View source for History of Shanghai

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{{See also|Timeline of Shanghai history}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2019}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2013}}

[[File:Dajing Ge wall.jpg|thumb|The [[Dajing Ge Pavillion|''Dàjìng Gé'' Pavilion]] wall, which is the only remaining part of the [[Old City of Shanghai]] wall]]
The '''history of Shanghai''' spans over a thousand years and closely parallels the development of [[History of China#Modern China|modern China]]. Originally a small agricultural village, [[Shanghai]] developed during the late [[Qing dynasty]] (1644–1912) as one of China's principal trading ports. Although nominally part of China, in practice foreign diplomats controlled the city under the policy of [[extraterritoriality]]. Since the [[Chinese economic reform|economic reforms]] of the early 1990s the city has burgeoned to become one of Asia's major financial centers<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.zyen.com/PDF/LCGFC.pdf |title=The Competitive Position of London as a Global Financial Centre |access-date=November 6, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110224826/http://www.zyen.com/PDF/LCGFC.pdf |archive-date=November 10, 2013 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref> and the [[List of busiest container ports|world's busiest container port]].<ref name="straitstimes">{{cite news |title=Shanghai overtakes S'pore as world's busiest port |url=http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_621944.html |newspaper=Straits Times |date=January 8, 2011| access-date=September 14, 2011}}</ref>

== Early Era ==
[[File:Early Shanghai after Yan 1984 EN.svg|thumb|Early settlements of Shanghai]]

Around 6000 BCE, only the western part of the Shanghai region encompassing today's [[Qingpu District, Shanghai|Qingpu]], [[Songjiang District|Songjiang]] and [[Jinshan District|Jinshan]] districts were dry land formed by lacustrine silting from ancient [[Lake Tai]]. The modern [[Jiading District|Jiading]], [[Minhang District|Minhang]] and [[Fengxian District|Fengxian]] districts emerged around 1,000 BC while the downtown area remained underwater.

The earliest Neolithic settlements known in this area date to the [[Majiabang culture]]  (5000{{ndash}}3300 BCE).{{sfn|Peregrine|Ember|2001|p=207}} This was overlapped by the [[Songze culture]] between around 3800–3300 BCE. In the lower stratum of the Songze excavation site in the modern-day Qingpu District, archaeologists found the prone skeleton of one of the Shanghai's earliest inhabitants{{mdash}}a 25-30-year-old male with an almost complete skull dated to the Majiabang era.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://museum.shqp.gov.cn/gb/content/2009-03/03/content_238558.htm |title = The Shanghainese of 6000 Years Ago - the Majiabang Culture |publisher = Shanghai Qingpu Museum |access-date = 2014-11-24 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170104183445/http://museum.shqp.gov.cn/gb/content/2009-03/03/content_238558.htm |archive-date =  2017-01-04 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

By the 4th and 5th centuries CE, during the [[Eastern Jin dynasty]] (317{{ndash}}420), a thriving fishing industry had developed along the Song River{{mdash}}now known as [[Suzhou Creek]],<ref name="McGill">{{cite web |url = https://www.mcgill.ca/mchg/student/lilong/chapter1 |title = Lilong Housing, A Traditional Settlement Form |publisher=[[McGill University]]|access-date=20 November 2014 }}</ref>{{mdash}}a tributary of the [[Huangpu River]]. Located some {{convert|12|mi}} from the [[Yangtze|Yangtze River]] estuary, China's largest inland waterway, the creek was at that time known as the ''Hu'' ({{zh|s=沪|labels=no}}), a character that represents a fishing trap, of which there were a number in the river.{{sfn|Cruz|2014|p=572}} The character ''Hu'' is still used as an abbreviation to denote the city, for example on car license plates.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.licenseplatemania.com/landenpaginas/china.htm |title=China|access-date=20 November 2014}}</ref> Qinglong Zhen ({{zh|s=青龙镇|t=芊龍鎮|labels=no}}), the "Garrison of the [[Azure Dragon]]", the first garrison in this area, was founded in 746 during the [[Tang dynasty]] (618–907) in what is now the [[Qingpu District, Shanghai|Qingpu District]] of Shanghai.<ref name="McGill" /> Five years later, Huating Zhèn ({{zh|s=花亭镇|t=華亭镇|l=Garrison of the Flower Temple|labels=no}}){{NoteTag|Part of the then Huating County ({{zh|s=华亭县|t=華亭縣|labels=no}}), now part of Shanghai's [[Songjiang District]].}} followed, demonstrating the growth of the region and its increasing political and geographical importance.<ref name="McGill" />

In 1074, [[Emperor Shenzong of Song]], established a Marine Office and a Goods Control Bureau north-west of Huating Zhen at the approximate location of Shanghai's old city, adjacent to a ditch or ''pu'' ({{zh|c=浦|labels=no}}) that ran north into [[Suzhou Creek]] and allowed for the loading and unloading of freight.<ref name="McGill" />

Later on, the area's proximity to [[Hangzhou]], the capital of the [[Southern Song dynasty]] (1127-1279), proved beneficial.{{sfn|Cruz|2014|p=572}} Along with its commercial activities, Qinglong Zhen became a military and naval base and by the early 12th century a Superintendent of Foreign Trade{{NoteTag|Part of the central government's [[Three Departments and Six Ministries|Ministry of Revenue]].}} was established in the settlement to supervise trade and tax collections across five counties. As a result, the flourishing and prosperous town earn the sobriquet "Little Hangzhou."<ref name="Johnson1993">{{cite book |first = Linda Cooke |last = Johnson |title = Cities of Jiangnan in Late Imperial China |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=VePRmDUKA9kC |year=1993 |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-0-7914-1424-8 |page=155 }}</ref>

