History of Shanghai

The history of Shanghai, spanning at least eight dynasties in Chinese history, closely parallels the development of modern China. Shanghai has been one of China's most important gateways in the modern.

Early Era

Founded in the 10th century, the city is located in a swampy area east of Suzhou, which has only been recently irrigated. However, other parts of the Yangtze valley saw irrigation as much as 1,500 years ago. Until 1127, Shanghai was a small market town of 12,000 households. That year, however Kaifeng was conquered and many refugees came to Shanghai, and the city soon grew to 250,000 inhabitants.

The Shanghai region became one of China's most prosperous in the 13th century, after becoming a cotton production and manufacturing center. The manufacture of cotton utilized a cotton gin similar to that created by American Eli Whitney. Cotton and its byproducts, mainly cloth, were the backbone of Shanghai's economy until the early 19th century. The construction of Canals, dikes and real estate were financed with private capital beginning primarily during the Song dynasty.

Ming Dynasty

Later, the autocratic government of the Ming dynasty imposed tight trade restrictions in the 16th century to guard against the Wokou and soon stopped all trade. After a hundred merchants died when Shanghai was pillaged by pirates, the Ming government evacuated the entire coastal population to the interior. In 1554 a wall was built to protect the city from future invasions.

Qing Dynasty

The importance of Shanghai grew radically as the city's strategic position at the mouth of the Yangtze river was perceived by the Western powers as an ideal location for trade within the Chinese surroundings, propelling the city to an economic peak.

The Qing Dynasty, having little government control, deferred much regional power to native place associations. These associations used their provincial networks to control the city and competed with each other. Bankers of different native place associations started cooperating with each other in the Shanghai Native Bankers Guild, which used a democratic decision-making process. Trade routes reached as far as Polynesia and Persia with cotton, silk, and fertilizer as primary exports.

The Tong Reng Tan was a neutral organization that tried to build up good governance in Shanghai. In 1905, the Tong Reng Tan was abolished and replaced by the Shanghai municipality. A Shanghainese native place association came into being called the Tongrengtang tongxianghui.

The Self-Strengthening Movement also took place, as many Chinese tried to take over western inventions to make the nation stronger. It did not succeed because of the incompetence, corruption and inefficiency of many participants.

First Opium War

During the First Opium War in the early-19th century, British forces temporarily held Shanghai. The war ended with the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing, which opened the treaty ports, Shanghai included, for international trade. Opium was the biggest import from the United Kingdom to China during this period. The industrialization of Great Britain and cotton production in the United States essentially destroyed the cotton industry of Shanghai. The backwardness of pre-1842 Shanghai only ended with an increase in trade due mostly to the Western powers. The Treaty of the Bogue, signed in 1843, and the Sino-American Treaty of Wangsia signed in 1844 together saw foreign nations achieve extraterritoriality on Chinese soil. These two treaties officially lasted until 1943, but were functionally defunct by the late 1930s. The treaties opened the floodgate of western culture and influence into Shanghai.

Taiping Rebellion

The Taiping Rebellion broke out in 1850. By 1853 Shanghai was occupied by a triad offshoot of the rebels called the Small Swords Society. The fighting devastated the countryside but left foreign settlements untouched At the same time, many Chinese arrived seeking refuge. Although Chinese were previously forbidden to live in foreign settlements, circumstances led to new regulations being drawn up making land available to Chinese in 1854. Land prices rose substantially, and real estate development became a source of considerable income for Shanghai's westerners, further increasing the westerners' grip over the city's economy.

1854 marked the first annual meeting of the Shanghai Municipal Council, created in order to manage the foreign settlements. In 1863, the British settlement, located along the western bank of the Huangpu river to the south of Suzhou Creek in the Huangpu district, and the American settlements, located on the western bank of the Huangpu river and to the north of Suzhou creek, joined to form the International Settlement. The French opted out of the Shanghai Municipal Council, and instead maintained its own French Concession, located to the south of the International Settlement.

Sino-Japanese War

The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 was a conflict over control of the Korean Peninsula concluded with the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which saw Japan emerge as an additional foreign power in Shanghai. Japan built the first factories in Shanghai, which were soon followed by other foreign powers to influence the emergence of Shanghai industry.

