Treaty ports

This article refers to ports in East Asia. For the Anglo-Irish Treaty ports, see Treaty Ports (Ireland).

The treaty ports was the name given to the port cities in China, Japan, and Korea that were opened to foreign trade by the Unequal Treaties.

Chinese treaty ports

The first treaty ports in China were British and were established at the conclusion of the First Opium War by the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. As well as ceding the island of Hong Kong to the United Kingdom in perpetuity, the treaty also established five treaty ports at Shanghai, Canton, Ningpo, Fuchow, and Amoy. French and American concessions followed soon afterwards.

The second group of British treaty ports was set up following the end of the Arrow War in 1860 and eventually more than 80 treaty ports were established in China alone, involving many foreign powers.

Foreigners, who were centered in foreign sections, newly built on the edges of existing port cities, enjoyed legal extraterritoriality as stipulated in Unequal Treaties. Foreign clubs, racecourses, and churches were established in major treaty ports. Some of these port areas were directly leased by foreign powers such as in the concessions in China, effectively removing them from the control of local governments.

Major treaty ports in China

Province or Municipalities	Cities	Date	Foreign concession holders
Shanghai		(1842–1946)	Greater Shanghai had three sections: These comprised the International Settlement of the United Kingdom and the United States, the French Concession and the old Chinese walled city.
Jiangsu Province	Nanjing (Nanking)	(1858)
	Zhenjiang
Jiangxi Province	Jiujiang
Hubei Province	Hankou (Hankow)	(1858–1945)	Germany, France; later the United Kingdom and Japan
	Shashi
	Yichang
Hunan Province	Changsha	(1937–1945)	Japan
	Yuezhou
Sichuan Province	Chongqing (Chungking)
Zhejiang Province	Ningbo (Ningpo)	(1841–42)	United Kingdom
	Wenzhou
Fujian Province	Fuzhou (Foochow)	(1842–1945)	United Kingdom, then Japan
	Xiamen (Amoy)	(1842–1912)	United Kingdom
Taiwan Province (Formosa)	Danshui	(1858)
	Tainan
Guangdong Province	Guangzhou (Canton)	(1842-WWII)	United Kingdom; then Japan
	Shantou (Swatow)	(1858)	United Kingdom
	Sanshui
	Haikou (Qiongshan)	(1858)
Guangxi Province	Beihai	(1876–1940s?)	United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Italy, Portugal, Belgium
	Nanning
Yunnan Province	Mengzi
	Simao
	Dengyue
Shandong Province	Yantai
Hebei Province	Tianjin (Tientsin)	1860–1902	United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Italy, Portugal, Belgium
Liaoning Province	Niuzhuang	(1858)
	Yingkou
	Shenyang
Jilin Province	Changchun
	Hunchun
Heilongjiang Province	Harbin	(1898–1946)	Russia, United States, Germany; later Japan and the Soviet Union
	Aihun		Russia, Soviet Union
	Manzhouli		Russia, Soviet Union

Chinese capitulation treaties

The treaty port system in China lasted broadly speaking one hundred years. It began with the 1841 Opium War and ended with the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. 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, including Latin American countries and the Congo Free State. It is not possible to put an exact date on the end of the treaty port era. The Russians relinquished their treaty rights in the wake of the Russian revolution in 1917, and the Germans were forced to concede their treaty rights following their defeat in World War I.

Norway voluntarily relinquished its treaty rights in a capitulation treaty of 1931. However 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. As regards the British and the Americans, it ended in practice when the Japanese stormed into their concessions in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor at the end of 1941. They then formally relinquished their treaty rights in a new 'equal treaties' agreement with Chiang Kaishek's free Chinese government in exile in Chungking in 1943.

Meanwhile the pro-Japanese puppet government in Nanking signed a capitulation treaty with the Vichy French government in 1943. This wasn't recognized by Free French leader Charles de Gaulle. In 1946, in order to induce the Chinese to vacate the northern half of French Indo-China, de Gaulle signed a capitulation treaty with Chiang Kaishek's nationalist (Kuomintang) government.

Whatvever residues of the treaty port era were left in the late 1940s were ended when the communists took over China.

Japanese treaty ports

Japan opened two ports to foreign trade, Shimoda and Hakodate, in 1854 (Convention of Kanagawa).

It designated five more ports, Yokohama, Kobe, Nagasaki, Hakodate and Niigata, in 1858 with the Treaty of Amity and Commerce.

The system of treaty ports ended in Japan in the year 1899 as a consequence of Japan's rapid transition to a modern nation.

Leased territories

In these the foreign powers obtained, under a lease treaty, not only the right to trade and exemptions for their subjects, but a truly colonial control over each concession territory, de facto annexation:

Territory	Date	Lease holder
Guandongzhou Leased Territory (today's Dalian)	1894–1898 Japan 1898–1905 Russia 1905–1945 Japan	leased by Russia and later by Japan
Weihai in Shandong Province	(1898–1930)	leased by Britain
Qingdao in Shandong Province	(1897–1922)	leased by Germany
The New Territories adjoining the original perpetual Hong Kong concession and its 1860 Kowloon extension	(1842; 1860; 1898–1997)	leased by Britain
Guangzhouwan Leased Territory in Guangdong Province (today's Zhanjiang)	(1911–1946)	leased by France

List of Chinese treaty ports

In the early 20th century, these were the treaty ports (many name forms differ from other Western sources) in China:

I. Northern ports

Port	Treaty	Open Date	Closed Date	Chinese Population
New-chwang, in the imperial Shen-king province, in Manchuria	in accordance with the British Treaty of T'ien-tsin, 1858;	custom office opened 9 May 1864;		74,000.
Ching-wang-tao, in Chi-li province, also in Manchuria	in accordance with an imperial decree, 31 March 1898	opened 15 December 1901		5,000.
T'ien-tsin, also in Chi-li	in accordance with the British and French Peking Conventions, 1860	opened May, 1861		750,000.
Che-fu, in Shang-tung	in accordance with British and French treaties of T'ien-tsin, 1858;	opened March, 1862		100,000.
Kiao-chou, also in Shang-tung	German Convention 6 March 1898	opened 1 July 1899.