According to official government sources, Shanghai first became a city in 1291 during the [[Yuan dynasty]] (1271–1368).<ref>{{cite book |first = Jeffrey N. |last = Wasserstrom |title = Shanghai: A History in Fragments |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=OQ6EAgAAQBAJ |page=2 |year=2008 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-61373-1 }}</ref> At this time, five of Huating Zhen's villages were amalgamated to form a new [[Shanghai County]] ({{zh |s=上海县 |t=上海縣 |p = Shànghǎi Xiàn |labels=no }}) on the site of the modern city centre. This new settlement had a population of about 300,000 with many engaged in the shipping trade.<ref name="McGill" />

== Ming dynasty ==
[[File:Map of the Old City of Shanghai.jpg|thumb|Map of the Old City of Shanghai]]
By the early 15th century, Shanghai had become important enough for [[Ming dynasty]] engineers to begin dredging the Huangpu River (also known as Shen). In 1553, a city wall was built around the Old Town (Nanshi) as a defense against the depredations of the [[Wokou]] (Japanese pirates). Shanghai had its first contact with the [[Jesuits]] in 1603 when the Shanghai scholar-bureaucrat [[Xu Guangqi]] was baptized by Jesuit priest [[Matteo Ricci]].<ref>{{cite book|first1=John E. Jr|last1= Wills |title=China and Maritime Europe, 1500–1800: Trade, Settlement, Diplomacy, and Missions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zERymZzBQQYC|year=2010|page=103|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-49426-7}}</ref> Xu later bequeathed some of his land in Shanghai, today's [[Xujiahui]], meaning Xu family village, to the Catholic Church. By the end of the Ming dynasty in 1644, Shanghai had become a major cotton and textile center with a population that would soon reach 200,000.

== Qing dynasty ==
[[File:Guards of Shanghai Old City.jpg|thumb|Guards of Shanghai Old City]]
During the late [[Qing dynasty]], Shanghai's economy began to rival that of the traditionally larger market at [[Suzhou]]. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, exports of cotton and silk reached as far as [[Polynesia]] and [[Persia]].<ref>Arnold Wright, ''Twentieth century impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other treaty ports of China: their history, people, commerce, industries, and resources'' (1908). [https://books.google.com/books?id=tQI_AQAAIAAJ&dq=Shanghai+imports+history+&pg=PA13 online]</ref>

In 1832, the [[East India Company]] explored Shanghai and the Yangzi River as a potential trading center for tea, silk, and opium, but were rebuffed by local officials. Chinese attempts to prohibit the [[History of opium in China|opium trade into China]] led to the [[First Opium War]] (1839–1842) with the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]]; the [[Treaty of Nanking|Treaty of Nanjing]], which concluded the war with a British victory, opened up five [[treaty ports]] in China to British merchants, including Shanghai. Similar treaties were quickly signed with other [[Western world|Western]] nations, and French, American and German merchants joined their British counterparts in establishing a presence in Shanghai, residing in [[Concessions in China|sovereign concessions]] where they were not [[Extraterritoriality|subject to Chinese laws]]. The British established their concession in 1845, the Americans in 1848 in [[Hongkou]], north of Suzhou Creek, and the French set up their concession in 1849 west of the old Chinese city and south of the British Concession. In 1846, [[Peter Felix Richards|Peter Richards]] founded [[Richards' Hotel]], the first western hotel in China. It would later become the [[Astor House Hotel (Shanghai)|Astor House]]. In 1850, the first English-language newspaper in Shanghai, the ''[[North China Daily News|North China Herald]]'', was launched.

[[File:EB9 Shanghai (no caption).png|thumb|250px|left|Shanghai, {{circa|lk=no|1886}}<ref>"[[:s:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Shanghai|Shanghai]]" in the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', {{nowrap|9th ed.}} 1886.</ref>]]

The [[Taiping Rebellion]] was the largest of a number of widespread rebellions against the hugely unpopular Qing regime. In 1853, Shanghai was occupied by a [[Triad society|triad]] offshoot of the rebels called the [[Small Swords Society]]. The fighting devastated much of the countryside but left the foreign settlements untouched.{{Citation needed|date=November 2011}} 
[[File:Gun transportation at Jiangnan Arsenal.jpg|thumb|Gun transportation at [[Shanghai]] [[Jiangnan Arsenal]] (上海江南制造兵工厂), during the [[Self-Strengthening Movement]]]]

In 1854 a group of Western businessmen met and formed the [[Shanghai Municipal Council]] to organise road repairs, refuse clearance and tax collection across the concessions. In 1863 the American concession (land fronting the Huangpu River to the north-east of Suzhou Creek) officially joined the British Settlement (stretching from Yang-ching-pang Creek to Suzhou Creek) to become the [[Shanghai International Settlement]]. Its waterfront became the internationally famous [[The Bund (Shanghai)|Bund]]. The [[Shanghai French Concession]], to the west of the old town, remained independent and the Chinese retained control over the original walled city and the area surrounding the foreign enclaves. By the late-1860s Shanghai's official governing body had been practically transferred from the individual concessions to the Shanghai Municipal Council. The International Settlement was wholly foreign-controlled with the British holding the largest number of seats on the council and heading all the Municipal departments. No Chinese residing in the International Settlement were permitted to join the council until 1928.

[[History of Jardine, Matheson & Co.|Jardine's]] attempt to construct the [[Woosung Road|Woosung "Road"]] railway in 1876{{spaced ndash}}China's [[history of rail transport in China|first]]{{spaced ndash}}proved initially successful until the death of a soldier on the tracks prompted the Chinese government to demand its [[nationalization]]. Upon the last payment in 1877, the local [[viceroy of Liangjiang|viceroy]] ordered the profitable railway dismantled and removed to [[Taiwan]].<ref name="Confus">Pong, David. "[https://www.jstor.org/pss/311679 Confucian Patriotism and the Destruction of the Woosung Railway, 1877]", pp. 647&ndash;676. ''Modern Asian Studies'', Vol. VII, No. 4. Cambridge University Press, 1973.</ref> The telegraph that had been strung along the line of the railway{{spaced ndash}}also China's first{{spaced ndash}}was, however, allowed to remain in operation.