Republic of China

The Republic of China was a result of the Xinhai Revolution. It is during this time that Shanghai became the focal point of all activities that would eventually shape modern China. Shanghai was one of the largest cities in the world with 3,000,000 inhabitants in 1936, of whom only 35,000 were foreigners, though they were in charge of half the city. Many Russian refugees came to Shanghai. The Shanghai Russians were regarded as an inferior race by the Shanghailanders. A lot of Russian women worked as prostitutes alongside Chinese, Korean and Japanese colleagues. "The Great World" was a place where opium, prostitution and gambling came together. The Chinese elite was essentially divided into two sectors. One group was progressive and helped the nation modernize in unprecedented ways. The other was in search of power by all means necessary.The city was thus divided between the western half of the city that was more European, and the eastern, more traditionally Chinese half of the city. New inventions like electricity and trams were quickly introduced, and westerners helped transform Shanghai into a metropolis. British and American businessmen made a great deal of money in trade and finance, and Germany used Shanghai as a base for investing in China. Shanghai accounted for half of the imports and exports of China. The western part of Shanghai was four times larger then the Chinese part in the early 20th century.

European and American inhabitants of Shanghai called themselves the Shanghailanders. The extensive public gardens along the waterfront of the International Settlement were reserved for the foreign communities and forbidden to Chinese naytives. The foreign city was built in the British style with a large racetrack in what was then the west of the city, now People's Park. A new class emerged, the compradors, which mixed with the local landlords to form a new class, the Chinese bourgeoisie. The compradors were indispensable mediators for the western companies. Many compradors were on the leading edge of the movement to modernize China. Shanghai was then the biggest financial city in East Asia.

Chinese society

Chinese society was divided into native place associations or provincial guilds. These guilds defended the interests of people from certain areas. They had their own dresscodes and sub-cultures. Chinese government was hardly organized. Instead, society was controlled by the native place associations. The Guangdong native place associations represented the skilled workers of Shanghai. These native place associations belonged to the top of Shanghainese society. Ningbo and Jiangsu native place associations were the most numerous. They represented the common workers. Many Chinese inhabitants came from the north of China. They were on the bottom rung of the social ladder. Many of them were forced to work as seasonal workers or mobsters.

hanghai Grand

During this period, Shanghai was known as "The Paris of the East, the New York of the West" [Concierge Traveler. " [http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/articles/detail?articleId=10426 Concierge] ." "Shanghai Shadows." Retrieved on 2007-05-13.] . Shanghai was made a special city in 1927, and a municipality in May 1930. The city's industrial and financial power increased, because the merchants were in control of the city, while the rest of China was divided among warlords.

Artistically Shanghai made major strides for the nation by becoming the home and headquarters of three new art forms; namely, the city was recognized and credited as the entertainment hub for Chinese cinema, Chinese animation and Chinese popular music. Other forms of entertainment include Lianhuanhua comic books.

The architectural style at the time was modelled after British and American design. Many of the most grand scale buildings in The Bund such as Shanghai Club, Asia Building and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation building were constructed or renovated at the time. The city created a distinct image that separated it from all other Chinese cities that came before it.

Economic achievements include the city becoming the commercial centre of East Asia, attracting banks from all over the world. When movies and literature depict the golden days of Shanghai of the past, it is generally associated with this era.

Power struggle

Location wise, the city was also the centre of national and international opium smuggling during the 1920s. The Green Gang ("Qing Bang") became a major influence in the Shanghai International Settlement, with the Commissioner of the Shanghai Municipal Police reporting that corruption associated with the trade had affected a large proportion of his force. An extensive crackdown in 1925 simply displaced the focus of the trade to the neighbouring French Concession.

Meanwhile, traditional division of society by native place associations was falling apart. The new working classes were not prepared to listen to the bosses of the same native place associations during the 1910s. Resentment against the foreign presence in Shanghai rose among both the entrepreneurs and the workers of Shanghai. In 1919, protests by the May Fourth Movement against the Treaty of Versailles led to the rise of a new group of philosophers like Chen Duxiu and Hu Shi who challenged Chinese traditionalism with new ideologies. Books like New Youth multiplied the new school of thought, the revolutionary thinking convinced many that the existing government was largely ineffective. The Communist Party of China was then founded in 1921.

