The Unequal Treaties That Reshaped Asia

From Nanjing 1842 to the Boxer Protocol 1901, China, Japan, Siam, and Korea signed treaties under duress, with extraterritoriality, fixed tariffs, and leased territories. Japan escaped earliest, renegotiating its treaties in the 1890s, then imposed the same terms on Korea.

China waited until 1943 for Britain and the United States to give up extraterritoriality. The memory of these treaties still shapes Asian sovereignty politics.