By the mid-1880s, the Shanghai Municipal Council had a practical monopoly over a large part of the city's services. It bought up all the local gas-suppliers, electricity producers and water-companies. In the early 20th century, it took control over all non-private rickshaws and the Settlement tramways. It also regulated opium sales and prostitution until their banning in 1918 and 1920 respectively.

The [[Treaty of Shimonoseki]], which ended the [[First Sino-Japanese War]], saw Japan emerge as an additional foreign power in Shanghai. Japan built the first factories in Shanghai,{{Citation needed|date=November 2011}} which were soon followed by other foreign powers. The Chinese defeat also spurred reformers within the Qing government to modernize more quickly, leading to the reëstablishment of the [[Songhu Railway]] and its expansion into the [[Shanghai&ndash;Nanjing Railway]].

== Republic of China ==
[[Image:Shanghai 1933.jpg|thumb|1933 map of Shanghai]]
The 1911 [[Xinhai Revolution]], spurred in part by actions against the native-owned railways around Shanghai, led to the establishment of the [[Republic of China (1912–49)|Republic of China]]. During that time, Shanghai became the focal point of many activities that would eventually shape modern China.

In 1936, Shanghai was one of the largest cities in the world with 3 million inhabitants.  Of those, only 35,000-50,000 were of European origin, but these controlled half the city under the unequal treaties that provided [[extraterritoriality]] until 1943.<ref>Gregory Bracken, "Treaty Ports in China: Their Genesis, Development, and Influence." Journal of Urban History (2019), Vol. 45 Issue 1, pp 168-176</ref>  Many [[White émigré|White Russians]] fled to China after the 1917 [[Russian Revolution]], trickling to Shanghai along the 1920s. The number of people with Russian origins was about 35,000 by the 1930s, well exceeding number of other people with European origin. These [[Shanghai Russians]] were sometimes poorly regarded by westerners, as their general poverty led them to take jobs considered unsuitable for Europeans, including prostitution.<ref>Newham, Fraser. "The White Russians of Shanghai". ''History Today,'' Dec 2005, Vol. 55, No. 12, pp. 20&ndash;27.</ref> However, among Russian emigration was layered, also including several well-to-do members. Russian artists dominated Shanghai's artistic life almost single-handedly. Many [[Jewish refugees from German-occupied Europe|Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany]] arrived in the 1930s.<ref>David Kranzler, ''Japanese, Nazis & Jews: The Jewish Refugee Community of Shanghai, 1938-1945''  (Yeshiva University Press, 1976).</ref>

The city was thus divided between its more European western half and the more traditionally Chinese eastern half. New inventions like electricity and trams were quickly introduced, and Westerners helped transform Shanghai into a metropolis. British and American businessmen made a great deal of money in trade and finance, and Germans used Shanghai as a base for investing in China. Shanghai accounted for half of the imports and exports of China. The western part of Shanghai grew to a size four times larger than the Chinese part had been in the early 20th century.<ref>Leo Ou-fan Lee, and Oufan Li., ''Shanghai modern: The flowering of a new urban culture in China, 1930-1945'' (Harvard University Press, 1999).</ref>

[[Image:HuangpuparkOld2.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Park regulations, 1917]]
European and American inhabitants of Shanghai called themselves the [[Shanghailander]]s. After problems during its initial few years, the [[Huangpu Park|Public Garden]] north of the Bund{{spaced ndash}}China's first public park and today's [[Huangpu Park]]{{spaced ndash}}was for decades reserved for the foreign nationals and forbidden to Chinese natives. The International Settlement was built in the British style with a large racetrack at the site of today's [[People's Square (Shanghai)|People's Square]]. A new class emerged, the [[Comprador bourgeoisie|compradors]], which mixed with the local landlords to form a new class, a Chinese bourgeoisie.{{Citation needed|date=November 2011}} The compradors were indispensable mediators for the western companies. Many compradors were on the leading edge of the movement to modernize China.{{clarify|date=November 2011}} Shanghai was then the biggest financial city in East Asia.{{Citation needed|date=November 2011}}

=== Chinese society ===
Chinese society was divided into native place associations or provincial guilds. These guilds defended the interests of traders from shared hometowns. They had their own dress codes and sub-cultures. Chinese government was hardly organized, for the foreign governments controlled the economy. Instead, society was controlled by the native place associations. The [[Guangdong]] native place associations represented the skilled workers of Shanghai. These native place associations belonged to the top of Shanghainese society. The [[Ningbo]] and [[Jiangsu]] native place associations were the most numerous. They represented the common workers. Some came from the north of China. They were on the bottom rung of the social ladder. Many of them were forced to work as seasonal workers or even mobsters.<ref>Christian Henriot, ''Shanghai, 1927–1937: Municipal Power, Locality, and Modernization'' (U of California Press, 1993).</ref><ref>Gail Hershatter, ''Dangerous pleasures: Prostitution and modernity in twentieth-century Shanghai'' (U of California Press, 1997).</ref>

[[Image:CanidromePerform.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[Buck Clayton]] performing in the 1930s in the [[Canidrome (Shanghai)|Canidrome]]]]

===Shanghai Grand===
During the 1920s and 1930s Shanghai became known as "The Paris of the East, the New York of the West".<ref>Concierge Traveler. "[http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/articles/detail?articleId=10426 Concierge] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928070211/http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/articles/detail?articleId=10426 |date=September 28, 2007 }}." ''Shanghai Shadows.'' Retrieved on May 13, 2007.</ref> Shanghai was made a [[Municipalities of China|special city]] in 1927, and a municipality in May 1930. The city's industrial and financial power increased, because the merchants were in control of the city,  while the rest of China was divided among [[Warlord era|warlords]].

