I believe that every Chinese knows the history of modern China being wantonly bullied by Western powers, but in 1899, such a thing happened, which made Chinese raise his eyebrows and breathe a sigh of relief at that time. Italy, as one of the great powers, made a shameless request to China to lease Sanmen Bay, which was categorically rejected by the Qing government, and the Italian minister could only return to China in ashes. How could Italy, as a Western power, be so humiliated by the shaky Qing? Today, Fantasy Zhi will take you to understand the only hard incident in the Qing Dynasty - Italy's forced lease of Sanmen Bay, please like the collection of attention, we will immediately start to tell.
In 1840, China was defeated in the Opium War and was forced to sign the Treaty of Nanking with Britain, which opened up China's extremely humiliating modern history, after which China and the Western powers signed large and small unequal treaties, and China gradually degenerated into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. After the signing of the "Maguan Treaty" in 1895, Japan ceded China's treasure islands Taiwan, Penghu Islands and Liaodong Peninsula, although under the intervention of Russia, Germany and France, China paid 30 million taels of silver "ransom fee" to recover the Liaodong Peninsula, but Taiwan and Penghu Islands were colonized by Japan for decades, becoming an eternal pain for Chinese. This defeat caused a series of chain reactions, the Western powers saw that China would be defeated by a small country, Japan, and was also cut off a large area of territory, believing that China at this time was already a fish on the chopping board - to be slaughtered, so a frenzy of dividing China was set off among the great powers.
The famous modern comic "Time Map"
In 1897, two German missionaries were killed in Juye County, Shandong Province, which provided an excuse for Germany to rent Jiaozhou Bay. When the German government learned of this, it immediately sent three warships into Jiaozhou Bay, easily broke through the Qing army's defense, expelled the Qing army here, and then forced the Qing government to sign the "Jiao'ao Concession Treaty" that humiliated the country, occupied the Jiaozhou Bay on the mainland, and began to build two railways in Shandong, the repaired railway was operated by Germany, and Germany not only could garrison troops along the railway line, but also seized the mining rights along the railway line, so that German influence could penetrate deep into the hinterland of Shandong and establish a foundation for its encroachment on China. Shandong became Germany's sphere of influence, which is why the great powers were so keen to build railways in China.
The German governor's palace in Qingdao at that time
Germany's forced lease of Jiaozhou Bay opened up the evil example of the Western powers dividing up China, after which Russia adopted the "Luda Lease Treaty" to "lease" Lushun and Dalian, making the three eastern provinces russia's sphere of influence. Through the Treaty of Canton Bay, France controlled Liangguang and Yunnan. The British also obtained the lease rights of Hong Kong's New Territories and Shandong Weihaiwei through the "Special Article on Expanding Hong Kong Boundary Sites" and the "Special Article on Leasing Weihaiwei", and demanded that the Qing government should not cede the rights and interests of the Yangtze River Basin to other countries, and the Yangtze River Basin became Britain's sphere of influence. Japan also demanded that the Qing government not cede Fujian to other countries. The belated United States, although it has not been able to gain its own sphere of influence, has also proposed an open door policy to protect the right to freely sell its goods in the Chinese market.
Schematic map of the sphere of influence of the great powers in China
Seeing that other powers have gained such huge benefits in China, Italy also wants to share a piece of the pie, but at this time, Italy's national strength is really not a great power. Speaking of which, italy and China are still quite deep, during the Yuan Dynasty, the Italian businessman Marco Polo followed his uncle to China, he lived in China for 17 years, footprints throughout most of China, after returning to China, wrote "Marco Polo Travels", this book makes Westerners have unlimited reverie about China, so that Westerners fanatically want to open up routes to China, indirectly promoting the geographical discovery of the West. In the Ming Dynasty, a famous Italian missionary, Matteo Ricci, landed in Macau and came to China, he introduced the advanced knowledge of Western astronomy, mathematics, geography, art and other knowledge to Chinese, and the "Kunyu All Nations Map" drawn by him greatly subverted the Chinese people's understanding of the earth, so that the Chinese initially came into contact with Western culture. It can be said that in the past, China and Italy still carried out friendly exchanges.
Marco polo
Ricci
By 1870, after the Industrial Revolution, Britain, France, Russia, Germany and other countries had basically divided the world, and at this time Italy had just completed its unification, looking at the whole earth, there was no suitable colonial area left for Italy, the new power. Before the unification of Italy, it already had a modernized navy with good strength, and after the reunification, Italy increased its investment in the navy, although it could not defeat the old powers such as Britain and France, but it should have no problem dealing with some small Asian and African countries. At this time, Italy can be described as full of spirits, it urgently needs to obtain a colony in the world to prove its strength, and Italy, ready to go, has set its sights on Ethiopia.
