Many people rarely notice a hidden detail in history when reading modern history, that is, before the Opium War, Britain asked the Qing government for Zhoushan, and after the Opium War, britain once again wanted the Qing government to cede Zhoushan to be rejected, and finally the Qing government had no choice but to exchange Hong Kong for Zhoushan, so where is Zhoushan? Can it make the British Empire, which was hard at that time, forget?
The geographical location of Zhoushan Island
Many people do not know that during the Opium War, the first island occupied by the British was Zhoushan Island, but in the end, because of the strong resistance of the local people and the understanding of the British finally combining their own conditions, they agreed to the Qing government's use of Hong Kong in exchange for Zhoushan, so why did the British want Zhoushan in the first place?
Zhoushan is located in the southeast coast of central China, belonging to Zhejiang Province, the birthplace of China's Jiangnan culture, is also China's first archipelagic city, the north of China's important economic and historical and cultural city Shanghai, as has been leading the Yangtze River Delta economic hinterland economic development of the international metropolis Shanghai, is now also China's key international economic construction "Belt and Road" policy and the Yangtze River Economic Belt important intersection, if the Chinese Yangtze River is compared to the dragon, Shanghai is the dragon into the sea, and Zhoushan is the pearl in the mouth of the dragon, The west side of Zhoushan is located in the middle of China's southeast coastal mainland coastline of Ningbo City, it is worth mentioning that Ningbo is also located in China's long history shouldering the economic exchanges between the north and south of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal at the mouth of the sea, the east of Zhoushan is connected to China's mainland and Taiwan and the Korean Peninsula and Japan, the Ryukyu Islands of the East China Sea, according to the above introduction, have the small partners felt the superiority of Zhoushan's geographical location? If you haven't felt it yet, let's take a look at the geography of Zhoushan itself, Zhoushan is a city of more than 1,300 islands and 270 kilometers of deep-water shoreline, and is also at the confluence of the golden coastline of eastern China and the golden waterway of the Yangtze River. That is, whether you want to enter the sea to see the world or want to cross the river to read the prosperity of the Chinese mainland can be realized through Zhoushan.
The importance of Zhoushan
Zhoushan main island is the largest island in more than 1300 archipelagos in Zhoushan, larger than Taiwan Island, Hainan Island, Chongming Island combined, the geological structure of the island is complex, according to geological research, most of the strata are divided into Mesozoic volcanic rocks, intrusive rocks, metamorphic rocks and volcanic eruptive rocks, belonging to the remnants of Tiantai Mountain, Zhoushan Main Island and Zhoushan Islands are all located on the east China Sea continental shelf, belongs to the tropical monsoon climate, the river water and sea water converge here, warm sea water and river water constantly stirring, bringing rich bait to this water area, The Zhoushan Islands themselves are also a famous fishing base in China, with the reputation of the fishing capital of the motherland, and the shallow beaches all over the city can not only develop marine aquaculture, but also go to West Africa, Indonesia, Argentina and the North Pacific Ocean with the East China Sea for distant water fishing. Shenjiamen Fishing Port in Zhoushan was once on a par with the world's three major fishing ports, the Norwegian Port of Bergen and the Port of Kayao in Peru.
Zhoushan has a history in the past
About 5,000 years ago there were ancestors of mainland China fishing here, the Tang Dynasty began to set up a county here, the name of this place is Wengshan County, the residents mainly fish for a living, to the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the sea trade developed, because here back to the rich land of Jiangnan, is many merchants to Goryeo, Japan must pass through the waterway, at this time most of the fishermen have turned into merchants, for a time Zhoushan Island trade prosperity.
In the Ming Dynasty era, with the implementation of the sea ban by the Ming Dynasty, a large number of fishermen and traders could not easily go to sea, they withdrew from Zhoushan to return to the inland, Zhoushan lost its former prosperity, but after all, this is the place where the rivers and seas converge, water transport is developed, how can it stop the footsteps of ocean traders from all over the world, with the oriental, Nanyang, Portuguese fleets of people coming and going, Jiangsu and Zhejiang merchants began to trade here, and rose Shuangyu Port, but it was not long before the Ming Army forced to close the Shuangyu Port.
After the early Qing Dynasty, the Qing government also learned from the Ming Dynasty to implement the sea ban, until 1683, after the Qing Dynasty recovered Taiwan, it issued the "Exhibition Sea Order", opened the sea ban, jiangsu and Zhejiang fishermen and rich merchants began to enter the Zhoushan Islands in large numbers of development, and later the Qing Dynasty Customs specially moved the customs office to Zhoushan Dinghai, and set up a "Hongmaoguan" specifically responsible for managing Western overseas business. As a country that has always wanted to reach a trade circulation with the Qing government, as early as 1700, the East India Company had tried to establish a British trade base in Zhoushan, but unfortunately, the Qing government at that time did not care about the East India Company's actions in the dream of the great power of the Heavenly Dynasty.
