Concession (territory)

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.