Prior to the 19th century, the Chinese were concerned that European trade and missionary activity would upset the order of the empire. Strictly controlled and subject to import tariffs, European traders were limited to operating in Canton and Macao. Following a series of military defeats against Britain and France, Qing China were slowly forced to permit extraterritorial privileges for foreign nationals and even cessions of Chinese sovereignty over certain ports and mineral rights. Foreign trade was approved there for the British and French by the 1860 Peking Convention. Between 1895 and 1900, these two powers were joined by Japan, Germany, Russia, Austria Hungary, Italy and Belgium – countries without concessions elsewhere in China – in establishing self-contained concessions each with their own prisons, schools, barracks, and hospitals. Offered here is an accordion style photo album, 8 x 6 in., with black lacquered cover featuring a noblewoman being pulled along in a rickshaw, consisting of 26 b/w photographs with varied locales, including Tsingtau and Hong Kong. Images depict: churches; a memorial for soldiers of the third Sea Battalion; bustling city streets and sea ports; the Diederich Stone, a monument in honor of Admiral Diederich and the German occupation of the Kiautschou concession; an assembly of Chinese soldiers; artillery; a large boulder with the carving ‘1898. 1912. PRINZENBAD’ (‘1898. 1912. The place where the princes bathed’); German soldiers posing together on a mountainside; men pulling a supply-filled wagon free from a ditch; a play or musical performance; local sailors; and a thick cloud of billowing smoke overtaking a village. Some light chipping to the covers, else very good.