Macau was home to Cantonese farmers and Fujian fishing folk when Portuguese merchants arrived in the 1550s. It was the great era of exploration initiated by Prince Henry. The Navigator Vasco da Gama had made his historic voyage to India, Albuquerque had settled in Malacca and the Iberian explorers were seeking a gateway to China.
In 1513 Jorge Alvares became the first Portuguese to set foot in the land Marco Polo called Cathay. Others followed and began trading with the Chinese. They established various temporary outposts before coming to an arrangement with the mandarins of Canton to settle on a tiny peninsula at the mouth of the Pearl River estuary that they named Macau. It rapidly became fabulously rich as the sole entrepot for China's seaborne trade with Japan and Europe.
Macau also served as a vital base for the introduction of Christianity to China and Japan, an activity that provided the city with some of the most glorious - and tempestuous - moments in its history. Because of the prosperity it was enjoying and its privileged location, other European nations began casting covetous looks at Macau and plotted to seize it from Portugal. The Dutch actually tried to invade the city in 1622 but were repulsed. As tingle passed and other trading nations from the west sent missions to China, Macau became the summer residence for the taipans (great traders) who retreated from their 'factories' in Guangzhou (better known perhaps as Canton) to await the opening of the trading season.
In 1841 the British settled on the island of Hong Kong, 40 miles east-northeast of Macau, with a deep-water, sheltered harbor that became the major port and commercial hub of the region. The foreign merchants moved to the new colony and Macau's economic importance declined. Now it became a holiday retreat for Hong Kong residents, who came to gamble at the legalized casinos and enjoy a taste of old-world Europe in a classical Chinese setting.
In the latter part of this century Macau has developed into an important manufacturing center and travel destination, as well as a commercial gateway to the Pearl River Delta. It continues to be a unique crossroad of East and West, preserving a heritage that with over four and a half centuries, and has been nurtured by the coexisting cultures and interchanging traditions of China and Portugal.
Although it has witnessed many changes during its 440 years of existence, Macau has always been a stronghold of Portuguese presence and culture in the Far East. Macau has proudly flown Portugal's flag continuously even when the Motherland's throne was occupied by a foreign king, in the 17th century. When Portuguese rule was re-established, 60 years later, the city of Macau was granted the official name of Cidade do Nome de Deus de Macau, nao ha outra mais Leal. (City of the name of God, Macau, there is None More Loyal).
Macau has been under the Portuguese administration until the establishment of the Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, in December 20, 1999. In accordance with the principle of 'one country, two systems', the SAR, subordinate to the Chinese Central Government, will be highly autonomous with executive, legislative and independent judicial powers. The present social and economic systems as well as the respective way of life will remain unchanged for 50 years.
