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I. URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
[ I-A | I-B | I-C | I-D | I-E | I-F ]
B. The formation of an international metropolis
[ B | B-1 | B-2 ]
The separation of residencies of westerners and Chinese stipulated in the 1845 Land
Regulations was broken by the farmers' uprising XiaoDao Affiliation in 1853, and the
citizens in avoiding the war took refuge in the settlements where the Chinese population
suddenly increased to more than 20,000. The colonists, in order to gain extremely handsome
profits, built over 800 houses to accommodate Chinese people. That was the beginning of
the real estate industry in modern Shanghai. At the same time Shanghai Local Volunteer
Corps was established in the settlements, allegedly for self-defence and therefore the
Land Regulations were revised in 1854 to acquiesce in westerners/Chinese co-living. A
Shanghai Municipal Council and police station were also set up in the settlements which
resulted in the Chinese people there being governed by foreigners and Chinese sovereign
rights beginning to disintegrate. When the army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom attacked
Shanghai, there were more than 300,000 (in1860) and 500,000 (in l862) Chinese people
living in the settlements and Chinese officials were soon rebuffed by the Shanghai
Municipal Council when they tried to levy taxes. Even worse, when the Mixed Court was
established in 1869, the settlements had their own judicial powers, and their political
and law systems being almost established, they had become a country within a country where
colonists could enjoy special rights.
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