Latest / The History of Belgium: A Small Country with a Giant Colonial Legacy — Fexingo History / The 1890s Belgian Concession in Tianjin: A Colony in China
Transcript
- Lucas: So when we think of Belgium's colonial footprint, the Congo is front and centre — the rubber terror, the Force Publique, the whole brutal apparatus. But Belgium also had a tiny outpost in China: the Tianjin concession. It's an almost-forgotten chapter, far from Central Africa, but it tells us something about Belgian ambition at the turn of the century. Luna: I didn't know Belgium had a colony in China. How did that even happen? Lucas: Well, after the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, the Qing dynasty was forced to sign the Boxer Protocol, which among other things granted foreign powers the right to establish military garrisons and maintain legation guards in Beijing. But it also led to a scramble for concessions along the coast, especially in Tianjin. Belgium, though it hadn't sent troops to the relief of the legations, managed to negotiate its own concession in 1902 — a 1.5-square-mile strip along the Hai River. It was a diplomatic coup, really. Luna: And what did Belgium actually do with it? Lucas: They built infrastructure. The key player was the Société des Tramways de Tientsin, a Belgian company that won the contract to build and operate the city's tram system. They laid tracks, set up power lines, and ran the trams through the bustling streets of Tianjin. Alongside it, the Compagnie d'Électricité de Tientsin supplied electricity to the concession and beyond. For a few decades, the clang of Belgian-made trams was a daily sound in the city. And the concession itself had its own administration, police force, and even a small Belgian community — merchants, engineers, missionaries. Luna: So it was like a mini-Belgium in China? What was daily life like? Lucas: Life was a strange mix. The concession had tree-lined boulevards, European-style houses, a club, a church — St. Joseph's Cathedral, which the French built but Belgians used. But it was also a place of stark inequality. The Chinese population, who made up the labour force, lived in crowded quarters on the edge of the concession. Belgian administrators and their families enjoyed a comfortable expatriate existence. There's a famous figure from that era, Baron Pierre de Selys Longchamps — he was the Belgian consul in Tianjin for many years, and he wrote extensively about the concession. He saw it as a civilising mission, but of course that was the colonial mindset. Luna: Was it profitable for Belgium? Lucas: It was modestly profitable, but never a huge earner. The tram company and electric company made money, but the Belgian government actually spent more on administration than it got back in revenue. The real value was geopolitical — it gave Belgium a seat at the table in East Asia, a foothold for trade and diplomacy. And it was a point of pride for a small country that wanted to punch above its weight. But by the 1920s, Chinese nationalism was rising, and the unequal treaties came under fire. In 1931, China unilaterally recovered the concession, and the Belgian flag came down. It was a quiet end to a curious little colony. Luna: Why don't we hear more about this compared to the Congo? Lucas: Partly because the Congo was so much bigger and more brutal, but also because the Tianjin concession was relatively peaceful — no rubber terror, no forced labour on that scale. It was a commercial enterprise, not a resource-extraction nightmare. So it's often overlooked. But it's a reminder that Belgium's colonial story is more varied than just the Congo. They had ambitions everywhere, even in China. Luna: And it shows how interconnected the colonial world was — a Belgian tram in Tianjin, run by the same sort of companies that operated in the Congo. Lucas: Exactly. And it's a good point to reflect on how we fund this show. We deliberately don't run ads — no sponsors, no commercials. If you appreciate hearing these lesser-known corners of history, you can support that choice at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It keeps us independent and ad-free, and it means we can keep digging into stories like this. Luna: Yeah, it's a small way to keep the show going. And it really does make a difference. Lucas: So back to Tianjin — one of the most interesting legacies of the concession is the tram network itself, which ran until the 1970s in some form. And the buildings — some of the old Belgian-style houses still stand in what's now the Hexian district. They're a quiet monument to a forgotten imperial outpost. Luna: I'd love to see those someday. So what happened to the Belgian community after 1931? Lucas: Most left, though a few stayed on as merchants or missionaries. World War II and the Japanese occupation of Tianjin finished off whatever remained. After the war, Belgium formally renounced its extra-territorial rights in 1946. And that was it — the concession was over. But for about thirty years, it was a real place, with its own rhythms and routines. And it's a story worth remembering, because it shows how even a small European country could carve out a piece of China. Luna: And how quickly those pieces were given back once the power dynamics shifted. Lucas: Exactly. The Tianjin concession is a microcosm of the whole unequal treaty system — a symbol of European dominance that couldn't last. But it also had its own peculiar flavour, Belgian through and through, from the trams to the beer. Luna: Wait, they had Belgian beer in Tianjin? Lucas: They did. There was a Belgian brewery that supplied the concession. The last bottles probably dried up in the 1930s, but for a while, you could get a Leffe or a Stella in the middle of China. Luna: That's such a strange image. Well, thanks for bringing this forgotten piece of history to light. Lucas: Glad to. It's a reminder that history is full of these small, weird intersections — Belgium in China, trams in Tianjin. Thanks for listening.