Foreign countries "leased" the concession in China from the signing of the treaty of nanking in A.D. 1842. The treaty stipulated that five trading ports, namely Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo and Shanghai, were opened, and the British could live with their families. In the following year 10, the Humen Treaty was signed, stipulating that local officials in China must negotiate with British officials about the use location of houses and bases, and allow British people to rent them (Li N).
In 1843, the first British consul, Baffour, went to Shanghai to negotiate with Shanghai Daotai Gongmujiu, and rented 130 mu of wasteland outside the city by the Huangpu River as the consulate area. Later, Gong Mujiu issued a notice to lend 830 mu of land by the Huangpu River to British businessmen. The British built roads and bridges in this area, erected street lamps, planted street trees, and dug ditches to drain water; Businessmen from other countries must first apply to the British Consulate if they want to build or rent a house within the scope of land lease. This is the basis of Shanghai concession system. After that, the British consul called a meeting of foreigners in the concession every year and elected a "committee" to manage the docks and roads. The concession became a country within a country.
However, even so, the British are still not satisfied and their appetite is growing. In A.D. 1848, Qingpu Incident happened. Three British missionaries, Deuce and others, broke into Qingpu, Jiangsu Province (now Shanghai) to preach, violating the scope of foreigners' travel, and were not allowed to spend the night outside on the basis of a one-day round trip, and had a friction with sailors parked in the local area to transport food. Aligo, the second consul, with the support of the consuls of France, the United States, Belgium and other countries, insisted that Qingpu, which is 90 miles away from Shanghai, was within the prescribed scope, and used warships to detain the 1400 grain ship heading north, threatening the Qing Dynasty. As a result, the officials concerned were dismissed, and ten sailors were brought with instruments of torture and displayed in front of the customs. Two of them were sentenced to imprisonment and exile.
Aliguo used the "Qingpu Incident" as an excuse to force Lingui, a new Shanghai platform, to agree to expand the concession, with an area of 2,820 mu.
The French are jealous. In this year, the first French consul in Shanghai, Mintini, discussed with the French Catholic priests who had already arrived. Through their bishops in Shanghai, they rented a house between the county town of Shanghai and the British Concession and set up a consulate. After the Qingpu Incident, they forced Wu, a Taoist priest in Shanghai, to issue an announcement in A.D. 1849, designating 980 mu of land south of the British Concession as the French Concession.
Americans are not willing to lag behind. Wu, the first American consul in Shanghai, set up a consulate in the British Concession. Another American consul went to Shanghai and, like his predecessor, raised the American flag in his consulate. The British consul protested many times that they raised the American flag in the British Concession. In fact, the British consul has regarded the concession in China as British territory. After the demarcation of the French Concession, the American consul protested to Shanghai Daotai that other countries must obtain the consent of the French consul when renting land in the French Concession. The British consul also supported the American attitude from his own interests. Under the pressure of imperialist powers, Shanghai Daotai also promised to divide Hongkou area in the northern part of the British concession into the American concession.
In A.D. 1853, when Edward Cunningham was the acting consul of the United States in Shanghai, Britain officially agreed that Americans could rent land in the British Concession without the consent of the British consul. In this way, the exclusive privilege originally granted to the British consul and the issue of raising the flag have also been solved. However, due to the opposition of Britain and the United States, the original exclusive rights of the French consul to the French concession have not been strictly enforced.
10 years later, Shanghai Daotai was forced to set aside 7,856 mu on the north bank of Suzhou Creek, becoming an American concession. Then the American concession and the British concession merged into a "public concession", which was expanded to 80,000 mu in the1930s.
Other western countries have also seized concessions. By 1904, Britain, America, France, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy, Belgium and Austria had more than 30 concessions in 16 cities, such as Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Tianjin, Zhenjiang, Hankou, Wuhu, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Shashi and Changsha.
In these concessions, the colonial system was constantly strengthened, and China's rights in the concessions were gradually violated and deprived. The concession opened by western powers in China is actually a country within a country. China's semi-feudal and semi-colonial status has further deepened.