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Foreign concessions in China
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Foreign concessions in China
Foreign concessions in China were a group of concessions that existed during late Imperial China and the Republic of China, which were governed and occupied by foreign powers, and are frequently associated with colonialism and imperialism.
The concessions had extraterritoriality and were enclaves inside key cities that became treaty ports. All the concessions have been dissolved in the present day.
The emergence of foreign concessions in Imperial China was an indirect[citation needed] offshoot of the 19th century unequal treaties following China's defeat against Great Britain in the Opium Wars. The 1842 Treaty of Nanjing between China and Great Britain stated that "British Subjects, with their families and establishments, shall be allowed to reside, for the purpose of carrying on their mercantile pursuits, without molestation or restraint at the cities and towns of Canton, Amoy, Foochow-fu, Ningpo and Shanghai", but nothing was said, including in the supplementary treaty of the following year, about separate residential areas for foreigners in those ports, let alone their right to govern themselves. However, the imperial commissioner who had negotiated the supplementary treaty reported to the Qing emperor that by signing the treaty he had successfully arranged that in the treaty ports "the boundaries of an area should be designated which foreigners are not allowed to exceed" (yiding jiezhi, buxu yuyue), an intent however that was not clearly stated in the English-language version of the treaty. The Qing rulers, by wishing to confine the "barbarians" to an officially designated special zone, hoped to resurrect the old Canton system, that is, a system that strictly confined foreigners to a segregated zone that also was off-limit to Chinese subjects. At Shanghai, there was initially an attempt by imperial officials to keep the foreigners out as much as possible and the first British consul, Captain George Balfour, could not even find a house for the consulate upon his arrival in 1843. The British finally decided to locate themselves in the northern suburbs of the walled Chinese city and they asked the Daotai, Gong Muiju, to designate an area for their establishment there. This dovetailed with the Daotai's intentions, since following two violent incidents between local Chinese and foreigners, he had endeavored to limit contacts between Chinese and foreigners. This was formalized in 1845 with the delimitation of a segregated area north of Yangjingbang, a creek that ran north of the Chinese city. Later that year Gong Muiju and Balfour concluded an agreement called the Land Regulations (Shanghai zudi zhangcheng), which set forth the institutional basis for the British settlement.
Following the British example, Charles de Montigny, the French consul at Shanghai, and the Daotai Lin’gui agreed in 1849 that a French settlement be established on a strip of land between the Chinese city and the British settlement. The American consul George Seward was dissatisfied with the fact that the British and the French had obtained the best plots of land in the area, and after lengthy deliberations, the Americans established their own settlement in Hongkew northeast of Shanghai, although it was not to be delineated until 1863. In September of the same year, the British and American settlements were amalgamated into a single Foreign Settlement. A Municipal Council, officially known as "The Council for the Foreign Community of Shanghai", was established.
Local French representatives had agreed to amalgamate the French settlement with the other two but this was not accepted by the French Government and, as a consequence, a French concession was to exist alongside the International Settlement until World War II. The International Settlement began with the 138 acres of the British settlement, which was increased to 470 acres in 1848. The addition of the American area and a number of subsequent additions brought the total area to 5,584 acres. Including the 2,525 acres of French Concession, the total area was eventually to reach 12.66 square miles.
Additional foreign concessions were set up in other treaty ports especially following the 1858 and 1860 Anglo-Chinese treaties, and from the mid-1890s to 1902, following the Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901). While the settlements at Shanghai had been set up in cooperation with the local authorities and with the tacit, but not explicit, consent of the central Chinese government, the concessions that were established later had a more definitive treaty basis and their development as well as the extension of their boundaries has been regularized by agreements with the Chinese government.
An inventory of all the concessions along with a survey of their status done by W. C. Johnstone in 1937 shows that, aside from the two international settlements at Shanghai and Kulangsu (Amoy), there had been grants by the Chinese government of 23 national concessions to eight nations in 10 Chinese ports. In addition to the 23 formally established concessions, Great Britain, Japan, and the United States were granted rights to concessions in several treaty ports but these rights were never exercised. On the eve of World War II, four Powers still possessed concessions: Great Britain (two, at Canton and Tientsin); Japan (three, at Hangchow, Hankow, and Tientsin); France (four, at Canton, Hankow, Shanghai, and Tientsin); and Italy (one, at Tientsin). For his part, Kurt Bloch listed a total of 19 established national concessions.
In these concessions, the citizens of each foreign power were given the right to freely inhabit, trade, perform missionary evangelization, and travel. They developed their own sub-cultures, isolated and distinct from the intrinsic Chinese culture, and colonial administrations attempted to give their concessions "homeland" qualities. Churches, public houses, and various other western commercial institutions sprang up in the concessions. In the case of Japan, its own traditions and language naturally flourished. Some of these concessions eventually had a more advanced architecture of each originating culture than most cities back in the countries of the origin of the foreign powers. Over time, and without formal permission, Britain, France, Japan and the United States established their own postal systems within their concession and trade areas. Following Chinese complaints over the loss of postal revenue and the lack of customs inspections, all of them were abolished at the end of 1922.