Artistically, Shanghai became the hub for three new art forms: [[Chinese cinema]], [[Chinese animation]], and [[Chinese popular music]]. Other forms of entertainment included [[Lianhuanhua]] comic books.  The architectural style at the time was modeled after British and American designs. Many of the grandest-scale buildings on [[The Bund (Shanghai)|The Bund]]{{spaced ndash}}such as [[Shanghai Club Building|Shanghai Club]], the [[Asia Building, Shanghai|Asia Building]] and the [[HSBC Building, the Bund|HSBC Building]]{{spaced ndash}}were constructed or renovated at this time. The city created a distinct image that separated it from all other Chinese cities that had come before it.<ref>Leo Ou-fan Lee, ''Shanghai Modern: The Flowering of a New Urban Culture in China, 1930–1945'' (1999)</ref>

"Bizarre advertising displays were an everyday reality ... though I sometimes wonder if everyday reality was the one element missing from the city", British novelist [[J. G. Ballard]], who was born and raised in Shanghai during this era, recalled in his autobiography. "I would see something strange and mysterious, but treat it as normal ... Anything was possible, and everything could be bought and sold". The experience inspired much of his later fiction.<ref name="J.G. Ballard">{{cite book |last1=Ballard |first1=J.G. |author-link1=J. G. Ballard |title=Miracles of Life: Shanghai to Shepperton, An Autobiography |date=2008 |publisher=[[W.W. Norton]] |isbn=9780871404206 |pages=4–6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OpkDqpOZ7QMC&pg=PA4 |access-date=24 November 2018}}</ref>

Economic achievements include the city becoming the commercial center of [[East Asia]], attracting banks from all over the world.  When movies and literature depict the golden days of by-gone Shanghai, it is generally associated with this era.

===Power struggle===
[[File:SuzhouCreekOld2.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[Suzhou Creek]] around 1920]]
[[Image:Shanghai1920s.jpg|thumb|300px|Jiujiang Road, Shanghai, late 1920s]]
{{See also|Shanghai massacre of 1927}}
The city was also the center of national and international [[History of opium in China|opium smuggling]] during the 1920s. In the 1930s, "The Great World" amusement palace was a place where opium, prostitution and gambling came together under the leadership of gangster [[Huang Jinrong]] also known as "Pockmarked Huang".<ref>{{cite book|first1=Nelson|last1=Chang|first2=Laurence|last2=Chang|title=The Zhangs from Nanxun: A One Hundred and Fifty Year Chronicle of a Chinese Family|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UI3_-7dMPIoC&pg=PA78|year=2010|publisher=CF Press|isbn=978-0-692-00845-4|page=78}}</ref> Huang was the highest-ranked Chinese detective in the French Concession Police (FCP) and employed [[Green Gang]] (''Qing Bang'') leader [[Du Yuesheng]] as his gambling and opium enforcer. The Green Gang became a major influence in the [[Shanghai International Settlement]], with the Commissioner of the Shanghai Municipal Police reporting that corruption associated with the trade had affected a large proportion of his force. An extensive crackdown in 1925 simply displaced the focus of the trade to the neighboring French Concession.

Meanwhile, traditional division of society by native place associations was falling apart. The new working classes were not prepared to listen to the bosses of the same native place associations during the 1910s. Resentment against the foreign presence in Shanghai rose among both the entrepreneurs and the workers of Shanghai.{{Citation needed|date=November 2011}} In 1919, protests by the [[May Fourth Movement]] against the [[Treaty of Versailles]] led to the rise of a new group of philosophers like [[Chen Duxiu]] and [[Hu Shih]] who challenged Chinese traditionalism with new ideologies. Books like ''[[La Jeunesse|New Youth]]'' disseminated the new school of thought, while crime and warlord banditry convinced many that the existing government was largely ineffective.{{Citation needed|date=November 2011}} In this atmosphere, the [[Chinese Communist Party]] was founded in Shanghai in 1921.

The [[Kuomintang|Nationalist]] leader [[Chiang Kai-shek]] and the Shanghailanders entered into an informal alliance with the Green Gang, which acted against the Communists and organized labor unions. The nationalists had cooperated with gang leaders since the [[Xinhai Revolution|revolution]]. Although sporadic fighting between gangsters and communists had occurred previously, many communists were killed in a major surprise attack during the [[April 12 Incident]] in the Chinese-administered part of Shanghai. Suspected leftists were shot on sight, so that many{{spaced ndash}}including [[Zhou Enlai]]{{spaced ndash}}fled the city.<ref>{{cite book|author=Jay Taylor|title=The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China|url=https://archive.org/details/generalissimochi00tayl|url-access=registration|year=2009|publisher=Harvard University Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/generalissimochi00tayl/page/66 66]–7|isbn=9780674033382}}</ref>

In the late 1920s and early '30s, large residential areas were built north of the foreign concessions. These residential areas were modern, with good roads and parking lots for automobiles. A new Chinese port was built,{{where|date=November 2011}} which could compete with the Shanghailanders' ports.{{Citation needed|date=November 2011}} Chiang Kai-shek continuously demanded large amounts of money from the financial world in Shanghai. Most bankers and merchants were willing to invest in the army, but this stopped in 1928. Chiang responded by nationalizing all enterprises.{{Citation needed|date=November 2011}} [[T. V. Soong]], Chiang's brother-in-law, chastised his erstwhile relative, writing that it is better to strengthen the party and the economy as well instead of focusing only on the army.{{Citation needed|date=November 2011}}

