The first Opium War took place from 1840 to 1842 but had no special impact upon Tianjin.

Notwithstanding that it was the chief opium-smuggling market of the north, it was not one of the five treaty ports created by the Sino-British Nanjing treaty of 1842, which include Shanghai.

During the Second Opium War, however, the Anglo-French forces captured Dagu Fort in May of 1858, and proceeded up the Haihe River to invade Tianjin. In June Qing Government representatives signed the Treaty of Tianjin at Haikwanssu (the Western Arsenal, to the south of the Old City) with Russia, America, Britain and France successively. Early in July the army of occupation was withdrawn. The treaty of Tianjin was required to be ratified at Beijing within one year. When the Chinese government refused to do this the French and British bombarded Tianjin, and finally marched into Beijing.
The first Franco-British attack on Dagu Fort in June 1859 was unsuccessful, and cost about four hundred casualties, including the British commander-in-chief, who was wounded badly. In July the invading powers set 16,000 men to Dagu, and in August the forces landed at Beitang and occupied both Dagu Fort and Tianjin itself. In October they invaded Beijing and destroyed the famous Yuan Ming Yuan. It was during this campaign that the Chinese commander, Sankolinsin, built the 21 kilometer Mud Wall, later known as 'Sankolinsin's folly,' parts of which survived well into the twentieth century. The second Opium War concluded when the Qing Dynasty government signed the Beijing Treaty with France and Britain in October 1860, resulting in the opening of Tianjin as a treaty port. In that year the population was about 60,000 according to Hershatter, or 300,000 according to Rasmussen. But Britain, France and American now secured concession areas in Tianjin and the population increased rapidly, reaching 600,000 by 1896. At first the foreign merchants mostly conducted their business in the Chinese city, or at least maintained agents and godowns there, but in the 1870s the commercial heart shifted to the concessions. Almost all foreigners resided in the concessions, although a few maintained homes in the old city. The period 1865-1895 saw the influence of the 'Westernization Movement' in China, and most strongly in Tianjin in the persons of Chonghou (1826-1893), Commissioner of the Trading Department of the Three Ports, and Li Hongzhang (1823-1901), governor-general of Zhili and Commissioner for Northern Affairs. In 1867 the Tianjin machinery Factory, or Eastern Arsenal, and the Haikwanssu Machinery Factory, or Western Arsenal, were established. In 1872 the Tianjin branch of the China Steamship

Navigation Company was opened, and by 1877 the Kaiping Coal Mine, the first in China to extract coal by machine. In 1881 China's first railway line was opened, running the eleven kilometers between Tangshan and Xugezhuang. In 1888 the Tianjin Tangshan Railway was opened, terminating at Tianjin East Station. By 1888, too, Li Hongzhang had created the Beiyang Navy on Western lines and with Western assistance. In 1896 the Daqing Post Office began operation in Tianjin. The second phase in the development of the concessions was a general scramble for influence form 1895 to 1897 during the readjustment of political balance of power following the Sino-Japanese War and the Treaty of Shimonoseki. At this time Germany and Japan acquired concessions, and Britain expanded its existing area westwards. The foreign powers not only extended their concessions and established new ones in the years from 1895, but acquired rights to invest, open factories, and establish banks. The new banks opened in Tianjin include the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China of Britain, in 1896; the Pyccko-Ketaeckee Bank of Russia in 1897; and the Japanese Yokohama Shokin Bank in 1899. In this period the Americans established a branch of the Young Men's Christian Association, the French rebuilt the Wang Hai Lou Church, and foreign warships entered the Hai at will. Chinese intellectuals opposed to this developed the 'Bourgeois Reform Movement' in Tianjin and obtained a sympathetic hearing form the Emperor, but were then quickly muzzled. In 1899-1900 the Yihetuan Movement (Society of Righteousness and Harmony), launched the armed resistance to foreign powers known to westerners as the Boxer Rebellion. Tianjin, as a foreign stronghold, became a focus of attention in 1900, and fifty or sixty thousand Boxers are said to have been in the city at the peak of the movement, organized around a basic unit called a tankou, or alter. In summer of 1900 they gained control of Tianjin; burnt the Wang Hai Lou Church, which the French had rebuilt in 1897; and besieged the foreign legations. In response both Tianjin and Beijing were occupied and sacked by a joint expeditionary force, including troops of Austria, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. There was even a naval contingent from Victoria, Australia. On 7 September 1901 the Qing Government surrendered, and signed the Xinchou Treaty with eleven countries (the eight powers plus Belgium, Spain and Holland), which included a provision that the Dagu Port be demolished. This treaty was accompanied by a further development of foreign concessions, when between 1900 and 1902 new ones were opened by Russia, Italy, Belgium and Austria; the American