In 1927, communists tried to end foreign rule, officially supported by the gangsters and the Kuomintang (KMT) nationalists. Leaders of the Green Gang however entered into informal alliances with Chiang Kai-shek and the Shanghailander capitalists acted against the communists and organised labour unions. The nationalists had cooperated with gang leaders since the revolution of 1911. Many communists were killed in a major gangster surprise attack in April 1927 in the Chinese administered part of Shanghai, although sporadic fighting between gangsters and communists had occurred previously. Zhou Enlai was lucky to flee the city, because suspected left-wingers were shot on sight.

Chiang Kai-shek started an autocratic rule supported by the progressive native place associations which lasted from 1927 to 1937. These associations consisted of workers, businessmen, gangsters and others from a given province. This was part of the policy to organize society in corporations. It was a major failure, because the Chinese refused to be subdued. Only a minority became members of the appointed native place associations. Chiang Kai-shek chose to cooperate with gangsters in order to maintain his grip on Chinese society. This meant that the gangsters remained middlemen during the rule of the nationalists, controlling society by frequently organizing strikes.

Large residential areas were built north of the foreign concessions, which were between the old Chinese town and the new Chinese town. These residential areas were modern, with good roads and parking lots for automobiles. A new Chinese port was built, which could compete with the Shanghailanders' port. Chiang Kai-shek continuously demanded large amounts of money from the financial world in Shanghai. Some bankers and merchants resisted from the start, while others were so enthusiastic in supporting the KMT, that they liquidated their companies to extract as much money as possible. Most bankers and merchants were willing to invest in the army, but this stopped in 1928, bankers refused all subsidies. Chiang responded by nationalising all enterprises. Soong, the brother-in-law of Chiang, expressed the opinion of the Shanghai capitalists in 1930 by writing that it is better to strengthen the party, the army and the economy instead of focusing only on the army. Chiang was very agitated about this.

The power of the gangsters rose in the early 1930s, especially the power of the Green Gang leader Du Yuesheng. Du started his own native place association. Mobsters stormed the Shanghai Stock Exchange to gain control over it. The police did not interfere, since they had been dominated by the mobsters since 1919. Shanghailanders did not interfere either, since it was an internal Chinese affair. The nationalist government did not interfere, because it tried to break the power of the entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs were forced to make a deal after a second storming of the mobsters.

End of Old Shanghai (1937 - 1945)

World War II and the Japanese Occupation

The Japanese Navy bombed Shanghai on January 28, 1932, nominally in an effort to crush down Chinese student protests against the Manchurian Incident and the subsequent Japanese occupation. The Chinese fought back in what was known as the January 28 Incident. The two sides fought to a standstill and a ceasefire was brokered in May. In the Second Sino-Japanese War, the city fell after the Battle of Shanghai in 1937, and was occupied until Japan's surrender in 1945.

During World War II in Europe, Shanghai was a centre for European refugees. It was the only city in the world that was open unconditionally to the Jews at the time. However, under pressure from their allies, the Nazis, the Japanese ghettoised the Jewish refugees in late 1941 in what came to be known as the Shanghai ghetto, and hunger and infectious diseases such as amoebic dysentery became rife. The foreign population rose from 35,000 in 1936 to 150,000 in 1942 mainly due to the Jews. Germany wanted Japan to exterminate the Jews of Shanghai, but Japan only put them into a ghetto. The Japanese were harsher on the British, Americans and Dutch. They slowly lost their privileges and had to wear a B, A or N for their nationality when walking in public places. Their villas were turned into new brothels and gambling houses. The British, Americans and Dutch were force-marched into concentration camps in 1943.

End of Foreign Concessions

The major government controlled companies in Shanghai of KMT-China had gone corrupt after moving to inland China in 1937. The foreign concessions were closed in 1946 when the French departed. Shanghai merchants and bankers had completely lost faith in the economy under KMT rule. Nationalists had no concern for local interests in Shanghai and tried to force everybody to accept autocratic rule. The main protectors of the mafia, the Shanghailanders were gone and the mafia was ignored by the nationalist government. Du Yuesheng tried to become the mayor of Shanghai, but he was forced to leave the city. Communists gained control over the workers. The success of the communists had mainly to do with a different policy. Instead of exclusionism of non-communists, the communists tried to gather a broad coalition.

