British Hong Kong () was a colony and British Dependent Territory of the United Kingdom. It was Hong Kong when it was controlled as part of the British Empire. The British governed Hong Kong from 1841 to 1997, except for a small amount of time when the Japanese took over Hong Kong during World War II. During the First Opium War in 1841, the British took over Hong Kong Island. The British took over the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and the New Territories in 1898.