When you think about it, Hong Kong is really a unique... and unlikely city.
Before the Qing ceded Hong Kong Island to the British, it was a literally unknown piece of land. It was just an island with fishing villages and a few thousand people. In less than a century and a half, for various historical reasons, Hong Kong grew to be one of the most iconic cities of the world and a center for world commerce and trade, equivalent to cities like London and New York. However, while it has a priviliged geographical position, probably nobody would have ever heard of it without a series of historical coincidences.
With a POD roughly in the mid-XIX century, what other cities that start from such humble beginnings could grow to such heights? I'm not necessarily looking for British colonies or colonial enclaves in general, I'm looking for cities that can grow from 'nowhere' not only to be large and prosperous (there are plenty of those) but to be such a commercial and cultural center to be named in the same breath as New York, London or Paris.
Before the Qing ceded Hong Kong Island to the British, it was a literally unknown piece of land. It was just an island with fishing villages and a few thousand people. In less than a century and a half, for various historical reasons, Hong Kong grew to be one of the most iconic cities of the world and a center for world commerce and trade, equivalent to cities like London and New York. However, while it has a priviliged geographical position, probably nobody would have ever heard of it without a series of historical coincidences.
With a POD roughly in the mid-XIX century, what other cities that start from such humble beginnings could grow to such heights? I'm not necessarily looking for British colonies or colonial enclaves in general, I'm looking for cities that can grow from 'nowhere' not only to be large and prosperous (there are plenty of those) but to be such a commercial and cultural center to be named in the same breath as New York, London or Paris.