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.
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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.
| 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], now part of [Wuhan (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 | |
| 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 | ||
| Taiwan Province (Formosa) | Tamsui | (1858) | |
| Tainan |
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.
Japan opened two ports to foreign trade, Shimoda and Hakodate, in 1854 (Convention of Kanagawa).
It designated five more ports, Yokohama, Kobe, Nagasaki, Osaka, 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.
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 |
In the early 20th century, these were the treaty ports (many name forms differ from other Western sources) [1] in China:
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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.