The southward movement was blocked
In 1853, Tsarist Russia, accustomed to being a Gendarmerie in Europe, launched a Crimean War that "led Europe in the partition of Turkey." At the beginning of the war, Tsar Nicholas I was still quite confident about the victory over the Ottoman Empire, first, the strong desire to play the role of European leader, and second, two strong allies from the "Holy Alliance" to rely on.
What is surprising is that for Tsarist Russia's "unrestrained action toward the Balkans", not only did the European powers such as Britain and France jump out of the fierce opposition, but even the two allies of Austria and Prussia also tore off the mask of friendship.
After the Occupation of the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia by Tsarist Russia, Austria feared that its "Danube economy" would be controlled by others, and at the same time did not want to see Tsarist Russia expand its power into the Balkans, coupled with French coercion and inducement, this ally not only did not help, but instead threatened Tsarist Russia to withdraw its troops on the border.
In the Austro-Prussian dispute four years ago, Prussia was already angry with Tsarist Russia for protecting Austria, not to mention that for the Balkans, a region that had nothing to do with him, the shrewd Prussian king was not willing to take advantage of his friend's fire, and it was very willing for Tsarist Russia to collide head-on with Britain and France to the south.
Although Britain and France have not been able to deal with each other, they can always hit it off on the point of curbing the expansion of Tsarist Russia. The two countries first created public opinion in their respective countries about the "Sinop massacre", and then "conformed to the will of the people" to jointly send troops to aid Turkey. Under the influence of France, the Kingdom of Sardinia also joined the war against Russia in the later period.
The battle was fought in March 1855, and the European gendarmes' initial idea of leading the group to beat Turkey turned into himself being beaten by the European powers, and Nicholas I died in anger. The new Tsar Alexander II knew that the Russian army, which was completely backward under serfdom, could not win the "first modernization war."
Stabbed in the back by Austria, Tsarist Russia finally had to accept an "ultimatum" from this ally. In February 1856, during the armistice negotiations in Paris, after fierce bargaining, the Treaty of Paris was finally signed on March 30, and the Russian Empire rarely accepted an "unequal treaty":
The Great Powers jointly guaranteed Turkey's "independence and integrity"; Russia ceded the Danube estuary and southern Bessarabia to Moldavia, recognizing the "collective protection" of the three principalities of Moldavia, Wallachia and Serbia by the powers; returning Kars of the Caucasus to Turkey, renouncing the right to protect the Orthodox Church in Turkey; freedom of navigation on the Danube, neutralization of the Black Sea, and prohibition of Russia's fleet and naval base in the Black Sea.
This time, the expansion of Tsarist Russia to the south hit the head and blood, and the greedy polar bear turned its eyes to the east, trying to "make up for the loss" with the invasion of China. After jointly cleaning up Tsarist Russia, Britain and France were able to send more troops to China, and the brothers began to chase after each other in the Far East to forage for food.
Second Opium War
The war was divided into the First Anglo-French Battle and the Second Anglo-French Battle, which took place at the end of 1856, after the end of the Crimean War. In December of that year, more than 5,600 British and French troops gathered at the mouth of the Pearl River, and the Russian minister arrived in Hong Kong together with the American minister to act as a mediator.
At the end of the month, after the expiration of the 10-day "ultimatum", the British and French troops began shelling, and then a large-scale capture of the city of Guangzhou. Under the Qing court's policy of "stopping the troops as the most important", the Qing army did not fight and defend, and Guangzhou soon fell. In April 1858, the envoys of Britain, France, Russia, and the United States led ships to The Mouth of Dagu one after another and sent a note to the Qing government to "appoint a minister plenipotentiary to negotiate."
The Xianfeng Emperor ordered the Qing army to fortify Tagu while sending a directly subordinate governor to Negotiate in Tagu, hoping for Russian mediation. However, Britain and France have no sincerity in negotiations at all, and Tsarist Russia is not too big to see the hilarity. In May, the Anglo-French coalition forces brazenly shelled the Taku Fort, and the isolated Tagu fell.
After the capture of Dagu, the Anglo-French coalition army marched up the river and pushed straight for the city of Tianjin, threatening to attack Beijing. The Qing court hurriedly sent another "Minister of Chincha" to Tianjin to discuss peace. Under the coercion of Britain and France and the "mediation" of Russia and the United States, the Qing court signed the Treaty of Tianjin with the four countries. As a "mediator", the cunning Tsarist Russia did not send a single soldier, did not fire a single shot, and seized almost the same "privileges" as Britain and France through the treaty alone.