The UK came uninvited
It was not until 1793 that the British diplomat George Staunton ascended to the Zhoushan Islands, where he keenly discovered the military value of this curved island, which was located on the south side of the Yangtze River port, close to the economic center of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China, and sailing along the Yangtze River could go deep into the Sichuan Basin.
Zhoushan Islands are full of excellent ports can ensure the safe docking of a large number of ships, and here the waterway is in all directions, whether it is the fleet from South China to Beijing or overseas Korean, Japanese and Nanyang trade activities need to be gathered here, once the war starts from the north to the Yellow Sea to exert military pressure on the Qing Dynasty capital Beijing, from the south can go down to the South China Sea to control the border cities along Hainan, from the west can directly enter the center of the Chinese mainland, from the east to Japan and Korea, Therefore, the British, who had been coveting China for a long time, immediately made an unceremonious request to the Then Qing Government, the Qianlong Emperor, hoping to carry out Sino-British trade in Zhoushan and Tianjin, and asking for the demarcation of islands in Zhoushan for British traders to live and store goods. At that time, the Qing Dynasty was in the heyday of Kangqian, and the arrogant Qing government naturally ignored the demands of the British.
But how can the cunning British give up on this, 40 years later, the British Parliament thousands of miles away passed the resolution to start a war with China by a vote of 271 to 262, the primary target of their expeditionary force is Zhoushan, in July 1840 the British army and the Qing army carried out a fierce battle in Dinghai, Zhoushan, although the Qing government has not paid attention to the development of the navy, but the importance of the Zhoushan Islands in the economic center of our country is also fully affirmed, so Zhoushan Dinghai is also arranged for many years to be heavily guarded. Helpless for many years, how can the Qing government navy be a well-equipped british opponent who has completed the industrial revolution, after a big war, the British army captured Zhoushan Dinghai and prepared to occupy it permanently.
Why didn't the British take Zhoushan?
The main reason for this is that the British army did not expect that the most difficult to fight was not the regular Qing Dynasty army, but the strong resistance launched by the local people, although the British army suppressed many times, but still could not completely solve the civilian resistance force, in addition, it may also be because the Qing Dynasty defeated soldiers did not properly dispose of the corpses of the Qing Dynasty after the war, coupled with the warm and humid climate of Zhoushan, zhoushan Dinghai outbreak of plague, the total number of British casualties in the war with the Qing Dynasty is only about 500 people, However, the plague in Zhoushan made the number of British troops die more than the number of wartime casualties, and this magical natural force made the British army feel like it was cursed by God, and within half a year, it took the initiative to withdraw from Zhoushan.
Although the British army temporarily withdrew from Zhoushan, but how could it be possible to let this duck fly with its mouth, and then the British sent representatives to negotiate with the Qing government to demand the cession of Zhoushan, the Qing government of course knew the importance of Zhoushan, and the attitude strongly refused the British side's request, and then the British representative received a report from the surveyors inside the army, saying that the waterway around the Zhoushan Islands was too shallow to dock large ships, which was not conducive to the later development, coupled with the previous plague lessons, which made the British army dispel the idea of occupying Zhoushan. Asking the Qing government to agree to the British army in Zhoushan to temporarily live in Hong Kong is just synonymous with the disguised occupation of Hong Kong.
In October 1841, the british army with an immortal heart made a comeback again, occupying Zhoushan for the second time, this time the people along the coast near Zhoushan no longer fought hard, but chose not to sell food and fresh water to the British army, resulting in the British army's supply difficulties, can only transport food supplies from Singapore and Macao, looting everywhere, and finally provoked the armed forces of the people with the BlackWater Party as the backbone to resist and beat the British army, for a time the British army was hungry and cold, the water and soil were unsatisfied, and the people resisted, and finally the number of British troops who died of illness exceeded 5 times the number of war deaths. In front of the harsh reality, the British compromised and abandoned Zhoushan on the Treaty of Nanjing, choosing Hong Kong with abundant fresh water and deep port water, and in 1846, after signing the Treaty of Return to Zhoushan, the British completely withdrew from Zhoushan, and Zhoushan returned to the hands of Chinese. Although Hong Kong at that time was just an ordinary island, which was not remarkable in the many british colonies around the world at that time, the historical fact that the British occupied Zhoushan twice and finally let the Qing government forcibly cut off Hong Kong Island opened a frenzy of modern powers dividing Up China and became an abuse of China's modern humiliation history. Growing up in the era of peace, we must cherish the mountains and rivers of the motherland even more, and always keep in mind that both Hong Kong Island and Zhoushan are an inseparable part of the motherland's great rivers and mountains.