![]() ![]() The foreigners took out long-term leases on the land and set up factories, offices, warehouses, sanitation, police, gardens, restaurants, hotels, banks, and private clubs. In Shanghai, the British and American settlements combined in 1863 into an international settlement, with the French settlement operated separately nearby. It set the standard of modernity for China and all of East Asia. The Shanghai International Settlement rapidly developed into one of the world's most modern cities, often compared to Paris, Berlin, and London. The other 89 cities that became treaty ports between 18 were of minor importance. Outside the ports, the only foreigners were occasional Christian missionaries, and they often encountered serious difficulties. Foreigners were welcomed and had stable safe bases, as did Christian missionaries. Tianjin and Shenyang followed Hong Kong, although a British colony, not a treaty port was similar. Above all Shanghai became the dominant urban center. The international communities that were residues of the treaty port era ended in the late 1940s when the communists took over and nearly all foreigners left.Īlthough the great majority of Chinese lived in traditional rural areas, a handful of booming treaty port cities became vibrant centers that had an enormous long-term impact on the Chinese economy and society. They formally relinquished their treaty rights in a new "equal treaties" agreement with Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Government in exile in Chongqing in 1943. This ended when the Japanese stormed into their concessions in late 1941. The three main treaty powers, the British, the Americans, and the French, continued to hold their concessions and extraterritorial jurisdictions until the Second World War. The system effectively ended when Japan took control of most of the ports in the late 1930s, the Russians relinquished their treaty rights in the wake of the Russian revolution in 1917, and the Germans were expelled in 1914. The major powers involved were the British, the French, and the Americans, although by the end of the 19th century all the major powers were involved. The treaty port system in China lasted approximately one hundred years. Officially, the foreign powers were not allowed to station military units in the bund, but in practice, there often was a warship or two in the harbor. Businessmen and officials typically brought their own families with them and stayed for years but sent their older children back to England for education.Ĭhinese sovereignty was only nominal. The British, who by far dominated foreign trade with China, normally were the largest presence. The facilities were generally off-limits to the natives. The bund was a self-governing operation with its own shops, restaurants, recreational facilities, parks, churches, courts, police, and local government. A typical bund contained British, German, French, American, Japanese, and other nationals. The North Riverbank in Ningbo (nowadays known as the Old Bund), was the first in China, opening in 1844, 20 years before the Shanghai bund. The Shanghai Bund was the largest and most famous. Western images of the Chinese treaty ports focus on the distinctive geography of the “bund,” a long narrow strip of land in a prime location on the waterfront where the businesses, offices, warehouses, and residences of all foreigners were located. Some of these port areas were directly leased by foreign powers such as in the foreign concessions in China, effectively removing them from the control of local governments. They enjoyed legal extraterritoriality, as stipulated in the unequal treaties. The second group of treaty ports was set up following the end of the Second Opium War (Arrow War) in 1860 and eventually, more than 80 treaty ports were established in China alone, involving many foreign powers.įoreigners all lived in prestigious sections newly built for them on the edges of existing port cities. Subsequent negotiations with the Americans (1843 Treaty of Wanghia) and the French (1844 Treaty of Whampoa) led to further concessions for these nations on the same terms as the British. The following year the Chinese and British signed the Treaty of the Bogue, which added provisions for extraterritoriality and the most favored nation status for the latter country. As well as ceding the island of Hong Kong to Great Britain in perpetuity, the treaty also established five treaty ports at Shanghai, Guangzhou (Canton), Ningbo, Fuzhou, and Xiamen (Amoy). The British established their first treaty ports in China after the First Opium War by the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. Main article: List of Chinese treaty ports Map showing Chinese treaty ports in the 19th and early 20th centuries
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