Supported by the progressive native place associations, Chiang Kai-shek's rule turned increasingly autocratic.<ref>Brian G. Martin, ''Shanghai Green Gang: Politics & Organized Crime, 1919-1937'' (1996) ch 4</ref> The power of the gangsters rose in the early 1930s, especially the power of the [[Green Gang]] leader [[Du Yuesheng]] who started his own native place association. Chiang Kai-shek chose to cooperate with gangsters in order to maintain his grip on Chinese society. This meant that the gangsters remained middlemen during the rule of the nationalists, controlling society by frequently organizing strikes.  Mobsters stormed the [[Shanghai Stock Exchange]] to gain control over it. No one interfered: the police because they had been dominated by the mobsters since 1919,  the Shanghailanders because it was an internal Chinese affair, and the nationalists because they were trying to break the power of the entrepreneurs.  The entrepreneurs were forced to make a deal after a second raid.<ref>Brian G. Martin, ''Shanghai Green Gang: Politics & Organized Crime, 1919-1937'' (1996) ch 5</ref>

=== Greater Shanghai Plan ===
{{Main|Greater Shanghai Plan}}
In 1927, the government of the [[Nationalist Government (China)|Nationalist Government of the Republic of China]] drew up a plan to develop land in the north east of the city adjacent to the [[Huangpu River]]. In 1922, this area had also been earmarked by [[Sun Yat-sen]], founder of the [[Republic of China (1912–49)|Chinese Republic]], as the center of China's development plans with a view to Shanghai becoming a global commercial centre. By 1931, the new Shanghai Special City Government had approved and started work on the Greater Shanghai Plan utilising ideas drawn from British expert [[Ebenezer Howard]]'s 1902 book ''Garden Cities of Tomorrow''.<ref>{{Cite web | url = http://www.news365.com.cn/bhygb/shzd/201204/t20120416_364122.html | title = 旧上海市区道路的三种形态 (The three types of road in old Shanghai) | publisher = Shanghai Daily | date = 15 April 2012 | access-date = 11 March 2014 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://archive.today/20140314170309/http://www.news365.com.cn/bhygb/shzd/201204/t20120416_364122.html | archive-date = March 14, 2014 | df = mdy-all }}{{nbsp}}{{in lang|zh}}</ref> The grid layout of the new area also followed contemporary trends in European and American urban planning.

==End of Old Shanghai (1937&ndash;1945)==
[[Image:Shanghai1937IJA north station.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[Battle of Shanghai]]]]

===World War II and the Japanese Occupation===
The [[Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service]] bombed Shanghai on January 28, 1932, nominally to crush Chinese student protests against the [[Manchurian Incident|Japanese occupation of Manchuria]]. The Chinese fought back in what was known as the [[January 28 Incident]]. The two sides fought to a standstill and a ceasefire was brokered in May.

During the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]], the Chinese-controlled parts of the city fell after the 1937 [[Battle of Shanghai]] (known in China as the Battle of Songhu).<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Coble |first=Parks M. |title=The Collapse of Nationalist China: How Chiang Kai-shek Lost China's Civil War |date=2023 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-009-29761-5 |location=Cambridge New York, NY |author-link=Parks M. Coble}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=10-11}} The foreign concessions entered what became known as the "Solitary Island" period.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=11}} Many foreign institutions, such as banks, continued operating in this areas.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=11}} With the beginning of the [[Pacific War]], Japan occupied the foreign areas of Shanghai on 8 December 1941.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Allison |first=Rottmann |date=2007 |title=Resistance, urban style: The New Fourth Army and Shanghai, 1937--1945 |type=Ph.D. |publisher=University of California, Berkeley}}</ref> {{Rp|page=12}} It seized most of the banks in these areas of Shanghai and declared that the Nationalist currency [[History of Chinese currency#Fabi|fabi]] had to be exchanged for bank notes of the [[Wang Jingwei regime]].<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=15}}

Tensions within the city led to a wave of assassinations against Chinese officials who worked with the Japanese authorities: during January and February, 1939, 16 pro-Japanese officials and businessmen were assassinated by Chinese resistance organizations.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20081214211248/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,760828,00.html "War in China" ''Time'', March 6, 1939].</ref> 

Shanghai suffered less than many other cities during World War II, and the Japanese occupiers attempted to maintain many aspects of life as they had been before. The [[Shanghai Race Club]] reopened soon after the occupation and continued to host races throughout the war, even after most British and American Shanghai residents were interned. The races continued as late as August, 1945.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Carter |first1=James |title=Champions Day: The End of Old Shanghai |date=2020 |publisher=W.W. Norton |location=New York |isbn=9780393635942 |url=https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393635942}}</ref>

During [[World War II]], the extraterritoriality of the foreign concessions provided a haven for visa-less [[Refugees of World War II|European refugees]]. It was, along with [[Francoist Spain]], the only location in the world unconditionally open to [[History of the Jews in China|Jews]] at the time. However, under pressure from their [[Axis Powers|ally]] [[Nazi Germany]], the Japanese removed the Jews in late 1941 to what became known as the [[Shanghai Ghetto|Shanghai ghetto]], where hunger and infectious diseases such as [[amoebic dysentery|dysentery]] became rife. The foreign population rose from 35,000 in 1936 to 150,000 in 1942 (Jewish immigration was 20000-25000 from 1933 to 1941).{{dubious|date=November 2011}} The Japanese were still harsher on belligerent nationals: Britons, Americans and the [[Dutch people|Dutch]]. These slowly lost their privileges and had to wear letters{{spaced ndash}}B, A, or N{{spaced ndash}}when walking in public places; their villas were turned into brothels and gambling houses,{{Citation needed|date=November 2011}} and they were finally interned in concentration camps, notably [[Lunghua Civilian Assembly Center]], in 1943. The whole of Shanghai remained under Japanese occupation until the [[surrender of Japan]] on 15 August 1945.

