Allied Reinforcements

Allied forces vigorously parade their strength in China's commercial capital in a bid to protect European interests.

Crisp images match the crisp uniforms of allied sailors and soldiers marching Shanghai's streets. These well-turned-out troops must have seemed alien to locals. American forces had arrived in late February 1927, primed for immediate combat, but at this point Shanghai was calm. Within weeks, however, the seeds of civil war were sown with the massacre of communist sympathisers in the city.