Modern Italian Navy
But, unlike the rest of the continent, Ethiopia, like Egypt, is the only remaining ancient country in Africa with an organized army. Since the unification of Italy in 1870, the encroachment on Ethiopia began, in 1889, with the support of Britain, Italy forced Ethiopia to cede the northern territories, and the following year demanded that Ethiopia recognize the merger of the northern territories and Eritrea, and the intolerable Ethiopian government refused Italy's shameless demands, and Italy decided to send troops to invade Ethiopia and knock on this disobedient small African country. Unsurprisingly, Italy was defeated.
The location of Ethiopia
In 1894, Italy sent more than 17,000 people to invade Ethiopia, and the first Italian-Ethiopian war broke out. At the beginning of the war, the Italian army was victorious and successfully occupied Adigrat, but by the end of 1895, the Ethiopian government reorganized an army of 120,000 people, although it had an absolute numerical superiority, but the weapons and military technology were far inferior to those of Italy. Through the reconnaissance of the Italian army, the Ethiopian commander developed the correct strategy and tactics to gradually attack the scattered Italian army. Faced with an effective attack by the reorganized Ethiopian army, the Italian army was beaten to the point of snaging. By March 1896, the Italian army had been completely destroyed, with more than 11,000 casualties and more than 4,000 captured.
The Ethiopian army defeated the Italian army
The defeat of a great power by an African country has never happened before, and even if it had happened, the old capitalist countries like Britain and France would have launched a bigger war to find the field, but Italy is different. When news of the defeat reached the country, Italians marched through the streets against the incompetent Italian cabinet, not condemning the government's incompetence in the war, but demanding an immediate withdrawal from Ethiopia. Faced with the defeat of the war and the opposition of the people at home, the Italian prime minister stepped down and the cabinet was dissolved.
When the new cabinet came to power, representatives were sent to ethiopia to seek peace, and finally the Treaty of Addis Ababa was re-signed with Ethiopia on October 26, 1896. This treaty stipulates that Ethiopia has complete sovereignty, that Italy shall no longer launch aggression against Ethiopia, and that ethiopia shall be compensated with ten million lire of war reparations, and that the great powers shall pay compensation to a feudal country in Africa, which is more humiliating than defeat, but the Italians could not refuse, because Ethiopia threatened Italy with 4,000 prisoners of war, and if it did not pay compensation, it would tear up the vote, and the poor Italians could only accept this humiliating treaty. After this war, in order to regain face, until World War II, Italy did not think of abandoning the invasion of Ethiopia, but without exception, every time it failed.
Italian propaganda poster in Ethiopia during World War II
Seeing the great defeat in Ethiopia, the Italian government, in order to divert domestic contradictions and wash away its shame, decided to choose a new target, and some Italian imperialists set their sights on the far East, where a decadent Qing Empire was being divided. In 1898, the then Italian Prime Minister Staraba tentatively inquired about the Chargé d'affaires of his embassy in China, Marquis Savag, saying that Italy was now in urgent need of colonies in the Far East, and that it was best to gain a sphere of influence in China like Britain, France, Germany and other countries, and if it could get a leased land as a naval base in the Far East, it would be best. The Marquis of Salvage said that this was not the time, and suggested that the time was ripe to ask the Qing government for it, but that naval and diplomatic officials could be sent first.
After much deliberation, the Italian government selected a veteran diplomat named Giacomo Martino as the planned minister, who was originally a minister in Cairo, who was on an armored cruiser to China. The name of this cruiser is the same as that of the world-renowned Italian merchant, Marco Polo, who is the messenger of the exchange between Chinese and Western civilizations, and the "Marco Polo" is here to invade China.
Marco Polo
After the armored cruiser Marco Polo arrived at the port of Tianjin, China, Martino disembarked and said to Salvag, chargé d'affaires of the Italian Embassy in China, who had come to greet him: "We will take immediate action of occupation!" But he had always been dealing with African diplomacy and knew nothing about China, so when the Marquis of Salvag asked him where he wanted to occupy, he could only say: "Let the captain of the Marco Polo decide." After arriving at the embassy, the three men opened the map and began to study, and they found that except for the coast of Zhejiang, the ports in other parts of China had been occupied by the great powers, so they chose to target Zhejiang. However, they still did not know which port in Zhejiang, so they sent the cruiser "Mark Polo" to Zhejiang for exploration.