Tightened Communist rule (1949-1980s)

Communist Transition

On May 27, 1949, Shanghai came under communist control and was one of the only two former ROC municipalities not merged into neighbouring provinces over the next decade (the other being Beijing). It underwent a series of changes in the boundaries of its subdivisions, especially in the next decade. One of the first actions taken by the communist party was to clean up the portion of the population that were considered counter-revolutionaries. Mass executions took place with thousands slaughtered in the hands of the communist party. Places such as the Canidrome would transform from elegant ballroom to mass execution facilities [Time magazine. " [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,859181,00.htmlTime magazine] ." "Kill nice!" Retrieved on 2007-05-08.] Bellucci, Lucille. [2005] (2005). Journey from Shanghai. iUniverse Publishing. ISBN 0595343732] . The communist party have rigorously expressed the common view that the city was taken over in a "peaceful" manner. The reality has been largely censored as numerous western texts describe the hostile takeover since the People's Liberation Army marched into the city on May 27, 1949. Most foreign firms moved their offices from Shanghai to Hong Kong. Specifically large number of emigrants would settle in North Point, terming the new area in Hong Kong Eastern District as "Little Shanghai" [Wordie, Jason. [2002] (2002) Streets: Exploring Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. ISBN 962-2095631] .

Home of leftism

During the 1950s and 1960s, Shanghai became an industrial center and center for revolutionary leftism. The city made little to no progress during the Maoist era, through the Cultural Revolution until 1976. In the past, Shanghai was able to maintain high economic productivity and relative social stability. Shanghai had been the largest contributor of tax revenue to the central government, but this came at the cost of severely crippling Shanghai's infrastructure, capital and artistic development, as it was important to China's fiscal well-being. This also denied economic freedoms to the city that were available to southern provinces such as Guangdong. During the mid-1980s, Guangdong province paid nearly no taxes to the central government and thus was perceived as fiscally expendable. Guangdong would benefit from economic reform at the time under Deng Xiaoping, while Shanghai was not permitted to initiate economic reforms until 1991.

Economic and cultural rebound (1990s - Present)

Political power in Shanghai has traditionally been seen as a stepping stone to higher positions within the PRC central government. In the 1990s, there was what was often described as the politically right-of-center "Shanghai clique," which included the president of the PRC Jiang Zemin and the premier of the PRC Zhu Rongji. Starting in 1992, the central government under Jiang Zemin, a former Mayor of Shanghai, began reducing the tax burden on Shanghai and encouraging both foreign and domestic investment in order to promote it as the economic hub of East Asia and to encourage its role as gateway of investment to the Chinese interior. Since then it has experienced continuous economic growth of between 9–15% annually, arguably at the expense of growth in Hong Kong, leading China's overall development.

The city's modern transformation really did not begin until the third generation of president Jiang Zemin came to power in 1992. The remarkable development of the Pudong zone offers a compelling example of the various political mechanisms, players, complexity and character of urban land development and spatial change in the context of China’s rapidly growing transitional economy.

Shanghai is China’s largest and greatest commercial and industrial city. With 0.1% of the land area of the country, it supplies over 12% of the municipal revenue and handles more than a quarter of total trade passing through China’s ports. Its year 2000 population, according to China’s latest census, was 16.74 million and represented an increase of 3.4 million from the 1990 size with an average annual growth rate through the decade of the 1990s of 2.2% and a total increase of 25.5%.

The average size of a family in Shanghai had declined to fewer than three people during the last decade, and it is clear that most of Shanghai’s population growth is driven by migration rather than natural factors based on high birth and fertility rates. Shanghai has for many years had the lowest birth rate in China, a rate lower than large American cities such as New York.

As with most cities in China, Shanghai is overbounded in its administrative territory. The city in the year 2000 was composed of 17 urban districts and three counties together occupying 6300 km² of land area. The three counties contain substantial rural land and a number of rural residents who continue to farm for their livelihood. The city has the highest population density of all the first order administrative units in China, with 2657 people per km² in 2000. Owing to its continued growth and industrial and commercial development, Shanghai also has the highest index of urbanization among all of China’s first order administrative units, with 88.3% of the official population (14.78 million) classified as urban.

The amount of building activity in Shanghai fueled by government investment expenditures continues to be astounding. Since the 1980s, Shanghai’s economy shifted from over 77% of gross domestic product in secondary sector manufacturing to a more balanced sectoral distribution of 48% in industry and 51% in services in 2000 and 2001.

Employment in manufacturing reached almost 60% in 1990 and has declined steadily since to 41% in 2001, while employment in the tertiary sector has grown from 30% in 1990 to more than 47% in 2001, a remarkable expansion of employment in service activities in step with Shanghai’s reemergence as a commercial city.

Notes

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