After the ending of the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, the poorly-paid Chinese Nationalist forces sometimes engaged in looting.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=93}}

===End of the Foreign Concessions===
Following the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]], the Japanese ended all foreign concessions in Shanghai except for the French. This state of affairs was conceded by an Anglo-Chinese Friendship Treaty in 1943.{{clarify|date=August 2013}} The French themselves ceded their privileges in 1946 following the end of World War II.

==Early Communist rule (1949&ndash;1980s)==
[[Image:LiJinhui.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Li Jinhui]], one of the many prominent figures in the artistic circle of Shanghai who would die under political persecution]]

===Communist Transition===
[[File:PLA Troops entered to Nanjing Road, Shanghai.jpg|thumb|[[People's Liberation Army]] troops entering [[Nanjing Road]] on May 25, 1949.]]
In the last phases of the [[Chinese Civil War]], the [[Shanghai Campaign]] brought the urban core of the city under the control of [[Chen Yi (marshal)|Chen Yi]]'s [[People's Liberation Army]] and the [[Chinese Communist Party]] on May 25, 1949. The districts immediately north of [[Suzhou Creek]] were taken the next day and the entire present municipality including [[Chongming Island]] subsequently fell by the first days of June. The [[Republic of China Army]] had vowed to make the city "China's [[Battle of Stalingrad|Stalingrad]]" the way [[Battle of Shanghai|it had previously contested Imperial Japanese control]] in 1937 but, having lost 153,000 men of its defending force of 210,000 in the city's outer districts, it was unable to sustain subsequent street-to-street fighting in the central districts, leading some scholars like [[Frank Dikötter|Dikötter]] to consider their resistance "minimal".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dikötter |first=Frank. |title=The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution, 1945-1957 |date=2013 |publisher=Bloomsbury Press |isbn=978-1-62040-347-1 |edition=1 |location=London |pages=28–31}}</ref>

With the local population supportive of the [[Kuomintang]],{{fact|date=March 2024}} one of the first actions taken in the [[Chinese Communist Revolution]] was to kill people considered counter-revolutionaries.  Places such as the [[Canidrome (Shanghai)|Canidrome]] were transformed from elegant ballrooms to mass execution facilities.<ref>Time magazine. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20070930044522/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,859181,00.html Time magazine]." ''Kill nice!'' Retrieved on May 8, 2007.</ref><ref name=Bellucci>Bellucci, Lucille. [2005] (2005). Journey from Shanghai. iUniverse Publishing. {{ISBN|0-595-34373-2}}</ref> This included the mass arrest of thousands of vagrants, criminals, and rickshaw drivers beginning in December 1949, alongside a broader crackdown on [[Gambling in China|gambling]] and [[Prostitution in China|prostitution]].<ref>{{Harvp|Dikötter|2013|p=50-55}}</ref> This reality has been largely [[censorship in China|censored]], despite numerous western texts describing the hostile takeover following the arrival of the [[People's Liberation Army]].<ref name=Bellucci />

Most foreign firms moved their offices from Shanghai to [[Hong Kong]], specifically [[North Point]], whose [[Eastern District, Hong Kong|Eastern District]] became known as "Little Shanghai".<ref name="Wordie">{{cite book |title= Streets: Exploring Hong Kong Island|last= Wordie|first= Jason|year= 2002|publisher= [[Hong Kong University Press]]|location= Hong Kong|isbn= 978-962-209-563-2}}</ref> Although the Communists initially tried to allow the city relative autonomy, its economy declined due to a [[Taiwan|Taiwanese]] blockade and Communist restrictions on foreign trade.<ref>{{Harvp|Dikötter|2013|p=56-61}}</ref>

===Home of leftism===
Shanghai was, along with Beijing, the only former [[Municipalities of the Republic of China|ROC municipality]] not merged into neighboring provinces over the next decade. Shanghai then underwent a series of changes in the boundaries of its subdivisions.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Shanghai became an industrial center and center for revolutionary leftism.{{Citation needed|date=November 2011}} The city stagnated economically during the [[Maoist]] era.{{Citation needed|date=November 2011}} Shanghai remained the largest contributor of tax revenue to the [[Central People's Government|central government]], but this came at the cost of severely crippling Shanghai's infrastructure, capital, and artistic development.{{Citation needed|date=November 2011}} This also initially denied economic freedoms to the city that were later available to southern provinces such as [[Guangdong]]. During the mid-1980s, Guangdong province paid nearly no taxes to the central government and thus was perceived as fiscally expendable.{{Citation needed|date=November 2011}} Guangdong would benefit from [[Chinese economic reform]] under [[Deng Xiaoping]], while Shanghai would have to wait another decade until 1991.

==Economic and cultural rebound (1990s&ndash;Present)==
[[Image:Shanghai-NanjingRd01-l.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[Nanjing Road]] in Shanghai in 2003]]
Although political power in Shanghai has traditionally been seen as a stepping stone to higher positions within the PRC central government,{{Citation needed|date=November 2011}} the city's modern transformation really did not begin until the [[Generations of Chinese leadership|third generation]] [[General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party]] [[Jiang Zemin]] came to power in 1989. Along with his [[Premier of the People's Republic of China|premier]] [[Zhu Rongji]], Jiang represented the politically [[Centre-right politics|right-of-center]] "[[Shanghai clique]]", and began reducing the tax burden on Shanghai. Encouraging both foreign and domestic investment, he sought to promote the city{{spaced ndash}}particularly the [[Lujiazui]] area of [[Pudong]]{{spaced ndash}}as the economic hub of East Asia and gateway to the Chinese interior. Since that time, Shanghai has led China's overall development and experienced continuous economic growth of between 9&ndash;15% annually<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://data.worldbank.org/country/china?view=chart|title=China|website=The World Bank}}</ref>{{spaced ndash}}arguably at the expense of Hong Kong.

