The Portuguese controlled Macau from 1557 (Ming Dynasty) to December 20, 1999, for 422 years.
By 1513, a Portuguese captain called Jorge Alvares had reached China. It took Portugal two decades more to receive permission from the Ming emperor to anchor trading ships in the harbors around Macau; Portuguese traders and sailors had to return to their ships each night, and they could not build any structures on Chinese soil. In 1552, China granted the Portuguese permission to build drying and storage sheds for their trade goods in the area now named Nam Van.
While Britain was reluctant to see the jewel of its shrinking empire returned to China, Portugal is anxious to see Macau go -- in fact, it has been trying to give the peninsula back since the mid-1970s.
Army officers toppled Portugal's dictatorship in 1974 and then -- wanted to give up all the country's old colonies. But China was in no hurry to resume responsibility for aging, unprofitable Macau. Only after Beijing settled its plan for Hong Kong did it take up Portugal's offer. In 1987, Portugal and China agreed that Macau would be reunited with the mainland in 1999.
But Macau and Hong Kong also have significantly different histories.
In contrast to Hong Kong, which Britain won from China after the second Opium War,
"this place was not conquered," says Domingos Vital, a diplomatic adviser to the governor of Macau.
"It was given to the Portuguese. So what you have here is a situation of mutual accommodation."
As early as 1516, Portuguese traders began stopping in Macau on their way to Japan. Portugal asked for -- and was granted -- permission from China to set up an outpost on Macau. China, however, did not relinquish its sovereignty over the port.
To this day, Macau is not a colony of Portugal, but rather a Chinese territory under Portuguese administration, an
arrangement agreeable to both sides.
Some of the good will in Macau today also stems from the fact that Chinese interests always have been stronger in Macau than in Hong Kong.
During the start of China's Cultural Revolution in 1966, pro-China sympathizers in Macau brought the Portuguese government to its knees.
By 1999 Portugal was only a minor nation in the EU, keeping a colony so far away and if it was against the will of a rising China was not in Portugal's interest.
In 1966, there was a riot where local Chinese were killed by securities forces of Macao. The reaction of the Chinese was a overall total diffidence against the Portugal where working with mainland China, they cut off all food and water supply and I beleive after three days the authorities in Macao, abide by Chinese demand and sign a note of "apology". From then on Portugal knew they have no hold on Macao and if China's wants it back, she would have to give.
China waited until after Hong Kong was handed over to received Macao. One thing at a time.
The return of Macau to the PRC is part of a larger picture of anti-colonization sentiment that goes back to the Paris Peace Treaties at the end of World War Two. In the Paris Peace Treaties, 巴黎和約 there was a general theme of colonies being either liberated or returned to their former (rightful) owners. Finland had to return the territory of the Soviet Union it was occupying. Italy gave up its claim to its colonies, several of which became independent states. After the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, Taiwan was taken from the Japanese and returned to the Republic of China. At this time, Hong Kong was also promised to be returned to the Chinese.
So, the return of Macau to the Chinese is following the trends set in the post-war era. It should come as no surprise that the Portuguese turned over Macau, which was traditionally Chinese territory, to the People's Republic of China.
Portugal had left all other colonies in 1974-5. In this case China asked them to stay.
下圖紅色為葡萄牙本土 棕色為葡萄牙之殖民地，主要在非洲
Macau remained a Portuguese colony until 1999
when China took control by agreement and went on to
pursue a "one country, two systems" policy similar to Hong Kong's.
