Unequal treaties, these words basically became commonplace in the late Qing Dynasty, and can be seen everywhere. But what you may not know is that in fact, there is a watershed in signing unequal treaties.
Before 1858, the treaties signed between the great powers and the Qing court were completely different from those signed after 1858. Before 1858, the great powers only dared to chew slowly, and after 1858, these powers can be described as gobbling.
Let's take a brief look at what unequal treaties were signed between the great powers and the Qing court before 1858.
First, the Sino-British Treaty of Nanjing of 1842.
In 1840, this was the beginning of modern history, because the British opened the door of the Qing Dynasty with strong ships and cannons under the premise of the great victory of the first industrial revolution.
This had a huge impact on the Qing court, and in 1842, with the end of the First Opium War, the first unequal treaty, the Sino-British Treaty of Nanjing, was born. In this treaty, Britain demanded that the Qing court cede Hong Kong Island (less than 80 square kilometers), pay 21 million silver dollars (about 14.7 million taels of silver), and open five trade ports.
Second, the 1843 Sino-British Trade Regulations.
In the unequal treaty of 1842, five places, including Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai, were designated as trade ports, that is, trade points between China and Britain.
It is necessary to add a knowledge point here, the Qing Dynasty was not completely closed to the country before, after the Kangxi Emperor recovered the treasure island, it successively opened Shanghai, Ningbo, Zhangzhou, Guangzhou and other four major trade ports, commonly known as the four ports of commerce. In addition, during the Yongzheng Emperor, after the signing of the Treaty of Kyakhta between China and Russia, Kyakhta also became an important trading point for Sino-Russian trade.
It was not until the Qianlong Emperor's reign in 1757 that the other three trade ports were closed, leaving only one in Guangzhou. Guangzhou Thirteen Lines thus began to reach the peak, due to the abundant tariff revenue, commonly known as the Son of Heaven Nanku.
This charter, without a land cession clause, mainly determines one thing, the customs duties of British imports and exports, which are jointly negotiated between China and Britain.
Third, the 1843 Sino-British Treaty of Humen.
It was also a supplementary treaty signed between Britain and the Qing court, mainly to establish Britain's one-sided most-favored-nation treatment in China. What do you mean? That is to say, after the Qing Dynasty signed unequal treaties with other powers, Britain should also enjoy the preferential treatment given to other powers. It is not very hurtful and very insulting.
Fourth, the 1844 Treaty of Wangxia.
This is the first unequal treaty signed between China and the United States, signed in Wangxia Village, Macau. To put it simply, the United States must also enjoy the same treatment in China as the United Kingdom, in addition to not ceding land and not paying compensation, other tariffs, trade and other preferential treatment, the United States also has to rain and dew.
Fifth, the Sino-French Whampoa Treaty of 1844.
This is the first unequal treaty signed between China and France, and their demands are the same as those of the United States. Since both Britain and the United States enjoy one-sided MFN treatment, why can't France? In fact, it is mainly a requirement at the level of trade.
The above five treaties were the treaties signed between the Qing court and the great powers at that time. Apart from the first Treaty of Nanjing, which ceded less than 80 square kilometers of Hong Kong Island, there were no other land cession treaties. But after 1858, the situation changed completely.
In 1858, Tsarist Russia began to open its mouth.
Tsarist Russia and China, as early as 1689, signed the first border treaty, the Sino-Russian Treaty of Nebuchu. The treaty stipulated the border between the two sides in the east, that is, the Outer Khingan Ridge.
In 1728, Russia signed another border treaty with the Qing court, the Treaty of Kyakhta . The treaty stipulates the border between the two sides in the central part, from the Erguna River to Shabinda Baha, with 63 boundary markers in the middle, and the treaty determines that more than 1.8 million square kilometers of Outer Mongolia, including the Tangnu Wuliang Sea, are Chinese territory.
Since then, China and Russia have maintained peace for more than 100 years. But in 1858, Tsarist Russia, dissatisfied with the status quo, came again.
After the Qing court signed those five unequal treaties with the great powers, it lived a period of relative tranquility. But after the rise of the Taiping Army in 1851, trouble came again. Especially in 1856, when the Anglo-French army launched the Second Opium War, the Taiping Army was still doing things in Jiangnan.
The Qing court was burned out. Don't think that Tsarist Russia is good, at that time Tsarist Russia and Britain, France and Turkey had just finished the ninth Russo-Turkish War, which could be described as a defeat, Tsar Nicholas I committed suicide, Tsarist forces had to withdraw from the Balkans, and almost lost Crimea, and even planned to sell Alaska for this purpose.
But the Russians found that the Qing Dynasty seemed to be worse, so they turned their spearhead to the east and aimed at the Qing Dynasty. A series of unequal treaties is back.
First, the Sino-Russian Treaty of May 1858.
There were no wars and no trade disputes, and Tsarist Russia used coercion to force Yishan, the general of Heilongjiang at that time, to sign this treaty.
The treaty ceded more than 600,000 square kilometers of land in the northern part of Heilongjiang to Tsarist Russia. This is the first and most unequal treaty in China's modern history.
