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Text: Tu Lao Hat
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introduction
Modern history is full of blood and tears. In 1898, the British forcibly leased our Hong Kong, and it was not until 99 years later that Hong Kong returned to the embrace of the motherland. In 1900, the Portuguese forcibly leased our Macau in the same way, and it was 99 years before Macau was returned. In fact, there are two other places that have been forcibly leased by the foreign powers, and the lease period is also 99 years.
So where are these two places? Which great power occupied them, and how did they return to the bosom of the motherland?
(Hong Kong, China)
1. Germany forcibly leases Jiaozhou Bay
The occupation of Hong Kong by the British set a bad precedent, and the Western powers participated in the division of China, and the Germans, of course, were not far behind, and the first thing they looked at was our Jiaozhou Bay.
In fact, as early as the sixties and seventies of the 19th century, Germany hoped to find a foothold in China, so Germany sent a geographer Richthofen to China to investigate, he inspected 13 provinces in China, and finally selected Jiaozhou Bay. Because Shandong is rich in products and the terrain of Jiaozhou Bay is dangerous, it is a natural ice-free port.
(Jiaozhou Bay)
After Germany locked on its target, it was left with a reason to occupy it. It happened at this time that a teaching case occurred in Juye, Shandong, and on November 1, 1897, two German missionaries were killed. Germany demanded that the Qing government severely punish the murderers and demanded that huge reparations be paid. At the same time, three German warships headed for Jiaozhou Bay.
On November 14, 700 German soldiers landed in Qingdao from warships and occupied important strongholds, and at the same time demanded that the Qing garrison general Zhang Gaoyuan lead the troops to withdraw. Zhang Gaoyuan was forced to retreat to a village called Sifang. However, the Germans had to advance an inch, and asked Zhang Gaoyuan to lead his troops to withdraw from the Quartet.
(The church where the lesson plan occurred)
In the face of the unscrupulous aggression of the German army, the defenders demanded to return fire, but the imperial court was afraid of the enemy like a tiger and strictly ordered that no exchange of fire with the German army should be allowed. The Qing court hoped to solve the problem through negotiations, so it sent people to negotiate with the German minister Haijing.
On the one hand, Germany negotiated with the Qing court, and on the other hand, it sent an additional fleet to China, and the German king Henry Qin personally led the fleet to help. Haijing actually put forward a request to lease Jiaozhou Bay.
In the face of the threat of force from the German army, Prime Minister Yamen was worried that the Qing army would misfire with the German army, and repeatedly ordered Li Bingheng, the governor of Shandong at that time, to strictly restrain the Qingdao garrison and not to start a war lightly.
(The Germans forcibly occupied Jiaozhou Bay)
In order to avoid conflict, Prime Minister Yamen went so far as to order all Qing troops to withdraw from Qingdao. After withdrawing from the army, the Qing court, in order to avoid the German army from taking the initiative to attack, gave Germany as much benefit as possible at the negotiating table.
On March 6, 1898, Li Hongzhang signed an agreement with Germany on behalf of the Qing court. The Qing court first promised to compensate Germany for the losses caused by the Juye Case. Then the two sides signed the "Lend-Lease Treaty".
The treaty stipulates that, first, Jiaozhou Bay will be leased to Germany for a period of 99 years; second, Germany will build two railways in Shandong; third, the right to mine within 30 miles along the railway line shall belong to Germany; and fourth, Germany will have priority in any future in Shandong in any matter what kind of affairs it conducts or requires foreign capital.
(Li Hongzhang)
When the agreement was signed, even the Germans were amazed, saying that the Qing court had given more benefits than they wanted. The weakness and incompetence of the Qing court had reached such a ridiculous level.
Germany's seizure of Jiaozhou Bay fully illustrates the extreme weakness of the Qing government. If the cession of Hong Kong to Britain is an example, then the cession of Jiaozhou Bay to Germany shows that it has become a common practice for the great powers to forcibly occupy Chinese land.
Because this incident stimulated the greed of the great powers, and also gave the great powers "inspiration" - it turned out that it was so easy to occupy China's land!
(German-style architecture in Qingdao City)
Second, Qingdao and Jiaozhou Bay returned
Jiaozhou Bay was forcibly occupied, and Shandong's rights and interests were encroached upon by Germany, which was a humiliation for the nation and a shame for the people of Shandong. The people of Shandong have never given up their determination to recover their territory.
In 1914, when World War I broke out, Germany was fighting in Europe with all its might, and had no time to take care of its interests in Shandong. This was a godsend for Japan, which declared war on Germany and sent troops to occupy Shandong, and Germany's sphere of influence in Shandong was transferred to Japan.
