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[gambling]

Macau before the 16th century was very small, barely known by China himself. Macau was a small, quant fishing and port city. The ports back then were mostly used to trade goods from Southeast Asia to China. By the 16th century, though, Portuguese traders discovered it to be an ideal spot for trading and building a strong foundation for their spice trade. At first China kept Macau protected by the foreign nation of Portugal, but through diplomatic ties, Macau became more attached to Portugal and vice versa.

With the Portuguese having a strong presence in Macau (mores by impact rather than number), the culture and people began changing, thus himself. The Golden Age of the spice trade was very prosperous for Macau, helping him become bigger, stronger, and helped to develop what is now known as the Macanese culture. Not all things were great, though. The spice trade was lucrative, and Macau was seen was one of the central points of the Portuguese trading points. The Netherlands tried their best to take over Macau, but the Portuguese forces throated such efforts.

As soon as the golden age came, it went. A main source of trading partner was Japan, and by the early half of the 17th century, Japan entered its Edo period. With the Edo period brought extremely strained ties with Japanese traders, and thus one of Macau's major source of income had been terminated. This only compounded even more when China decided to open trading to all, and thus specialized ports because more or less superfluous. Macau had to change because of this, many countries moved factories to Macau because he still had an ideal location. This once again helped Macau with trading via his ports. Macau also became a place for treaties and a lot of diplomatic to take place. This all roughly lasted into the 19th century, and by then, Macau was named an overseas province of Portugal.

When the British acquired Hong Kong, traders flocked to Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor. This had an affect on Macau, as once again, it compromised his power as a port city. That's when Portugal decided to make Macau a free port, but with that, came the exiling of Chinese leaders and forces. This lead to Portugal declaring Macau was an independent from China. Portugal became a lot more involved in Macau's affairs around this time, more than just finically, but with the acquisition of local islands surrounding Macau.

By almost the mid 20th century, the communist in China declared that the previous treaties with a lot of European nations unfair, and this included Portugal and Macau himself. Macau and China clashed, and in the end, Portugal gave up colonial claims over Macau in 1974. This had a profound affect on him as Portugal was a parental figure to him. Portugal decided to handover Macau to China, but Portugal made sure to get a deal much like what Hong Kong and England received. The handover would occur on December 20th, 1999.

Ever since becoming a part of China once again, Macau has become more accommodating to his Chinese roots. While gambling was legal since the mid 19th century, it took until the late 20th century for Macau's economy to focus mostly on gambling. By the 2000s, Macau had become heavily depended on gambling and tourism to keep his economy thriving. Now it's said Macau makes four times as much as Las Vegas in gambling.