British annex the Pearl River Delta in the First Opium War

After the First Opium war could Britain annex whole Pearl river Delta

What would be the impact on the Qing

What would be the impact of a British Pearl River Delta
 
Doubtful, given that there's going to be a lot of interactions across the colonial border, so people in the colony aren't going to feel terribly un Chinese to begin with.
Depending on how things go in China,people might not feel they are the same as mainlanders just like otl HKers.
 
Depending on how things go in China,people might not feel they are the same as mainlanders just like otl HKerNs.
Nationalism is likely to be a part of Chinese nationalism as a whole. The British could try to foster a separate identity, but looking at the way they treated non British people OTL, that's probably not going to take.
 
Nationalism is likely to be a part of Chinese nationalism as a whole. The British could try to foster a separate identity, but looking at the way they treated non British people OTL, that's probably not going to take.
The situation in Taiwan and HK nowadays speaks volumes about opposite.It really depends upon the situation in China itself, the length of separation and degree of separation. If China is a democracy that’s prospering ,then chances are that the locals will embrace China as their own.If China ended up a totalitarian regime like otl then the locals will definitely be against integration with China.
 
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The situation in Taiwan and HK nowadays speaks volumes about opposite.It really depends upon the situation in China itself, the length of separation and degree of separation. If China is a democracy that’s prospering ,then chances are that the locals will embrace China as their own.If China ended up a totalitarian regime like otl then the locals will definitely be against integration with China.
More likely, they'll be going on about how they're the real China.

The rest of China being totalitarian doesn't guarantee that the Pearl River Colony won't integrate (the latter could have a government with a similar ideology, or join up for economic benefit).
 
Let's say the Xijiang river, OTL G94, and S359 make up roughly the boundaries of this British territory. You just got a lot of Chinese commerce in one stroke and likely begin to develop the area a lot more. The warlord era changes a bit without the key Southern player and the UK may try to focus on the area for future concessions (Hainan Island, Macao, maybe the rest of OTL Guangdong as a UK reserve?) Combine this with Taiwan as a British area of occupation after WWII and it may serve as a nexus for a different Republic of China to emerge as a British satellite rather than anything else.
 
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xsampa

Banned
What happens _after_ the Scramble for China depends on whether a core China (re)forms, and whether it is a puppet of an imperial power. If it is, then it will be unable to annex the other successor states but if it isn't then it will at least try.
 
More likely, they'll be going on about how they're the real China.

The rest of China being totalitarian doesn't guarantee that the Pearl River Colony won't integrate (the latter could have a government with a similar ideology, or join up for economic benefit).
What makes you say that?
Only reason OTL Taiwan claims that they are the real China is due to the fact that the actual legitimate government fled there. Otherwise, they will most likely discard their Chinese identity happily--which is already happening.They have already classified Chinese history as foreign history.
 
Let's say the Xijiang river, OTL G94, and S359 make up roughly the boundaries of this British territory. You just got a lot of Chinese commerce in one stroke and likely begin to develop the area a lot more. The warlord era changes a bit without the key Southern player and the UK may try to focus on the area for future concessions (Hainan Island, Macao, maybe the rest of OTL Guangdong as a UK reserve?) Combine this with Taiwan as a British area of occupation after WWII and it may serve as a nexus for a different Republic of China to emerge as a British satellite rather than anything else.
That assumes the British won't piss off the locals the way they did in, for example, India. That in turn means that nationalism will be very Chinese focused (the Chinese there certainly won't be singing "God Save the King/Queen").
 
What about cultivating a separate Cantonese Identity, saying they are "just" Sinicized Baiyue as opposed to "proper" Chinese?
Given two thousand years of written and shared history, it won't be very organic or easy to implement. A Baiyue identity could take hold among some parts of the upper class compradors, but that will only supercharge Chinese nationalism among everyone else.
 
The Egyptians, Indians, Malaysians and Nigerians certainly don't identify as anything remotely being British.

Heck, the Portuguese ruled Goa for centuries, and Goa doesn't have a terribly different identity from India.
But that didn't make them identify with other Arabs and Indonesians either.
 
What about cultivating a separate Cantonese Identity, saying they are "just" Sinicized Baiyue as opposed to "proper" Chinese?

I don't see the British going that deep into the Chinese past for constructing an identity for the region. Not when you already have the Tanka people who were basically treated by other Chinese at that time much like how outcastes/Dalits/harijans/terminology du jour were treated in India. Which, it should be mentioned, that the British would theoretically be categorized, since merchants were looked down on by Chinese élites as being worse than, say, peasants.
 
I don't see the British going that deep into the Chinese past for constructing an identity for the region. Not when you already have the Tanka people who were basically treated by other Chinese at that time much like how outcastes/Dalits/harijans/terminology du jour were treated in India. Which, it should be mentioned, that the British would theoretically be categorized, since merchants were looked down on by Chinese élites as being worse than, say, peasants.
The British may not do it,but the elites who wants independence from both the British and China will likely point to that. The Taiwanese are already trying to use Aboriginal origins as a means of constructing an identity instead of simply pointing at the mainland.
 
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