Expansion and Defence in the International Settlement at Shanghai

Shanghai’s International Settlement lay at the very heart of the British presence in China, but the Shanghai Municipal Council which ran it was independent of control from London. It pursued, however, its own quasi-colonial expansionist agenda, and defended the Settlement as if it were a self-contained city-state. In so doing, the Council both served the interests of the prominent Britons who dominated it yet antagonised Sino-British relations. The examination of its bullish pursuit of land and power refocuses the discussion of Britain’s relationship with China from diplomatic tensions onto the potentially more explosive issue of the local control of territory.