowloon Peninsula, China, on 4 September 1839, located in Hong Kong, although Kowloon was then part of the Guangdong province. The skirmish was the first armed conflict of the First Opium War and occurred when British boats opened fire on Chinese war junks enforcing a food sales embargo on the British community. The ban was ordered after a Chinese man died in a drunken brawl with British sailors at Tsim Sha Tsui. The Chinese authorities did not consider the punishment to be sufficient as meted out by British officials, so they suspended food supplies in an attempt to force the British to turn over the culprit. Captain Charles Elliot was the chief superintendent of British trade in China, and he sailed to Kowloon in the cutter Louisa for food supplies during the embargo, accompanied by the schooner Pearl and a pinnace from HMS Volage. They encountered three Chinese junks, and Elliot sent interpreter Karl Gutzlaff with demands to allow the supply of provisions. He finally delivered an ultimatum after several hours of correspondence: the junks would be sunk if supplies were not received. The stated time period expired with no results, so the British opened fire on the junks, which returned fire with support from the on-shore fort. The larger junks pursued the British boats which were sailing away after running low on ammunition, but the British re-engaged the ships after replenishing their ammunition, and the Chinese retreated to their former position, ending the clash in a stalemate.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Battle of Kowloon (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Battle of Kowloon
Salisbury Road, Kowloon Tsim Sha Tsui (Yau Tsim Mong District)

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N 22.292777777778 ° E 114.17055555556 °
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九龍公眾碼頭 Kowloon Public Pier

Salisbury Road
Kowloon, Tsim Sha Tsui (Yau Tsim Mong District)
Hong Kong, China
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