Legation Cities

The Legation Cities is a settlement of all the British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealander peoples with Chinese Christians in China and Asia that were annexed by the Empire of Japan. The Second Boxer Rebellion and the terror inflicted upon those peoples resulted in them retreating to Hong Kong where they remain safe from Japanese Aggression.

## History

### Before the Second Boxer Rebellion

The Qin dynasty incorporated the Hong Kong area into China for the first time in 214 BCE, after conquering the indigenous Baiyue. The region was consolidated under the Nanyue kingdom (a predecessor state of Vietnam) after the Qin collapse and recaptured by China after the Han conquest. During the Mongol conquest of China in the 13th century, the Southern Song court was briefly located in modern-day Kowloon City (the Sung Wong Toi site) before its final defeat in the 1279 Battle of Yamen. By the end of the Yuan dynasty, seven large families had settled in the region and owned most of the land. Settlers from nearby provinces migrated to Kowloon throughout the Ming dynasty.

The earliest European visitor was Portuguese explorer Jorge Álvares, who arrived in 1513. Portuguese merchants established a trading post called Tamão in Hong Kong waters and began regular trade with southern China. Although the traders were expelled after military clashes in the 1520s, Portuguese-Chinese trade relations were re-established by 1549. Portugal acquired a permanent lease for Macau in 1557.

After the Qing conquest, maritime trade was banned under the *Haijin* policies. The Kangxi Emperor lifted the prohibition, allowing foreigners to enter Chinese ports in 1684. Qing authorities established the Canton System in 1757 to regulate trade more strictly, restricting non-Russian ships to the port of Canton. Although European demand for Chinese commodities like tea, silk, and porcelain was high, Chinese interest in European manufactured goods was insignificant, so that Chinese goods could only be bought with precious metals. To reduce the trade imbalance, the British sold large amounts of Indian opium to China. Faced with a drug crisis, Qing officials pursued ever more aggressive actions to halt the opium trade.

In 1839, the Daoguang Emperor rejected proposals to legalise and tax opium and ordered imperial commissioner Lin Zexu to eradicate the opium trade. The commissioner destroyed opium stockpiles and halted all foreign trade, triggering a British military response and the First Opium War. The Qing surrendered early in the war and ceded Hong Kong Island in the Convention of Chuenpi. However, both countries were dissatisfied and did not ratify the agreement. After more than a year of further hostilities, Hong Kong Island was formally ceded to the United Kingdom in the 1842 Treaty of Nanking.

Administrative infrastructure was quickly built by early 1842, but piracy, disease, and hostile Qing policies initially prevented the government from attracting commerce. Conditions on the island improved during the Taiping Rebellion in the 1850s, when many Chinese refugees, including wealthy merchants, fled mainland turbulence and settled in the colony. Further tensions between the British and Qing over the opium trade escalated into the Second Opium War. The Qing were again defeated and forced to give up Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island in the Convention of Peking. By the end of this war, Hong Kong had evolved from a transient colonial outpost into a major entrepôt. Rapid economic improvement during the 1850s attracted foreign investment, as potential stakeholders became more confident in Hong Kong's future. The colony was further expanded in 1898 when Britain obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories. The University of Hong Kong was established in 1911 as the territory's first institution of higher education. The British left the area after Japan conquered all of Southern China under Japanese rule.

### Second Boxer Rebellion

Chinese Christians and Europeans inspired by the Boxers then decided to learn martial arts from a Nationalist and former Boxer who promised them that if they aid the nationalists and fight the Japanese then they will be free to do missionary work and practice Christianity in Hong Kong without Japanese Aggression. The Europeans and Chinese Christians agreed as they learned Martial Arts and how to defend themselves with swords and guns. After all of that the Chinese Christians and Europeans have become their own Martial Arts Militia known as the Kung Fu Krusaders in which they have liberated their kin from Japanese aggression.

During the Nippon Terror, Chinese and European Christians used the movement as a way to expose their suffering at the hands of the Japanese such as the massacre of missionaries of the Church of England at the hands of Japanese Policemen, Orphaned Chinese Christian children being whipped by Japanese Soldiers with spiked whips to bow to a statue of Hirohito saying "Emperor of the Heaven", Japanese Soldiers and Pan-Asian Gangs burning down churches seeing them as opposition against the regime.

### Peaceful Protest in Shanghai goes bad

The Kung Fu Krusader Rebellion was getting strong as Chinese Christians and Europeans with their Anti-Japanese allies (Anti-Japanese Military Cliques advocating for religious freedom in South China) marched towards the city of Shanghai which is the capital of the Japanese Colonial Regime in South China. The Kung Fu Krusaders then peacefully protested the right to practice Christianity within the Japanese regime as others were protesting rights and representation.

However the Japanese responded by having the Bordered Yellow Banner, Plain Yellow Banner and White Plain Banner Armies (the elite armies of the Eight Banners) in firing upon the Christians as they and the Kwantung Army and the loyalist Clique Coalition came to their aid to suppress the rebellion with brutality. The Imperial Navy helped with bombarding the Krusader camps near Shanghai. Christians in Shanghai retreated to Churches to hide as some halted Church services to commence lockdowns to hide from the Japanese raiders. Sadly they lockdowns failed as the elite armies had destroyed the Churches and killed a lot of people. The Rebellion was lost as Japan's Bordered Yellow Banner, Plain Yellow Banner and White Plain Banner Armies with the Kuwantung Army and Loyalist Military Clique Coalition got aid from Soldiers from Japan's Puppet States in Southeast Asia (Kingdom of Burma, Shan States Duchy, Kingdom of Laos, Kingdom of Cambodia and the Imperial State of Vietnam) with the Kingdom of Siam and the forces of the Nippon Caliphate, Nipponwestland and forces from the Indo-Persian Empire.

German, Italian, Spanish, Austrian and Bulgarian Forces in China helped with the destruction after dealing with riots from the KMT and Communists in their concessions. However they had no involvement in fighting the Christians except for arresting them and forcing them to convert to Lutheranism, Roman Catholicism or Bulgarian Orthodox Christianity. Many accepted but many Christians refused and accepted death at their hands.

### Retreat to Hong Kong

The Christians and Jews were exiled to Hong Kong where they currently remain since the Second Boxer Rebellion. Herbert Hudson Taylor, Herbert's wife Jeanie Gray Taylor, Frederick Howard Taylor, Fredrick's wife Mary Geraldine Guinness, Charles Taylor and Charles's wife Amy Beatrice Carmichael Taylor then founded a Theocratic Republic that would help stabilize the Christian settlement as their home and an independent nation not under Japanese control.

## Government

The Government of Hong Kong is a Theocratic Republic ruled by a High Priest who is appointed by a Council of the Clergy who's members are appointed by the Council of Missionaries who are elected by the various Church leadership groups who represent the Christian communities in Hong Kong. The High Priest then appoints a President and Vice President who then create a cabinet to politically represent the Christian Communities. There are many political parties in China such as the Roman Catholic Representation Party, The Protestant Representation Party, The Presbyterian Representation Party, The Baptist Representation Party, The Eastern Orthodox Representation Party and The Jewish Representation Party.

## Military

The Military consists of the Kung Fu Krusaiders who are British, French, Belgian, Dutch, Luxembourger, Russian, Canadian, Australian and New Zealander and Chinese Christian warriors who were the brave warriors that fought against the Japanese Empire's aggression against them. However this is the only branch of the Military and due to them being weak, the nation tends to be Isolationist and only defends itself from invaders.

## Foreign Relations

* Bad Relations with the Fengtian Government, Republic of Free China, People's Republic of China, South China and the Empire of Japan.