Vue de Macao en Chine

Title

Vue de Macao en Chine

Splendid total view of Macau, from the atlas 'Voyage de la Pérouse'.

ca. 1790

Artist

Perousse, de La (1741-1788)

Jean-François de Galaup de La Pérouse was a French navigator, circumnavigator, and geographer of the Enlightenment. He began his naval career at age 15 and added a noble title to his name to improve his prospects. During the Seven Years' War, he sailed to places including Quebec. From 1772 to 1776, he explored the Indian Ocean and participated in the American Revolutionary War. For his achievements, he was ennobled. In 1785, he set out on a major Pacific expedition with the ships Astrolabe and Boussole, accompanied by scientists from various fields. The journey took him through Patagonia, Cape Horn, Easter Island, Hawaii, Alaska, California, Macau, and East Asia, where he mapped seas and coastlines. He was the first European to deliberately refrain from claiming unknown islands. In 1787, his second captain, Paul Fleuriot de Langle, was killed by locals on Samoa.

Historical Description

Macau is a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. It was a Portuguese colony until 1999. Macau's history is at least 6,000 years old. The place was originally settled by Chinese fishermen and farmers and leased to the Kingdom of Portugal in the mid-16th century. In the period that followed, the city developed into one of the most important trading centers between Asia and Europe. The trade in silk, spices and tea flourished and made Macau very prosperous. From the mid-19th century, a dispute between China and Portugal over 150 years over the political and legal status of Macau began. In 1845 Portugal unilaterally declared Macau its free port. At the same time, Great Britain annexed the island of Hong Kong, only 62 kilometers from Macau, to which Macau lost its supremacy in Asian trade. In response to international pressure, the Chinese Empire had to recognize the permanent occupation and government of Macau by Portugal in 1887. From 1892 the reformer Sun Yat-sen stayed in the city, so that Macau became one of the most important starting points of the Chinese revolution. Around this time, Macau developed into an appendage to the neighboring British colony in almost all economic areas. In contrast to Hong Kong, apart from a few temporary exceptions, the Chinese and Portuguese residents of the city lived in a symbiosis that was mutually beneficial. Negotiations about the return of the city to China, willing to compromise, took place between Portugal and the Republic of China as early as 1928, but remained unsuccessful in the course of the Chinese Civil War and the Sino-Japanese War. In 1999, Macau was reunified with China at midnight.