After a period of surveying, the captain of the "Mark Polo" submitted a survey report to him. In his survey report, he provided Italy with three suitable locations as military ports, namely Sansha Island, Ningbo and Sanmen Bay. He suggested that Sansha Island be the preferred loan object, Ningbo ranked second, and the conditions in Sanmen Bay were the worst, but he did not know why, Martino did not accept the captain's suggestion, he chose the worst condition of Sanmen Bay, and directly reported to the cabinet to propose the lease of Sanmen Bay. Upon learning of this, Salvage tried to contact Martino to find out why he had not accepted the captain's advice to choose Sansha Island, but he had not heard from Martino anyway, and later learned that he had gone to his Japanese mistress under the guise of a foreign visit.
Sanmen Bay, Zhejiang
On June 11, 1898, the Guangxu Emperor promulgated the "Decree on the Mandate of the Ming Dynasty", announcing the beginning of the Penghu Reform Law, in which case Martino had to temporarily shelve his plan to lease Sanmen Bay and wait for the right time to come. But he soon waited for the opportunity. On September 21, Empress Dowager Cixi staged a coup d'état that lasted only 103 days and ended in the failure of the Reformists, the Guangxu Emperor was placed under house arrest, Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao fled overseas, Tan Si and the six gentlemen of Wushu were killed, and chaos arose within the Qing government at this time because of the changes that had just been implemented. Martino decided that the opportunity to lease Sanmen Bay had arrived, at a time when the Qing government was at its worst, and at the end of December, Martino made his proposal to the Italian cabinet.
The six gentlemen who were killed in the coup d'état
In early 1899, the Italian Stalaba cabinet fell, the new prime minister Pelou came to power, in the face of the severe situation at home and abroad, Italy needed a foreign war to divert the attention of the domestic people, in order to gain a foothold, so it accepted Martino's proposal, immediately began to lease Sanmen Bay, they first contacted other countries, hoping to win some support, but in the end, except for the verbal support of Britain, other countries did not express their position, Russia even expressed opposition.
In this situation, which had little support and was not prepared for war, at the end of February 1899, the Italian cabinet asked Martino to issue a note to the Qing prime minister Yamen, asking the Qing government to lease Sanmen Bay in Zhejiang Province to Italy for a period of 25 to 50 years, and referring to Germany's requirements in the Jiao'ao Concession Treaty, the Qing government allowed Italy to build a railway from Zhejiang to Jiangxi, and designated Zhejiang Province as Italy's sphere of influence. The so-called note verbale refers to the form of letters in international exchanges, which is an important means of diplomatic and ceremonial exchanges. In Martino's note, he claimed that Italy was one of the six great powers of Europe, and since Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Austria had gained a sphere of influence in China, Italy should also have its own territory in China. In support of the operation, Italy sent three more warships to China to put pressure on the Qing government.
Prime Minister Yamen
What Italy did not expect was that the Qing government directly rejected Italy's request and refused to discuss the issue. Prime Minister Yamen laughed at Italy's note, because the war between Italy and Ethiopia three years ago had made the world a big joke, and Italy's unbearable strength had long been exposed to the world. Therefore, the day after receiving the note, Prime Minister Yamen sent the note back intact. On March 5, Prime Minister Yamen pointed out in a letter to British Minister Dou Nale that China could not accept italy's unreasonable demands, and there was no need to discuss this matter with Italy at all, and China did not want to continue to waste time with Italy.
Martino was furious after receiving a note from Prime Minister Yamen, and he immediately reported the matter to the cabinet, trying to force the Qing government to comply through an ultimatum, but at this time he did not know anything about the naval strength of the Qing, and Italy was not ready for war. Martino had to go to the British minister for help at this time, because in the previous activities, only the British expressed support for Italy's lease of Sanmen Bay, and the British minister expressed his willingness to help Martino put pressure on Prime Minister Yamen.
On March 8, Martino again submitted a note to Prime Minister Yamen, claiming that the Qing government's return of the Italian note violated international diplomatic etiquette and seriously damaged Italy's face, and Italy could not accept it. On the same day, the Italian cabinet also issued an ultimatum to the Qing government, asking the Qing government to accede to Italy's demands or take military action. Martino also sent the cruiser "Marco Polo" into the sea of Sanmen Bay to demonstrate and put pressure on the Qing government, and after seeing this warship, the officials of the Prime Minister Yamen could not help but laugh out loud, just a warship still wants to invade others? Therefore, Prime Minister Yamen directly refused the Italian request and reported it to the imperial court, and the Qing court immediately issued an order to the coastal provinces to prepare them for defense in case of a surprise Attack by Italy.
The Italian government, which saw this scene, was immediately frightened, because they were only bluffing and had no intention of starting a war, so they sent a telegram to the prime minister, clarifying that they did not intend to rent Sanmen Bay by force, and withdrew the ultimatum. However, the disgraced Italian government did not give up its plan to lease Sanmen Bay, and they recalled Martino and let Salvage take over as minister in China, preparing to continue to demand Sanmen Bay from the Qing government. In May 1899, the newly appointed Minister to China, Salvag, came to the Yangtze River Delta with the Marco Polo and three reinforced warships to demonstrate.