II. Yangtze River ports

Port	Treaty	Open Date	Closed Date	Chinese Population
Ch'ung-k'ing, in Sze-ch'wan province		opened November 1890		702,000.
I-ch'ang, in Hu-pe	in accordance with Che-fu Convention, 1876	opened 1 April 1877		50,000.
Sha-shi, also in Hu-pe	treaty of Shimoneseki 1895	opened 1 October 1876		C85,000.
Chang-sha, in Hu-nan		opened 1 July 1904		230,000.
Yo-chou, also in Hu-nan	imperial decree of 31 March 1898	opened 13 November 1899		20,000.
Han-kou, also in Hu-pe	provincial regulations, 1861	opened January 1862		530,000.
Kiu-kiang, in Kiang-si	same regulations	opened January 1862		36,000.
Wu-hu, in Ngan-hwei	Che-fu Convention, 1876	opened 1 April 1877		123,000.
Nan-king, in Kiang-su	French Treaty of T'ien-tsin, 1858	opened 1 May 1899		261,000.
Chin-kiang, also in Kiang-su	British Treaty, 1858	opened April, 1861		170,000.

I. Northern ports

Port	Treaty	Open Date	Closed Date	Chinese Population
Shanghai, in Kiang-su province	Nan-king Treaty, 1842	opened officially 17 November 1843		651,000.
Su-chou, also in Kiang-su	Shimonoseki Treaty	opened 26 September 1896		500,000.
Hang-chou, in Che-kiang	Shimonoseki Treaty	opened 26 September 1896		350,000.
Ning-po, in ??	Shimonoseki Treaty	opened 26 September 1896		500,000.
Wen-chou, also in Che-kiang	Che-Fu Convention, 1876	opened April, 1877		80,000.

IV. South Coast ports

Port	Treaty	Open Date	Closed Date	Chinese Population
San-tuao, in Fu-kien province	imperial decree of 31 March 1898	opened 1 May 1899		8000.
Fu-chou, also in Fu-kien	Nan-king Treaty, 1842	opened July, 1861		624,000.
Amoy, also in Fu-kien	Nan-king Treaty 1842;	opened April, 1862		114,000.
Canton = Kanton, in the homonymous province Kwang-tung	Nan-king Treaty, 1842	opened October 1859		900,000.
Kow-loon, also in Kwang-tung;		opened April, 1887
Lappa, again in Kwang-tung		opened 27 June 1871
Kong-moon, in Kwang-tung		opened 7 March 1904;		55,000.
San-shui, also in Kwang-tung	Anglo-Chinese Convention, 4 February 1897	opened 4 June 1897		5000.
Swatow, also in Kwang-tung	English, French, and American Treaty of T'ien-tsin, 1858	opened January 1860;		65,000.
Wu-chou, in Kwang-si	same convention	opened 4 June 1897;		59,000.
Kiung-chou (Hoy-hou), on? Hai-nan *, in? Kwang-tung	French, and English Treaties of T'ien-tsin, 1858	opened April, 1876		38,000.
Pak-hoi| also in Kwang-tung	Che-fu Convention, 1876	opened April, 1877;		20,000.

V. Frontier ports

Port	Treaty	Open Date	Closed Date	Population
Lung-chou, in Kwang-si province	French Treaty, 25 June 1887	opened 1 June 1899		12,000.
Meng-tze, in Yun-nan	French Treaty, 1887	opened 30 April 1889		15,000.
Sze-mao, also in Yun-nan	French Convention, 1895; British, 1896	opened 2 January 1897		15,000.
Ten-yueh or Momein, also in Yun-nan	Convention of 4 February 1897	opened 8 May 1902;		10,000.
Ya-tung, in (?) Tibet		opened 1 May 1894
Nan-ning, also in Kwang-si	opened by imperial decree, 3 February 1899, but had not (yet?) a customs office.

According to the customs statistics, 6,917,000 Chinese inhabited the treaty ports in 1906. The foreign population included 1837 firms and 38,597 persons, mainly Europeans (British 9356, French 2189, German 1939, Portuguese 3184, Italians 786, Spaniards 389, Belgians 297, Austrians 236, Russians 273, Danes 209, Dutch 225, Norwegians 185, Swedes 135), Americans 3447, Brazilians 16, Japanese 15,548, Koreans 47, subjects of non-treaty powers 236.

References

Sources

• Japan's Treaty Ports and Foreign Settlements: The Uninvited Guests, 1858–1899 by J.E. Hoare (RoutledgeCurzon, 1995) ISBN 978-1873410264.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "China". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. [1]

External links

• Treaty ports and extraterritoriality in China, 1921–22
• WorldStatesmen—China