Concession was absorbed by the British; and the German and Japanese concessions were expanded. Most of the developed area, including the earlier concessions, had been enclosed within the line of a mud wall, about half of which survived after 1900. Outside this line fell the whole of the Belgian and German concessions; about half of the Russian one; the westward extension of the British concession; and the separate southern Japanese area. There was also a further influx of Western banks and business such as the American International Banking Corporation, in 1901; the Banque de I'Indo-Chine (French), I 1902; the Tianjin Waterworks Company (British) in 1902; and the Tianjin Tram and Electric Co. (Belgian) in 1904. Yuan Shikai, governor-general of Zhili Province from 1903 to 1907, developed the north of the town, the end opposite from the concessions. Dajing Road was a broad avenue about three kilometers long, running north-east to Central Station, which was opened in 1907. It linked the new rail transport network with the old river network, and Yuan sponsored model factories and schools along the road, and created the surrounding area, with the first municipal park, the library, mint, Public Security Bureau, and his own headquarters (which were later the offices of the Hebei Provincial Government, and finally of the Tianjin municipal government. In 1903 the Zhili Gongyi Zongju (Zhili General Bureau of Technology) was established, and it played an important part in the establishment of technical schools and factories. In 1905 the Tianjin Mint was established. The Qixin Cement Company was established in 1906 and the Luanzhou Coal Mine Company in 1907, followed by other enterprises, totaling about forty by 1914. Tianjin had been active in moves to overthrow the Qing Government. On 20 December 1910 Tianjin students presented a petition for a national assembly to be convened, and followed this with a sit-down strike. With the success of the armed uprising in Wuchang in 1911 a number of revolutionary organizations were set up in Tianjin, such as the Northern Revolution Association, which met at Jixian Li in the French Concession. Dr Sun Yat Sen returned to China and the inauguration of the Republic was formally announced. An uprising in Tianjin in January 1912 proved unsuccessful, and in February the provisional national assembly at Nanjing elected Yuan Shikai as provisional president. Political dissidence was now largely muzzled, but in October 1916 the French attempted to enlarge their Concession by forcibly occupying the district of Lao Sikai, and formidable opposition emerged. The employees of French enterprises like the French Electric Power Company and the Yipin Company went on strike. They were

supported by the students and hen the merchants, all meeting in the Tianjin Commercial Association Hall. After five or six months the French abandoned their enterprise. Tianjin was now influenced by the New Culture Movement of Beijing, and Zhou Enlai, whilst studying at Tianjin, published articles advocating democracy in the magazines they edited, Yan Zhi 'On politics', and Jing Ye 'Respect for study', respectively. Zhou was also active in the New Drama Movement at Nankai Middle School. After the May Fourth Movement, which persuaded the Chinese Government not to accede to the inequitable provisions of the Versailles Peace Treaty, Zhou published the Tientsin Student, and in 1919 founded a body called the Awakening Society which, together with bodies like the Women's Star Society (1923) promoted the doctrines of Marxism. The Haihe river proved less amenable to control than the French, for the five rivers which flowed into it at Tianjin (the Daqing, Nanyun, Beiyun, Ziya and Yongding) presented a continuing threat of flooding. The Haihe River Conservancy Commission was a Sino-foreign organization which had been established 1897 to improve the navigability of the river, and in 1902 an acute elbow in the river downstream from the concessions was cut through. In 1917, however, the dykes burst and the waters spread over 15,000 square miles and left more than six million people homeless. A British resident of Tianjin wrote of the concessions rising out of the water like islands, so the 'when the wind was high the breakers were heavy and frequently broke over the back walls of the Travers-Smith houses'.

Following the floods were made to improve the drainage of the British and adjoining concessions, and in 1918, after the Zhili River Commission had declined to take action in connection with the Flood Relief Bureau, the municipal administrations of the British, French, Japanese and ex-German concessions decided to implement a joint scheme. This involved improving the Weitze Creek, which was described as a tidal waterway, and was apparently identical with the old Mud Wall Canal (Qiangzi He), passing roughly through the center of the Japanese, French and British concessions as extended. The concessions were to be drained into the creek, and pumping equipment installed at the Haihe River end to control the water level and permit frequent flushing. The drainage scheme was finally authorized by the civil governor, Tsao Jui, in 1920, and the work began. It was found necessary also to construct a lock at the Haikwanssu

