History of the Shanghai International Settlement

China has 5000 years of history which experienced wars, collapses, failures and successes. The Opium War in the year 1839 and 1856 marked the changing point of China’s trade policy with foreigners, especially with British in opium and tea. China changed from getting tributes to being forced to sign the Nanjing Treaty and Tianjing Treaty with British and French. Due to China’s over confidence and unwelcome attitude toward foreigners and opium, it caused the British to declare the Opium War to China which made Chinese suffer for many years, but at the same time it also forced China to open its doors to the foreigners.

In the early eighteen hundreds, Britain and other European countries demanded more and more Chinese commodities, especially tea and silk. However, only the port in Canton was opened to foreign countries, and Chinese would not take any other form of payments besides silver. The desire to make China into a free market that foreigners have more access to and the increasing, though illegal, European opium import to China eventually created tension between the European countries, especially Britain, and the Chinese government (Allingham Par. 1-2). The two battles fought and won by European powers were known as the Opium Wars. China’s politics, economy, and intellects were both positively and negatively

In the late 1800s to the early 1900s, Chinese immigrants migrated to the United States. In The History of Chinese Immigration to the U.S., Leo Luo’s contended, “These foreigners came in three separate time periods: 1849-1882, 1882-1965, and 1965 to today.” (Luo) From 1849 to 1965, the Chinese wanted to earn more money to send back to their families in China because the economy was dramatically decreasing. The Chinese heard about the Gold Rush in California and began to move to the United States. When they first migrated to the United States, they were placed in harsh conditions and were discriminated without knowing what they had done to the Americans. Their children had to go to school with a variety of races besides whites. Many Chinese immigrants moved to United States for freedom, gold, and jobs, and as a result, Americans created laws against the Chinese, and placed them in Angel Island.

During the 19th century, Chinese were suffering from natural disaster, and British Opium War, which led to an intense internal conflicts. Immediately, the Chinese government pushed “the able-bodied” to emigrate. Harsh conditions and numerous rebellions drove Chinese to quest for survival in America. However, most of the Chinese migrants were male, because Chinese tradition believed that woman is defined to stay in her homeland, known as Confucianism. Most of those Chinese migrant temporarily settled in America prior to pay off the heavy taxation laid upon them by Qing’s dynasty. Similar to early Irish immigrants, survival of Chinese in America was still a nightmare. In America, the White Protestants saw the Chinese migrants as cheap laborers, and thus, Chinese migrants were exploited as laborer.

Ports attract industry and thus development. Larger settlements develop to accommodate the shipping trade like warehousing, processing and commerce. Shanghai is the busiest port in the world and has developed because of this. Due to its excellent port, Shanghai has been a leading power of China's economic and trade development since ancient times. Its economy has increased by over 10% for 15 consecutive years and it accounts for 25% of the total value of China's imports and exports and 12.5% of the total revenue. By being in the coastal zone it has been a beacon for development and it is that has allowed it to gain the position of the third highest GDP in China. Shanghai has and will continue to develop because of its location near the

China also experienced imperialism, with the British being the force to come into their territory. Britain’s main motive was economics, with their being a huge demand for Chinese goods such as tea in their market. However, the British did not have enough silver to trade with the Qing dynasty, and therefore used the Indian Opium bartering tactic to get their goods. Opium was a highly addictive drug that took the juice from the opium poppy. There was a spike in usage of opium in China, and this created an increase in the number of addicts in the area. Chinese officials attempted to ban the very highly addictive opium, but ultimately failed. The British then declared war on China that would become known as the Opium Wars. The British overcame

From the First and the Second Opium War to the Sino-Japanese War, China was a piece of pie that every imperialist country wanted to take a bite. Both Western powers and Japan had forced China signed numerous inequality treaties. Every time Chinese people tried to resist these foreign powers, there would be more humiliated terms on the treaties and larger amount of reparation awaited. After defeated by British in the First Opium War, the Qing dynasty had to accept the Treaty of Nanjing, which China paid British an indemnity, ceded

They had limited commerce with the West. China had foreign trade, but the western merchants had little privileges. Japan’s trade was even stricter, choosing to trade with the Dutch only, giving them one port. This situation, while advantageous to Japan and China, would not be acceptable for the West. In 1834, a man by the name of Lord Napier was sent by Britain to pressure China, and it is important to note that it was only China, to have a more open trade. The Chinese, scornful of the West, had rejected the request, causing animosity between the two nations to rise. The British’s response to this perceived insult was to begin to bring opium into the country illegally. The Chinese government, upset that a large number of its citizens were becoming dependent on the drug, had tried to fight back. This marked the beginning of the first of the Opium Wars, which had resulted in the defeat of the Chinese and the creation of a system of unequal treaties. The Treaty of Nanking was signed under heavy military loss and resulted in a much more unfavorable treaty for China. This marked the first ‘defeat’ for China and its beginnings as a country subservient to the