Shanghai is China's largest and greatest commercial and industrial city. With 0.1% of the land area of the country, it supplies over 12% of the municipal revenue and handles more than a quarter of total trade passing through China's ports. Its year 2010 population, according to China's [[2010 Chinese census|latest census]], was 23.02 million and represented an increase of 6.61 million from the 2000 census.

The average size of a family in Shanghai declined to fewer than three people during the 1990s, and it is clear that most of Shanghai's population growth is driven by migration rather than natural factors based on high birth and fertility rates. Shanghai has for many years had the lowest birth rate in China,{{dubious|date=November 2011}} a rate lower than large American cities such as New York.{{Citation needed|date=November 2011}}

As with most cities in China, Shanghai is overbounded in its administrative territory. The city in the year 2010 was composed of [[List of administrative divisions of Shanghai|16 districts]] and one [[Chongming District|county]], together occupying {{convert|6340.5|km2|mi2|sp=us}} of land area. [[Chongming District|Chongming]] contains substantial rural land and a number of rural residents who continue to farm for their livelihood. The city has the highest population density of all the first-order administrative units in China, with 3630.5/km<sup>2</sup> (9402.9/sq mi) in 2010. Owing to its continued growth and industrial and commercial development, Shanghai also has the highest index of [[Urbanization in China|urbanization]] among all of China's first order administrative units, with 89.3% of the official population (20.6 million) classified as urban.

The amount of building activity in Shanghai fueled by government investment expenditures continues to be astounding. Since the 1980s, Shanghai's economy shifted from over 77% of gross domestic product in secondary sector manufacturing to a more balanced sectoral distribution of 48% in industry and 51% in services in 2000 and 2001.{{Update after|2011|11|06}} [[Employment]] in manufacturing reached almost 60% in 1990 and has declined steadily since to 41% in 2001, while employment in the tertiary sector has grown from 30% in 1990 to more than 47% in 2001.{{Update after|2011|11|06}}

The rapid growth in population, factories and motor vehicles has generated [[Environmental issues in China|environmental issues]]. Experts say the chief problems involve [[Pollution in China|air]] and [[Water resources of China|water pollution]] and the accumulation of solid wastes.<ref>Yevgeny Biryulin, "Shanghai's Environmental Problems," ''Far Eastern Affairs,'' 2010, Vol. 38 Issue 3, pp 63-79</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|History}}
* [[Shanghai urban planning]]
* [[Timeline of Shanghai history]]
* [[The Shanghai Document]], a documentary film portraying Shanghai in the early 1920s

== Notes ==
{{NoteFoot}}

==References==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite book |first=Francisco A.|last=Cruz|title=The Eurasian Gentile |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=GZ6qAwAAQBAJ |year=2014|publisher=Trafford Publishing|isbn=978-1-4907-3196-4}}
* {{cite book |first1=Peter N. |last1=Peregrine|first2=Melvin|last2=Ember|title= Encyclopedia of Prehistory: Volume 3: East Asia and Oceania |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=xu_Q0WGdw7YC |year=2001|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-0-306-46257-3}}
{{Refend}}

