Battle of Kowloon 1839
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 4 September 1839 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1839 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Location | Hong Kong | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Asia | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | First Opium War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 22.2928, 114.1706 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
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 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 brawl with drunk British sailors at Tsim Sha Tsui. The Chinese authorities did not consider the punishment that was meted out by British officials to be sufficient, 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.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Kowloon (revision 1379104497), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the First Opium War
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- Battle of the Barrier 1840
- Capture of Chusan 1840
- Battle of Amoy 1841
- Battle of Canton (March 1841) 1841
- Battle of Canton (May 1841) 1841
- Battle of Chinhai 1841
- Battle of First Bar 1841
- Battle of Whampoa 1841
- Battle of the Bogue 1841
All 17 battles of the First Opium War →
Browse more: battles in Hong Kong · Asia · 19th century battles