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Foreign concessions in China
Foreign concessions in China were a group of concessions that existed during late Imperial China and the Republic of China, which were governed and occupied by foreign powers, and are frequently associated with colonialism and imperialism.
The concessions had extraterritoriality and were enclaves inside key cities that became treaty ports. All the concessions have been dissolved in the present day.
The emergence of foreign concessions in Imperial China was an indirect[citation needed] offshoot of the 19th century unequal treaties following China's defeat against Great Britain in the Opium Wars. The 1842 Treaty of Nanjing between China and Great Britain stated that "British Subjects, with their families and establishments, shall be allowed to reside, for the purpose of carrying on their mercantile pursuits, without molestation or restraint at the cities and towns of Canton, Amoy, Foochow-fu, Ningpo and Shanghai", but nothing was said, including in the supplementary treaty of the following year, about separate residential areas for foreigners in those ports, let alone their right to govern themselves. However, the imperial commissioner who had negotiated the supplementary treaty reported to the Qing emperor that by signing the treaty he had successfully arranged that in the treaty ports "the boundaries of an area should be designated which foreigners are not allowed to exceed" (yiding jiezhi, buxu yuyue), an intent however that was not clearly stated in the English-language version of the treaty. The Qing rulers, by wishing to confine the "barbarians" to an officially designated special zone, hoped to resurrect the old Canton system, that is, a system that strictly confined foreigners to a segregated zone that also was off-limit to Chinese subjects. At Shanghai, there was initially an attempt by imperial officials to keep the foreigners out as much as possible and the first British consul, Captain George Balfour, could not even find a house for the consulate upon his arrival in 1843. The British finally decided to locate themselves in the northern suburbs of the walled Chinese city and they asked the Daotai, Gong Muiju, to designate an area for their establishment there. This dovetailed with the Daotai's intentions, since following two violent incidents between local Chinese and foreigners, he had endeavored to limit contacts between Chinese and foreigners. This was formalized in 1845 with the delimitation of a segregated area north of Yangjingbang, a creek that ran north of the Chinese city. Later that year Gong Muiju and Balfour concluded an agreement called the Land Regulations (Shanghai zudi zhangcheng), which set forth the institutional basis for the British settlement.
Following the British example, Charles de Montigny, the French consul at Shanghai, and the Daotai Lin’gui agreed in 1849 that a French settlement be established on a strip of land between the Chinese city and the British settlement. The American consul George Seward was dissatisfied with the fact that the British and the French had obtained the best plots of land in the area, and after lengthy deliberations, the Americans established their own settlement in Hongkew northeast of Shanghai, although it was not to be delineated until 1863. In September of the same year, the British and American settlements were amalgamated into a single Foreign Settlement. A Municipal Council, officially known as "The Council for the Foreign Community of Shanghai", was established.
Local French representatives had agreed to amalgamate the French settlement with the other two but this was not accepted by the French Government and, as a consequence, a French concession was to exist alongside the International Settlement until World War II. The International Settlement began with the 138 acres of the British settlement, which was increased to 470 acres in 1848. The addition of the American area and a number of subsequent additions brought the total area to 5,584 acres. Including the 2,525 acres of French Concession, the total area was eventually to reach 12.66 square miles.
Additional foreign concessions were set up in other treaty ports especially following the 1858 and 1860 Anglo-Chinese treaties, and from the mid-1890s to 1902, following the Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901). While the settlements at Shanghai had been set up in cooperation with the local authorities and with the tacit, but not explicit, consent of the central Chinese government, the concessions that were established later had a more definitive treaty basis and their development as well as the extension of their boundaries has been regularized by agreements with the Chinese government.
An inventory of all the concessions along with a survey of their status done by W. C. Johnstone in 1937 shows that, aside from the two international settlements at Shanghai and Kulangsu (Amoy), there had been grants by the Chinese government of 23 national concessions to eight nations in 10 Chinese ports. In addition to the 23 formally established concessions, Great Britain, Japan, and the United States were granted rights to concessions in several treaty ports but these rights were never exercised. On the eve of World War II, four Powers still possessed concessions: Great Britain (two, at Canton and Tientsin); Japan (three, at Hangchow, Hankow, and Tientsin); France (four, at Canton, Hankow, Shanghai, and Tientsin); and Italy (one, at Tientsin). For his part, Kurt Bloch listed a total of 19 established national concessions.
In these concessions, the citizens of each foreign power were given the right to freely inhabit, trade, perform missionary evangelization, and travel. They developed their own sub-cultures, isolated and distinct from the intrinsic Chinese culture, and colonial administrations attempted to give their concessions "homeland" qualities. Churches, public houses, and various other western commercial institutions sprang up in the concessions. In the case of Japan, its own traditions and language naturally flourished. Some of these concessions eventually had a more advanced architecture of each originating culture than most cities back in the countries of the origin of the foreign powers. Over time, and without formal permission, Britain, France, Japan and the United States established their own postal systems within their concession and trade areas. Following Chinese complaints over the loss of postal revenue and the lack of customs inspections, all of them were abolished at the end of 1922.
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