Treaty Ports in China: Their Genesis, Development, and Influence

China was forced to open itself to trade by the Western powers in the nineteenth century.Led by the British, these powers wanted to ensure they were able to import their goods (the most lucrative being opium) and waged two wars to do so.The First Opium War was fought between 1839 and 1842, and the Second (also known as the Arrow War) from 1856 to 1860.These Wars led to a series of treaties, beginning with the Treaty of Nanking (signed with the British on August 29, 1842), which ended the First Opium War; the Second Opium War led to the Treaty of Tientsin (actually a series of agreements with Britain and France ending the first phase of the conflict, and signed in June 1858) and the Convention of Peking (three treaties, with Britain, France, and Russia, respectively, signed on November 14, 1860).Known collectively as the "unequal treaties," these were only three of a number of such "agreements" foisted on an unwilling China and rightly seen as a low point in the country's history.The Treaty of Nanking ceded Hong Kong Island to Britain in perpetuity and stipulated that five ports were to be opened to foreign trade: Canton (Guangzhou), Amoy (Xiamen), Foochow (Fuzhou), Ningpo (Ningbo), and Shanghai.These became known as Treaty Ports and were the first in an ever-increasing series of settlements that spread themselves across the country until January 11, 1943, when the Chinese and the British signed the Treaty for the Relinquishment of Extra-Territorial Rights in China, ending the system after 101 years.A number of recently published books examine the Treaty Ports, as well as their genesis, and influence on urbanization in China.The re-issuing of Jacques M. Downs's The Golden Ghetto: The American Commercial Community at Canton and the Shaping of American China Policy, 1784-1844 portrays the American community at Canton in the decades up to the First Opium War-a period culminating with the Sino-American Treaty of Wanghia (July 3, 1844).This was a treaty that not only stressed international friendship but also introduced the concept of "extraterritoriality" (immunity to prosecution for foreigners under Chinese law).