In
international law, a
concession is a
territory within a
country that is administered by an entity other than the
state which holds
sovereignty over it.This is usually a colonizing power, or at least mandated by one, as in the case of colonial
chartered companies. Usually, it is , that is, allowed or even
surrendered by a weaker state to a stronger power. For example, the politically weak and militarily helpless
Qing China in the 19th century was forced to sign several so-called
unequal treaties by which it gave, among other rights, territorial concessions to numerous colonial powers,
European as well as
Japan, creating a whole host of territorial
concessions in China in addition to even more numerous
treaty ports where China retained territorial control.