Unequal Treaties is a term used in reference to the type of
treaties signed by several
East Asian states, including
Qing Dynasty China, late
Tokugawa Japan, and late
Joseon Korea, with
Western powers and the post-
Meiji Restoration Empire of Japan, during the 19th and early 20th centuries. This was a period during which these Asian states were largely unable to resist the
military pressures from foreign powers as many unequal treaties were signed by those countries after military failure.
Overview
The earliest attempt to come to a settlement was the 1841
Convention of Chuenpeh in the wake of the
First Opium War that started in 1839.
[Courtauld, Caroline. Holdsworth, May. Vickers, Simon. [1997] (1997). The Hong Kong Story. HK University press. ISBN 0195903536] China and
Great Britain signed the first unequal treaties under the
Treaty of Nanking in 1842.
[Wiltshire, Trea. [First published 1987] (republished & reduced 2003). Old Hong Kong - Volume One. Central, Hong Kong: Text Form Asia books Ltd. ISBN Volume One 962-7283-59-2] Following Qing China's defeat, treaties with Britain opened up several ports to foreign trade, while also allowing
Christians to reside. In addition, the administration of justice on foreign residents in the port cities were afforded trials by their own consular authorities rather than the
Chinese legal system, a concept termed
extraterritoriality.
Although the term "Unequal treaty" did not come into use until early in the 20th century, many Chinese considered the treaties unequal since the foreign powers did not reciprocate most of China's concessions with similar privileges. In many cases China was effectively forced to pay large amounts of
reparations, open up ports for trade, cede or lease territories (such as
Hong Kong to Great Britain), and make various other concessions of sovereignty to foreign "
spheres of influence", following humiliating military defeats.
When the
United States Commodore
Matthew Perry forced open Japan in 1854, Japan was soon prompted to sign the "
Ansei Treaties" that were similar to the ones China had signed and the same thing soon happened to Korea. Ironically, Korea's first unequal treaties were not with the West but with Japan, which, taking a page from Western tactics, had forced Korea to open its doors to foreign commerce in 1876.
Such unequal treaties ended at various times for the countries involved. Japan was the first to throw off the shackles of its treaties during the mid 1890s, when its performance in the
First Sino-Japanese War convinced many in the West that Japan had indeed entered among the body of "civilized nations". For China and Korea, the wait was somewhat longer. Most of China's unequal treaties were abrogated during
World War II, when the
Republic of China led by
Chiang Kai-shek emerged victorious and became a permanent member of the
Security Council of the
United Nations.
China's unequal treaties almost completely dissolved only following
Hong Kong's 1997 handover. The agreement was made in 1984 following talks between
Deng Xiaoping and the British under the
Sino-British Joint Declaration. Exception of territory seized were made by Imperial Russia (
Outer Manchuria) in 1860. Korea's unequal treaties with European states became largely null and void in 1910, when it was
annexed by Japan.
List of Unequal Treaties
Other uses
Recently, the term "unequal treaty" has been used by the
RESPECT leader
George Galloway and the then
Liberal Democrat leader
Menzies Campbell to refer to the 2003 U.K.-U.S.
extradition treaty.
The 1903
Cuban-American Treaty, which granted the United States a perpetual lease of
Guantanamo Bay, is seen as an "unequal treaty" by Professor
Alfred de Zayas.
See also