The 1900s hit hard for the generation of Asians that came to America, and for future generations to come. Many of the immigrants were either Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Vietnamese, or Indian. The term Asian American tied these groups of people together for political reasons. After the earthquake of 1906, Asian immigrants were granted access if they were related to a citizen in America. This exception caused records to be falsified. These people were referred to as “paper sons/daughters.”.[1] Upon the arrival to America, Chinese immigrants went through a screening process in the early 1900s, but that ended later in 1965. They came in search of a better life with more opportunities. The opportunities they hoped to find was advertised as “the American Dream.” Over time, separate generations that have been treated equally as bad have evolved in their way of combating racial inequality. These methods were mainly nonviolent, but would it have been more effective if the protestors took a more violent approach?

I believe that Imperial colonization in China is a great idea. For one, China is a very large country with lots of unused resources. This means that it would be easy for you to find an unused and untaken area for you to find many resources you need. China has lots of silk, tea, and porcelain and these are all very popular and much needed resources. Another reason why colonization in China is a great idea is because it would be easy to get through the government. With China’s vast amounts of land and with such a weak government, it would be very difficult for China to control its enormous territory. China’s government would be too weak to hold back all of the imperialists, so this would be the perfect area of them to colonize and take what they

Even so, the Chinese were delaying their part of the treaty. In all actuality, I think that they were trying to avoid dealing with the treaty at all costs. At this point in time, Great Britain was growing impatient with all of the delays and excuses being given. In 1856, the British decided to ally with France to teach China another "lesson". Thus, the second opium war began. With all things considered, nothing relatively important happened during this war. Just a few squabbles here and there. But that is beside the point. By the end of the war, Britain and France pretty much had China Under its thumb. But how did the two little countries take over China? They took over Beijing, the imperial capitol. This is where the convention of Beijing was held. (given the name, kind of obvious, huh?) In all actuality, this little document just legalized the trade of opium. The document was signed October 24, 1860, thus ending the second and all future opium wars. After this entire fiasco, China finally opened up to global trade. The problem with that was outside powers had more influence on China than it had on itself. Their economy was suffering

The first period of Chinese immigration came significantly after the California gold rush in 1849. However, due to China’s instability in the country after the opium wars, many push and pull factors presented the gold rush as an economic opportunity for many Chinese inhabitants. The opening of trade in china relentlessly spread the economy thin ultimately shattering the Chinese financial system. In addition, Chinese industries became less profitable as silk and tea became in demand. Ideally, many farmers transitioned from producing food to now developing profitable resources: silk and tea. In the end, this only led to more misfortune as starvation and poverty remained throughout the land. Nevertheless, the opium wars disrupted the infrastructure

In 1842, at the conclusion of the Opium War, China was forced to accept a series of pacts from Great Britain called the Treaty of Nanjing. This treaty opened five Chinese trading ports, urged the Qing government to give up their status as the most favored nation, and allotted extraterritoriality to the British. China no longer had any power, and the West was not obligated to follow Chinese laws. Despite the Chinese laws regarding the sale of Opium, England legalized opium trade in Britain and restricting the Chinese from taxing it (Opium Wars PPT). China continued to weaken just as much as their judicial authority. By 1900, foreign powers had control of Chinese ports, and foreign merchants controlled the Chinese economy due to the unequal treaties. Since Britain had taken much of the China’s power, Christian missioners were able to find Chinese converts throughout the country (Traditions & Encounters 736). Not only was Great Britain able to confine the Qing government, but they also overpowered China’s military, leaving the Chinese to fight with all their will to preserve their land and

With the amount of land that China has control over, it roughly accommodates its’ population. In 2014, China’s population was estimated at 1,355,692,576 with a growth rate of .44%. The most populated cities are Shanghai with 20 million, Guangzhou 10 million, Shenzhen 10 million, Chongqing 10 million, and Wuhan 9 million. The capital city “Beijing” has a population of 15 million. This is the main reason why in the late part of the last century,

The aims of this research will be to establish a greater understanding of the nature of the current competition between ports in Hong Kong and in China, specifically South China, determining the degree of this competition and its impact on trade, and identifying any competitive efforts that might exist between ports and the motives behind this cooperation. Objectives that will help achieve these aims include identifying business patterns at the ports in question and determining the connections between the political and commercial ties of China and Hong Kong. Through these aims and objectives, the