In May 1858, Tsarist Russia forced the Heilongjiang general Yishan to sign the Sino-Russian Treaty of Yaohun by force. According to this treaty, Russia ceded more than 600,000 square kilometers of land north of the Heilongjiang River and south of the Waixing'an Mountains, and at the same time designated about 400,000 square kilometers of Chinese territory east of the Ussuri River as "joint administration of two countries."
In addition, paragraph 9 of the Sino-Russian Tianjin Treaty also specifically stipulates that the two countries will send personnel to inspect and survey "the border that has not been defined before, and the boundary clearance shall be included in this peace treaty." How vicious a short line of words was, and the further plundering of China's territory by Tsarist Russia in the future had a "legal basis."
Comeback
After the treaty was signed, the Anglo-French coalition forces withdrew from the coast of Tianjin to the south, and the bullied Daqing was able to breathe a sigh of relief. However, Britain and France were still not satisfied with the profits seized, and only a year later they took advantage of the opportunity of the exchange of treaties to provoke war again. In June 1859, British and French ministers led a fleet to march on Dagukou in an attempt to intimidate the Qing government by force in exchange for the instrument of ratification of the Treaty of Tianjin.
In the ensuing artillery battle, the Qing army resisted heroically under the command of Senggelinqin, and the battle was extremely fierce. In this battle, the Qing army had sufficient firepower and proper tactics, and the British and French allies suffered a tragic defeat, which was also the only victory of the Qing army since the Opium War.
When the news of the disastrous defeat of the Anglo-French allied attack on Taku reached Europe, public opinion in Britain and France was suddenly high, clamoring for "large-scale retaliation against China and occupation of the capital." In February 1860, 22,000 British and French troops pounced on the Chinese coast.
In April, the British and French forces occupied Zhoushan; in June, the British occupied Dalian Bay, the French occupied Yantai, and the Bohai Bay was blockaded, and the unfortunate Dagukou was once again exposed to the invading army; in July, the Russian minister rushed to Bohai Bay together with the American minister and once again acted as a "mediator".
In August of that year, 18,000 British and French troops landed in Beitang, and after capturing Tanggu, the land and water coordinated to attack the fort on the north bank of Dagu. The Qing army had no intention of resisting, and on the 21st, Dagu fell, and the British and French allies drove straight into tianjin. After the conditions were rejected by the Qing court, the Anglo-French army invaded Beijing from Tianjin.
In September, the Qing army and the British and French forces fought a fierce battle at the Bali Bridge, with the commander-in-chief Monk Gelinqin taking the lead in escaping, and the Xianfeng Emperor fled to the Rehe Mountain Resort with his concubines in the name of Beihu.
In retaliation for China's "barbaric behavior", the Anglo-French coalition army looted and burned the Yuanmingyuan after occupying Beijing. The fire burned for three days and three nights, hundreds of innocent eunuchs and palace women were buried in the sea of fire, and the "victory of the two robbers" vividly explained what barbarism was.
In October, the Anglo-French coalition threatened to burn down the Forbidden City, forcing the Qing court to exchange ratifications for the Treaty of Tianjin, supplemented by the unequal Sino-British Treaty of Beijing and the Sino-French Treaty of Beijing. In November 1860, the satisfied Anglo-French forces began to withdraw from Beijing.
The "harvest" is very good
The main force withdrew, but the Tsarist Russia, which had come to "fight soy sauce," could not leave, and the Russian minister also proposed to the Qing court to sign a "supplementary treaty" on the grounds that mediation was meritorious. On the 14th of that month, the Qing government and Russia signed the "Sino-Russian Beijing Treaty", that is, the "Sino-Russian Renewal Treaty", the main provisions can be described as a knife and a knife:
(1) China's territory, which is about 400,000 square kilometers east of the Ussuri River, including Sakhalin Island, is no longer "jointly managed by two countries", and Russia has directly ceded it;
(2) Russia imposed on China the western boundary of China and Russia, which it had "demarcated", and accordingly in 1864, through the Sino-Russian Survey and Division of the Northwest Boundary, it cut off more than 440,000 square kilometers of Chinese territory east of and south of Lake Balkhash;
(3) Kashgar (present-day Kashgar) was opened as a trading port, and Russia established consular offices in Kulun (present-day Ulaanbaatar, Outer Mongolia) and Kashgar.
Compared with the Tens of square kilometers of the Kowloon Peninsula "laid" by the British Empire, the Russian Empire, which followed the soy sauce, became the biggest profiteer of the Second Opium War, seizing More than 1.5 million square kilometers of China's territory, equivalent to the mainland area of 6 Britain and 3 France.