Italian warships coming to demonstrate
At this time, the Nanyang Naval Division's military strength was seriously insufficient, and no new ships had been added since the Battle of Mawei, and liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang, made a wrong judgment on the Italian naval strength, believing that Italy had six of the latest cruisers to China, but in fact There were only four old ships in Italy, so he ordered the Nanyang Naval Division to guard the port, not to act rashly, and strengthened the defense of the coastline. However, the Qing government also had a decent Beiyang Marine Division, after the Beiyang Marine Division was completely destroyed, the Qing government rebuilt, the two latest "Haixi" class protective cruisers ordered from Britain, although still on the road, the Qing government still ordered the Beiyang Marine Division to prepare for sea patrols as soon as possible, so as to go south as soon as possible to reinforce when the War in Italy began.
Using the cruiser Haiji
Faced with the tough attitude of the Qing government, Salvag demanded from the Italian government to immediately start a war with China to achieve its goal, but the Italian government did not want to start a war at the moment, so Italy pinned its hopes on Britain, France, Russia, Germany, and Austria, hoping that they could come forward to put pressure on the Qing government. However, because Italy has contradictions with France, Russia, Germany, and Austria, they do not support Italy, and only Britain said that if Italy did not use force, Britain would give Italian diplomatic help.
In this case, Italy had to compromise, demanding that Salvag retreat to the second place, let the Qing government give Italy a face, cede a small island to Italy, so that the Italian government would not return empty-handed. And Salvage was extremely dissatisfied with the instructions of the Italian government, and he had originally taken a tough posture to ask the Qing government to lease land to Italy, how could he just need a small island? So Salvage asked the Italian government to continue to send warships to China, and after a period of lying on the surface of zhejiang, the Italian government refused his request.
In mid-June, the cruiser Haitian, which had been ordered from Britain, returned home, and the strength of the Beiyang Fleet increased greatly, and this new ship was far stronger than the Italian warship, which greatly enhanced the confidence of the Qing government. At the end of June, the Italian government informed Salvag that Italy had abandoned its plans to colonize Asia, not even the island this time, and that he had managed to negotiate a naval coal refueling station to preserve the last face of the great powers. However, the Qing government's coastal defense strength at this time greatly increased, naturally it was impossible to agree to this request, so Italy's request to obtain a coal refueling station was also rejected by the Qing government, and Italy was completely disgraced.
USS Haitian cruiser
However, at this time, Salvage was still not dead-hearted, he made his own opinion, and made various unreasonable demands to the Qing government without authorization to save the last face of Italy, and even wanted the Qing government to give Italy the right to build railways in Zhejiang, but this demand was even more wishful thinking.
In August, another cruiser ordered from the British, the "Haixi", also returned to China, and the four Italian warships could not put any pressure on the Coastal Defense of the Qing Government, and the Beiyang Marine Division alone was able to suppress the Italian fleet. The Italian Admiralty informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the situation at this time that the Italian fleet could not defeat China at all, and that if it wanted to go to war with China, it would take at least two months to prepare for war, and it would have to send warships to China from home, and the domestic situation in Italy did not allow it to do so. The Italian government's decision to repatriate marco polo left Salvag's delusional plan to gain any benefit from China completely bankrupt.
By October, the Italian government had completely abandoned its plan to carry out military operations in China, and Italy had come to China this time, not only had not leased a port, but had not even received a small coal refueling station; after the Ethiopian War, it had once again lost face in front of the whole world, and a great power known as one of the six major european powers, faced with a feudal country with internal and external troubles, had no way but to give up any demands on China in ashes and become the laughing stock of the whole world.
The Declaration's coverage of the Sanmen Bay incident
In the past, the Qing government did not win once in the face of the great powers, and this victory greatly increased the confidence of the Qing government, and also allowed the Netherlands and other second-rate European countries to dispel the idea of dividing China, and the trend of the great powers dividing China was curbed, which was a turning point in China's modern history. However, this also gave the Qing government the illusion that it could use force to resolve diplomatic incidents, which indirectly led to the occurrence of the Gengzi Incident, which was the negative impact of the Sanmen Bay Incident. Naturally, force can resolve diplomatic matters, but it requires a sufficiently strong military force, and now that the mainland already has such a strength, those Western countries can no longer act arbitrarily against China, Chinese really respected in the world.
Regarding the Sanmen Bay incident, we will introduce it here, what are your views on the performance of the Qing government and Italy in this diplomatic incident? Welcome to post in the comment area, and everyone friendly exchanges, but also hope that you give this video a thumbs up, so that more people can see, finally, thank you for your attention and support, we will see you in the next issue!