end of the creek, so as to shut off tributary waters and to enable the creek to be pumped out. Although both locks were ready in the summer of 1923 there was a dispute over the control, and the whole scheme remained idle for some time. Also in the early 1920s, large amounts of silt were dredged form the Haihe River by the River Conservancy Commission, and were used to reclaim the British extramural area. Notwithstanding this the silting up of the river continued, and in 1927 the depth was only 3.6 meters, so that all boats had to unload their goods into barges at Tanggu. The Qing and Republican administrations had developed the Hebei and Hongqiao districts. The city then came under warlord control until December 1925. At that time Tianjin was taken by General Feng Yuxiang of the National Army, a sympathizer with the revolution, and henceforward there prevailed a climate more favorable to the development of Communism. The enlarged Shun Zhi Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party was organized in Tianjin in 1927, and in 1929 an underground printing press was established. All of this had little immediate effect upon the foreign-controlled areas. Although the population of foreigners was small, their activities had turned the concession areas along the Haihe River into the economic center of Tianjin, while the old City had become a backwater. In the 1920s Tianjin was exporting principally raw cotton and wool, and also linseed, ground nuts, goat skins and pig bristles. Of the imports 40 per cent were cotton goods. By 1923 the population approached 900,000. In 1912, after the revolution of the previous year, Tianjin became a city under Zhili Province. In 1928 it became a 'special city' under direct central control, and in 1930 was placed under the Executive Yuan of the Kuomintang government. Despite such natural disadvantages as the flooding, by the1930s Tianjin had a foreign trade second only to that of Shanghai, and was the largest center of industry and commerce in North China. The Japanese had steadily increased their influence in Tianjin until in 1935 they forced the Nationalists to sign an agreement precluding Nationalist troops form being stationed in the Beijing-Tianjin region. In response to this Tianjin students rebelled, in the December Ninth Movement. In the spring of 1936 Liu Shaoqi came to Tianjin to direct the work of the Northern Bureau of the Communist Party, and he expanded the Anti-Japanese National United Front in Tianjin. However the Japanese occupied Beijing on 28 July 1937, and two days later captured Tianjin, which they then held until 1945. The Japanese once again assigned to Tianjin the status of 'special city'. Tianjin had become the fifth largest Chinese city by 1927, the third largest by 1935, and the

second by 1947, when the population was 1.7 million. In 1949 there was a built-up area of 61 square kilometers and a population of 1.91 million. In 1945, after the surrender of Japan, American troops were stationed in Tianjin, and the city was once again placed under the direct control of the Kuomintang government. Early in December 1948 the Communist laid siege to the city. The government conscripted large numbers of civilians to build fortifications in the streets. This suggested hat house-to-house fighting was at hand, and caused panic. On 15 January 1949 the People's Liberation Army stormed and occupied Tianjin, ending the agony that had tormented it for months. Although it had suffered little physical damage, it had been prostrated by the ravages of rampant inflation and by the depredations of the demoralized Kuomintang army. Tianjin had an ancient and deeply-rooted urban social structure, unlike Shanghai, and its capture by the Communist Party was a turning point in the revolution, shifting the focus from the countryside to the cities. Beijing and the other major cities of north and east China followed shortly, and Mao Zedong, as party chairman, told about fifty of the highest ranking members of the Communist Party on 5 March 1949: We must do our utmost to learn how to administer and build the cities. In the cities we must learn how to wage political, economic and cultural struggles against the imperialists, the Kuomintang and the bourgeoisie.

The Treaties of Tianjin () were signed in Tianjin in June 1858, ending the first part of the Second Opium War (1856-1860). France, UK, Russia, and the United States were the parties involved. These treaties opened eleven more Chinese ports (see Treaty of Nanjing) to the foreigners, permitted foreign legations in Beijing, allow Christian missionary activity, and legalised the import of opium. They were ratified by the Emperor of China in the Beijing Convention in 1860, after the end of the war. The major points of the treaties were:

1. Britain, France, Russia and the United States would have the right to station legations in Beijing (a closed city at the time) 2. Ten more Chinese ports would be opened for foreign trade, including Niuzhuang, Danshui, Hankou and Nanjing 3. The right of foreign vessels including warships to navigate freely on the Yangtze River 4. The right of foreigners to travel in the internal regions of China for the purpose of travel, trade or missionary activities 5. China was to pay an indemnity to Britain and France in 2 million taels of silver respectively, and compensation to British merchants in 2 million taels of silver. 6. The Chinese are to be banned from referring to Westerners by the character "yi" (barbarian).