==Further reading==
{{See also|Timeline of Shanghai#Bibliography}}
* Arkaraprasertkul, Non. "Power, politics, and the making of Shanghai." ''Journal of Planning History'' 9.4 (2010): 232–259, since 1980
* Balfour, Alan and Zheng Zhiling, Shanghai (Chichester 2002).
* Bergère, Marie-Claire. ''Shanghai: China's Gateway to Modernity'' (Stanford University Press, 2009). 497pp
* Bickers, Robert. "Shanghailanders: The formation and identity of the British settler community in Shanghai 1843-1937." ''Past and Present'' (1998): 161-211. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/651233 in JSTOR]
* Bracken, Gregory. "Treaty Ports in China: Their Genesis, Development, and Influence." ''Journal of Urban History'' (2019), Vol. 45 Issue 1, pp 168-176. [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?output=instlink&q=info:1wh7uLX2C7kJ:scholar.google.com/&hl=en&as_sdt=1,27&scillfp=14919490849604612090&oi=lle online]
* Carter, James. ''Champions Day: The End of Old Shanghai'' (W.W. Norton, 2020). [https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393635942   abstract; about November 12, 1941]
* Chen, Xiangming. ''Shanghai Rising: State Power and Local Transformations in a Global Megacity'' (2009) [https://www.amazon.com/Shanghai-Rising-Transformations-Globalization-Community/dp/0816654883/  excerpt and text search]
* Denison, E. and Guan Yu Ren. ''Building Shanghai: The Story of China's Gateway'' (Wiley-Academy, 2006)
* Dillon, Nara, and [[Jean Oi]], eds. ''At the Crossroads of Empires: Middlemen, Social Networks, and State-Building in Republican Shanghai'' (2007) [https://www.amazon.com/Crossroads-Empires-Middlemen-State-Building-Republican/dp/0804756198/ excerpt and text search]
* Fung, Ka‐Iu; Yan, et al. “Shanghai: China’s World City.” In Yue‐man Yeung and Xu‐wei Hu, eds., ''China's Coastal Cities: Catalysts for Modernization'' (University of Hawaii Press, 1992)
*  Gamble, Jos. ''Shanghai in Transition: Changing Perspectives and Social Contours of a Chinese Metropolis'' (2002) [https://www.amazon.com/Shanghai-Transition-Changing-Perspectives-Metropolis/dp/0700715711/ excerpt]
* Horesh, Niv. "Location Is (Not) Everything: Re-Assessing Shanghai’s Rise, 1840s-1860s." ''Provincial China'' 1.2 (2009). [http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/provincial_china/article/download/1259/1262/ online]
* Horesh, Niv. ''Shanghai, past and present: A concise socio-economic history, 1842–2012'' (Sussex Academic, 2015).
* Ji, Zhaojin. ''A History of Modern Shanghai Banking: The Rise and Decline of China's Financial Capitalism'' (2003)
* Johnson, Linda. ''Shanghai: From Market Town to Treaty Port, 1074-1858'' (Stanford University Press, 1995)
* Keller, Wolfgang, Ben Li, and Carol H. Shiue. "Shanghai's Trade, China's Growth: Continuity, Recovery, and Change since the Opium Wars." ''IMF Economic Review'' 61#2 (2013): 336-378. covers 1840s-2010. [https://www.nber.org/papers/w17754.pdf online]; many tables and graphs.
* King, A. H. ed. ''Eastern banking: essays in the history of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation'' (1983) [https://archive.org/details/easternbankinges0000unse/page/n7/mode/2up online]
* Lee, Leo Ou-fan, and Oufan Li. ''Shanghai modern: The flowering of a new urban culture in China, 1930-1945'' (Harvard University Press, 1999).
* Lu Hanchao. ''Beyond the Neon Lights: Everyday Shanghai in the Early Twentieth Century'' (U of California Press,  1999)
** Wasserstrom, Jeffrey N. "New approaches to old Shanghai." ''Journal of Interdisciplinary History'' 32.2 (2001): 263–279 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/365698 online review of Lu]
* Murphey, Rhoades. ''Shanghai, Key to Modern China'' (Harvard University Press, 1953)
* Nield, Robert. "The China Coast: Trade and the First Treaty Ports". Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Co, 2010.
* Tian, Gang. ''Shanghai's role in the Economic Development of China: Reform of Foreign Trade and Development'' (Praeger, 1996)
* Wakeman Jr., Frederic. ''Policing Shanghai, 1927-1937'' (1996) [https://www.amazon.com/Policing-Shanghai-1927-1937-Philip-Lilienthal/dp/0520207610/ excerpt]
*  Walker, Kathryn. ''Shanghai'' (1957), 48pp; for middle schools. [https://archive.org/details/shanghai0000walk online]
* Wasserstrom, Jeffrey N. ''Global Shanghai, 1850–2010: A History in Fragments'' (2008) [https://www.amazon.com/Global-Shanghai-1850-2010-Fragments-ebook/dp/B001OFK1Z4/ excerpt and text search]
* Xu, Xiaoqun. ''Chinese professionals and the republican state: The rise of professional associations in Shanghai, 1912–1937'' (Cambridge University Press, 2000)
* Yan Jin. "Shanghai Studies: An evolving academic field" ''History Compass'' (October 2018) e12496 Historiography of recent scholarship. [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hic3.12496 online]
* Yeh, Wen-hsin. ''Shanghai Splendor: A Cultural History, 1843-1949'' (2008)
* Yeh, Wen-hsin. "Corporate space, communal time: everyday life in Shanghai's Bank of China." ''American Historical Review ''100.1 (1995): 97-122 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2167985 online].
* Yeung, Y.M. and Sung Yun‐wing, eds.''Shanghai: Transformation and Modernization under China's Open Policy'' (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1996).

===Historiography===
* Jin, Yan. "Shanghai Studies: An evolving academic field." ''History Compass'' 16.11 (2018): e12496  https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.12496
* Scheen, Lena. "History of Shanghai." ''Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History'' 18 (2022) [https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.013.689 History of Shanghai]
* Wasserstrom, Jeffrey N. "Is global Shanghai 'good to think'? Thoughts on comparative history and post-socialist cities." ''Journal of World History'' (2007): 199-234.
* Wasserstrom, Jeffrey N. "New approaches to old Shanghai." ''Journal of Interdisciplinary History'' 32.2 (2001): 263–279 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/365698 online review of Lu (1999)]

=== Primary sources ===
* [https://www.virtualshanghai.net/ Virtual Shanghai] - Collection of online archival documents, maps, and other primary sources related to the history of Shanghai.

* [https://froginawell.net/frog/primary-sources-history-of-modern-shanghai/ Primary Sources: History of Modern Shanghai] - Extensive collection of online open access primary sources, mostly in the English language, on the history of modern Shanghai.
; Historical accounts written about Shanghai
* {{cite book |url = https://archive.org/details/personalreminis01dycegoog |title = Personal reminiscences of thirty years' residence in the model settlement Shanghai, 1870-1900 |author = Charles M. Dyce |year=1906 |publisher = Chapman & Hall, Ltd. |location = London |page = 236 |access-date = 2012-03-21 }} 
* {{cite book |url = https://archive.org/details/sketchesinandar00clargoog |title = Sketches in and around Shanghai etc. |author = J. D. Clark |year=1894 |publisher = Printed at the "Shanghai Mercury" and "Celestial Empire" offices |location = Shanghai |page =[https://archive.org/details/sketchesinandar00clargoog/page/n10 183] |access-date = 2012-03-21 }}
* Arnold Wright, ''Twentieth century impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other treaty ports of China: their history, people, commerce, industries, and resources'' (1908). [https://books.google.com/books?id=tQI_AQAAIAAJ&dq=Shanghai+imports+history+&pg=PA13 online]

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{{Shanghai}}
{{China political divisions histories}}
{{Foreign trade in Imperial China |state = collapsed}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Shanghai}}
[[Category:History of Shanghai| ]]