Why did the small city in northern Xinjiang succeed in its counterattack and eventually become the capital of Xinjiang?

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Northwest China, the mysterious and unrestrained land of Xinjiang, has always been a unique area with a unique style on the land of China. Today, in addition to the yellow sand and poplar oasis, the most important impression of the city is Urumqi as the capital city, Urumqi means "beautiful pasture" in Mongolian, and she has also become a window city for the people in the interior to understand Xinjiang.

However, Urumqi, as a former small city in northern Xinjiang, has only been the capital of Xinjiang for more than a hundred years. Why can Urumqi be the last to catch up, quickly counterattack successfully, and eventually become the capital of Xinjiang?

01 Small town in northern Xinjiang

The capital of Xinjiang has undergone many changes in history. During the Han and Tang dynasties, the Central Plains Dynasty chose Guizi (Kucha) on the northern edge of the Tarim Basin as the administrative center to govern Xinjiang, and used the local economic and cultural power to rule the entire western region. From the Western Liao to the middle of the Qing Dynasty, although the regime that ruled Xinjiang was constantly changing, it was basically the nomadic tribes from northern Xinjiang or the desert north that dominated. Therefore, for nearly a thousand years before the 19th century, the administrative center of Xinjiang was set up in the Ili River Valley in northwest Xinjiang, and used the abundant water and grass of the two river basins (Chu River, Ili River Basin, southeast of Lake Balkhash) to supply foreign nomadic legions, thereby enhancing the sense of military presence throughout the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains.

Urumqi in the Ili era, as it meant, was originally just a high-quality pasture for nomadic peoples in the northern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains. In 1755, the Qing army, under the command of the Qianlong Emperor, the "Ten Complete Martial Arts", began a counter-rebellion against Dzungar Khan. At that time, Urumqi became a strategic place under the control of the Qing army because it guarded the luntai passage in the middle of the Tianshan Mountains. During the conquest, the Qing army built a fort in the area of Jiujiawan in Urumqi and named the area "Urumqi". With the later Qing Dynasty gaining a foothold in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, the importance of Urumqi became more prominent. Although Ili was the center of gravity of the military and politics, the Qing Dynasty obviously needed to provide the necessary agricultural and handicraft resources for this military fortress on the grassland. As a result, Urumqi, which is the main point of transit between the north and the south, was developed because of the needs of reclamation and commercial trade. In 1758, the Qing army first built an earthen city outside the present-day South Gate, which was "five minutes in a Monday, one and two feet high", forming the prototype of what would later be Urumqi (later renamed Dihua City, meaning enlightenment).

02 Ili's dilemma

Although the northern steppes where the Ili River Valley is located are rich, when the Russian invaders swept in from Western Siberia and the Kazakh steppe and occupied a large area of the northwestern part of the mainland, Ili faced a dilemma of no danger to defend. In 1864, a large-scale anti-Qing uprising broke out in Xinjiang, and Russia took the opportunity to coerce the Qing government to sign the "Sino-Russian Survey and Division of the Northwest Boundary Treaty", and 440,000 square kilometers of land east and south of Lake Balkhash in northwest China and north and south of Jaisan Lake fell into The hands of Russia, and Ili instantly changed from the military and political center of Xinjiang to "isolated and isolated".

The beauty of the Ili steppe has reached this point, and the northwestern grassland of Xinjiang, which was once centered on Ili, has been eaten by Russia, and Ili City has only retained half of the narrow area of the Ili River Valley, from a central city with a large area of activity to a small frontier city in danger. In 1871, when the Agubai regime was in turmoil in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, Tsarist Russia added fuel to the fire and directly sent troops to occupy Ili, intending to hold the entire Ili River Valley in its hands. Although Zuo Zongtang later led an army to retake Xinjiang and relied on diplomatic channels to take back Ili (1881), it was clear that Ili, which had become a border area, could no longer consider itself a provincial capital.

03. Successful counterattack

At this time, Xinjiang needed a city to bravely take on the big responsibility, and Dihua City (Urumqi) came to the front of the stage at this time. In the 10th year of Guangxu (1884), Zuo Zongtang requested the establishment of Xinjiang Province, under the jurisdiction of the Viceroy of Shaanxi and Gansu, and the administrative center was moved from Ili to Dihua. At that time, Dihua (Urumqi) did already have the ability to serve as the provincial capital.

First of all, in terms of geographical space and ethnic and cultural distribution, Urumqi can cross the Luntai Mountain Road to the south, reach Turpan to the east, and Yanqi to the west, and have a close connection with the southern Xinjiang region; to the west, it can reach the frontier areas such as Ili and Tacheng along the northern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains, and to the northeast it is seamlessly connected with the Mongol-dense Dzungar Basin. In addition, Urumqi can maintain close ties with the central government because of its proximity to the corridors leading to the gansu interior, such as Balikun Lake and Hami. Most importantly, Urumqi has always been an important city for agricultural reclamation and business development in Han Manchu and Mongolia after the Qing Dynasty recovered Xinjiang, and has long had sufficient military strength to maintain local stability, so it was chosen by the Qing Dynasty as the capital of Xinjiang.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the People's Liberation Army set up a large number of corps cities in northern Xinjiang with Urumqi as the center, laying an important foundation for Xinjiang's stability. In 1962, the Urumqi section of the Lanxin Railway was officially laid. In 2014, the Lanxin high-speed railway was fully connected. Urumqi has also become the most important central city on the Silk Road, an important international route transit station for Central Asia, Russia, Europe and other regional countries. In this way, the status of Urumqi as the capital and the status of the regional central city is becoming more and more stable, and the rich and beautiful Xinjiang and the new Urumqi are leading the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang to a more prosperous future!

References: 1. 100 volumes of the complete history of China; 2. Gao Wende, editor-in-chief. Dictionary of Chinese Ethnic Minority History: Jilin Education Publishing House. Source: Network data collation, etc.