Chapter 53 Section 5 Ceded Lands and Lease Lands in the Late Qing Dynasty

In the late Qing Dynasty, the international and domestic situation had undergone tremendous changes.As far as the country is concerned, after the so-called prosperity of Kangxi and Qianlong, the government of officials was corrupted, the society became increasingly uneasy, and class and ethnic conflicts deepened day by day.However, the aggressive forces of the Eastern and Western powers pointed at China from both land and sea, which brought great disasters to the people of all ethnic groups in China, and finally pushed this ancient civilization into the tragic situation of a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.

During this period, China lost a large amount of land due to overt and covert occupations and plundering by the eastern and western powers.By the end of the Qing Dynasty, the national territory was divided into 22 provinces and Mongolia, Qinghai, and Tibet. The newly established provinces included Fengtian, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Xinjiang, and Taiwan. However, Taiwan was established in the 13th year of Guangxu (AD 1887). In the 21st year of Guangxu (AD 1895), it was cut off from Japan.At that time, there were still prefectures, departments, prefectures, and counties in the province, but some unprecedented or rare geographical names were found on the map, which are briefly described as follows:

(1) Ceded land refers to some territories lost according to some unequal treaties, among which Tsarist Russia occupies the largest area, and the east includes the left bank of Heilongjiang River, the right bank of Wusuri River, the south and south of Xingkai Lake, and Sakhalin Island and other places , the west includes a large area of ​​territory west of the current Xinjiang border, south of Balkhash Lake to the western half of Congling, and the Kashmir part of Tibet.According to the "Khaktu Boundary Treaty" signed in the fifth year of Yongzheng's reign (1727 A.D.), the northern and western boundary between Qing and Russia originally used the Sayan Mountains as the boundary between the two countries. Boundary monuments were erected side by side, but the Tsarist Russian invaders did not. It falsely claimed that the border between the two countries was in Tannu Uula Mountain, and carried out armed occupation.The southeast sea area lost Taiwan and its affiliated Penghu islands, as well as Hong Kong and other places occupied by the British.

(2) Lease land Since modern times, the imperialist powers have seized and directly ruled several port areas along the coast of China in the form of lease.The earliest leased land by foreigners in my country was Macau, which was leased by the Portuguese. It was as far back as the 32nd year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1553). In 1557, settlement was allowed and land rent paid on time.After the first Opium War in the Qing Dynasty, Portugal took advantage of the defeat of the Qing government to expel Chinese officials and customs officers, and then forcibly occupied the nearby islands. Another piece of leased land was Kowloon, which was on the opposite shore after the British occupied Hong Kong, and then forced the Qing government to sign the "Extension of Hong Kong Boundary Site" with it, extending the boundary to the south of Shenzhen River and more than 200 islands in the sea, as a new The leased land is called "New Territories" for a period of 99 years.

Among the leased land occupied by foreigners, Lu (Shun) Da (Lian) in the northeast has the largest leased land area.The Northeast region has always been the target of Tsarist Russia's annexation. Unexpectedly, after the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1899-1895, Japan would actually gain the dominion of the Liaodong Peninsula. This was unbearable for Tsarist Russia, so it united Germany and France to stage a scene of three countries intervening to return Liaodong .Soon in 1898, the Qing government was forced to sign the "Luda ​​Lease Treaty" and its renewal, and stipulated that a gap in the north of the leased land should not be surrendered to other countries, and the Chinese army was also prohibited from entering and leaving at will. In 1904, the Russo-Japanese War broke out on Chinese territory. As a result, Tsarist Russia was defeated and the Liaodong Peninsula was transferred to Japan.Luda and the part of the original leased land to the north were renamed Kantung Prefecture, and the rest of the peninsula was called the neutral zone.It was not recovered by China until after World War II.

Others include the French-owned Guangzhou Bay (in present-day Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province), the British-owned Weihaiwei leased land (in present-day Weihai City, Shandong Province), and the German-owned Jiaozhou Bay Leasehold (in present-day Qingdao City, Shandong Province). Great so-called neutral ground.These two leased lands were returned earlier as the international situation changed. (3) Concession Concession means that imperialist invaders use various means to force the invaded country to set aside some areas in its commercial cities, which are directly ruled by the aggressors. These areas are also the strongholds for their various aggressive activities.In the late Qing Dynasty, the eastern and western powers set up concessions in more than 10 cities along the coast of China and along the river along the river, and nearly 10 countries occupied the concessions. Those jointly leased by the two countries were called "public concessions".The ones that are in sole possession are named after the country names of the respective countries.Taking Shanghai as an example, in the 25th year of Daoguang (AD 1845), the British set up a concession on the west bank of the Huangpu River in the north of Shanghai County, and then expanded westward.France tried to make a concession outside the north wall of the county seat, and then extended slightly southward along the east and west sides of the city wall, and then expanded westward.The United States designated a large area north of Wusongkou and the Huangpu River as the American Concession.Later, the concessions of Britain and France expanded greatly to the west, respectively reaching today's Jing'an Temple and Xujiahui, and the American concession also extended east to north.Later, the British and American concessions were merged into the public concession.

The Tianjin Concession was established in the southeast of the old city of Tianjin, extending to the southeast on both sides of the coastal river. The left bank of the Donghai River in the county seat is the Austrian Concession and the Italian Concession, the right bank to the south is the Japanese Concession, the next is the French Concession, and the south and west bank is the largest British Concession. , the east bank is the Russian Concession, which is similar in size to the British Territory, the German Concession is on the right bank, and the Belgian Concession is on the left bank. The Hankou Concession is located on the left bank of the Yangtze River below Jianghan Pass, and is successively the concessions of Britain, Russia, France, Germany, and Japan.

Other places with concessions include Fuzhou in Fujian, Gulangyu in Xiamen, Guangzhou in Guangdong, Jiujiang in Jiangxi, Zhenjiang and Suzhou in Jiangsu, Yantai in Shandong, Chongqing in Sichuan, Hangzhou in Zhejiang, Shashi in Hubei, Wuhu and Changsha and other places in Hunan. It should also be mentioned that according to the "Xin Chou Treaty" in 1901, the Dongjiaomin Lane area southeast of Tiananmen Square in Beijing is the residence of embassies of various countries. Live and come and go casually, and be strictly guarded by foreign military police.In the capital of a country, a "country within a country" unexpectedly appeared, which is a rare event in ancient and modern China and abroad.