Second, June 1858, 4 treaties of Tianjin.
Why 4 copies? This is mainly because the treaty was signed in Tianjin with four countries, including Tsarist Russia, Britain, the United States, and France.
Because the Anglo-French army was at war with the Qing army, the treaty stipulated that Britain and France would be compensated for military expenses of 4 million taels and 2 million taels respectively. The rest of the provisions are nothing more than trade, such as increasing trade ports and amending tariff agreements.
Third, the three treaties of Beijing of 1860.
At that time, the Anglo-French army planned to go to the capital to exchange the Treaty of Tianjin with the Qing court, but the Qing army was heavily defended in Tianjin, requiring them to go to Shanghai to exchange the treaty, and if they were not careful, the two sides fought.
We all know the consequences, the coalition army invaded the capital, the Xianfeng Emperor took his wife and children and left, and the coalition army began to act recklessly in the capital. Prince Gong had no choice but to further sign the Treaty of Beijing with Britain and France.
So what is going on in Tsarist Russia here? The main reason was that the Russian minister told Yi Tong at that time that Russia could act as a mediator. In fact, how did they mediate? They told the British and French forces all about the deployment map of Tianjin and the layout of the Dagukou Fort, which allowed them to successfully conquer Tianjin.
Afterwards, the Russian envoy came to ask for benefits, and even forced the Qing court to secretly sign the Sino-Russian Treaty of Beijing. The two treaties of Britain and France were nothing more than confirmation of the content of the Treaty of Tianjin. Tsarist Russia was so powerful that it directly cut off more than 400,000 square kilometers of land east of the Ussuri River, and also demanded that the Qing court recognize the legitimacy of the Sino-Russian Treaty of Aihu.
In this way, Tsarist Russia did not use a single soldier, but became the biggest winner during the Second Opium War from 1856 to 1860, obtaining more than 1 million square kilometers of land, and the famous Vladivostok fell into the hands of Russia at this time.
The signing of 3 treaties in 7 years gave the great powers a glimpse of the ambitions of Tsarist Russia.
Now you know why the Sino-Russian Treaty of Beijing had to be signed in secret, right? The Russians feared that Britain and France would not be able to stand the stimulus, after all, they only asked for some money, and at most Britain got 11.1 square kilometers of the area south of Boundary Street on the Kowloon Peninsula.
Tsarist Russia is different, who divides the territory with you according to the street, directly according to the mountains and rivers. In this way, more than 1 million square kilometers of land were forcibly scraped from our hands.
In addition, the Sino-Russian Treaty of Beijing also dug a hole, on the one hand, requiring the Qing court to quickly send people to survey the unestablished border with Tsarist Russia, and on the other hand, only recognizing the Karen established by the Qing court as the border of the Qing Dynasty.
What do you mean? Karen was a border post set up by the Qing court on the border, and the surrounding area should be the territory of the Qing Dynasty. As a result, Tsarist Russia only recognized Karen as a border, and outside Karen did not return to the Qing court.
This paved the way for the 1864 delimitation of the northwest.
In 1864, Tsarist Russia and the Qing court signed the Treaty on the Survey and Demarcation of the Northwest Boundary between China and Russia. In this treaty, according to the Sino-Russian Treaty of Beijing, Tsarist Russia directly cut off 440,000 square kilometers of land in the outer northwest, including the famous Lake Balkhash. It turned out that Ili had always been the center of Xinjiang, so the Qing court set up the capital of Xinjiang here, and as a result, Ili actually became a border city, which is one of the reasons why the Qing court later had to transfer the capital of Xinjiang to Urumqi.
From 1858 to 1864, in just seven years, Tsarist Russia took away 1.44 million square kilometers of land in the Qing Dynasty without spending a single soldier or a pawn.
Since then, the appetites of the great powers have changed, and the scale of unequal treaties has changed like never before. After all, the Qing court can endure this, what else can't be tolerated?
Out of control.
In 1871, Tsarist Russia occupied Ili, and in the Sino-Russian Treaty of Ili signed in 1881, Tsarist Russia cut off more than 70,000 square kilometers of outer northwest.
After that, Britain began to regard the Yangtze River basin as its sphere of influence, while France began with Vietnam and gradually invaded Guangxi and Yunnan. Later, after the Sino-Japanese War, Japan forced the Qing court to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki, demanding that the Qing court cede the treasure island, the Penghu Islands, including the Liaodong Peninsula, and also pay the Qing court 200 million taels of silver.
The exemplary role of these two neighbors directly allowed the Western powers to see what greed is not enough. So what else is there to say? Go straight to it! Therefore, in the 1901 Xinxiu Treaty, the astronomical amount of 450 million taels of silver reparations appeared. To be honest, without the "credit" of these two neighbors, especially Tsarist Russia, such a huge reparation would never have occurred.
Money can still be earned, land is gone, living space will no longer grow out of thin air. What are modern countries engaged in navigation and aerospace for? It is not so much a competition for resources as a competition for more living space.