In 1919, at the end of World War I, countries gathered in Paris for a conference. Naturally, because China was the victorious country, China also sent representatives to attend the meeting. At the meeting, Chinese representative Gu Weijun made an impassioned statement and demanded that Japan hand over the entire Shandong, including Jiaozhou Bay.
(Paris Peace Conference)
But at that time, although China was a victorious country, it was a weak country. Although Gu Weijun tried his best to fight for it, he had no choice but to have a weak motherland behind him, and his words were not taken seriously by the participating countries, especially the participating powers.
It was Britain, France, the United States, Japan, Russia and other powers that really controlled the conference. And there is no unity among these countries, they have their own evil intentions, especially in the attitude towards China, they still see China as a piece of fat, ready to bite at any time.
Because of its proximity to China, Tsarist Russia has already occupied hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of territory in northern China, and Tsarist Russia also has serious conflicts of interest with the United States, Britain, and France in other regions. In order to achieve this goal, the three countries secretly agreed to transfer the original German interests in Shandong to Japan intact.
(War)
Many of the victorious powers have reaped the benefits, and we, as the victors, have not only not received any benefits, but have even been denied our legitimate claims to reclaim our own territory. And the weak Beiyang government even asked the government representatives to sign the treaty. When the news was transmitted back to China, it aroused great indignation among the people of the whole country.
On 4 May, first of all, college students in Beijing took to the streets and launched the great "May Fourth" patriotic movement, which later further developed into a nationwide mass patriotic movement of strikes and market boycotts, and then the "May Fourth" movement evolved into a profound ideological emancipation movement and social revolution.
The great powers originally wanted to slaughter China, but they did not expect to trigger the consciousness of the Chinese people, especially the most profound revolutionary movement in China, which they did not expect and did not want to see.
(May Fourth Movement)
Two years later, in 1921, the world situation took a new turn, and Japan's expansionist ambitions aroused the vigilance of the United States, Britain, and France.
Against this backdrop, the nations met in Washington, D.C., which was in fact an extension of the Paris Peace Conference. At this meeting, the Chinese delegates again raised their demands for the recovery of Shandong. This time, the United States, Britain and France actually attached importance to China's demands, not because they found it in their conscience, nor because they wanted to uphold justice. It was because in order to curb the momentum of Japanese aggression that they began to support China.
After negotiations and debates, the parties finally signed an agreement, which stipulated that Japan would return its rights and interests in Shandong to China, and Shandong, including Jiaozhou Bay, would finally return to the embrace of the motherland.
(Washington Conference)
3. France forcibly leases Guangzhou Bay
When the great powers carved up China, France, as an old great power, was certainly not far behind.
One day in 1897, a French warship was sailing in the waters of the mainland, and suddenly a violent storm came, and in order to escape the wind and rain, the French warship took refuge in a bay on the mainland. And this bay is "Guangzhou Bay", in fact, it is 500 kilometers away from Guangzhou.
This accidental "discovery" allowed the French to understand Guangzhou Bay, which can be called a deep-water port, which can be used as both a military port and a commercial port. And it is very close to Panyu, where the French do business, and the French immediately fell in love with this place.
(Guangzhou Bay)
Since you like it, you can "borrow" it from the Qing Dynasty government. When the French asked the Qing court for a lease, although the Qing court was not happy, it was frightened by the foreign powers, and dared not say a word, so it agreed.
But the French initially asked for a lease of a village called "Canton Bay", which was located in the southern three islands, and the French used the lease to hoard coal. According to the procedure, after the Prime Minister Yamen agreed to the request of France, it had to be submitted to the Emperor's Imperial Inspection, and it could only take effect after the Emperor's approval.
The French, however, did not have the patience to do so, and on April 9, 1898 sent a note to the Prime Minister's Yamen, which was approved by the Emperor on April 25, and the French army landed on April 22. According to the normal procedure, even if the emperor approves it, it should wait for the two sides to jointly survey the ground, agree on the boundaries of the concession, and negotiate the lease price. Prime Minister Yamen has already informed France of these details.
(The masses of the people resist the French army)
But the French were impatient and sent troops in. They first set up banners, built barracks, and invaded all the way inland along the Maxian River, wantonly expanding the area they occupied. The aggression of the French aroused the strong indignation of the people in the vicinity, and people rose up to resist the French army in various ways.
According to records, on the first day of the fifth lunar month, the French army invaded Haitou in Suixi County. They occupied forts, dug trenches, and built barracks. The French army also destroyed the houses of nearby villagers, destroyed their ancestral graves, and even entered the village to arrest people. In the course of clashes with the villagers, the French army bombarded the people with artillery, causing dozens of casualties.
The atrocities of the French army made the people unbearable, and the people first rebelled spontaneously, and they attacked the French barracks many times. However, because most of the weapons used were clubs and farm tools, they did not cause much damage to the French army. For example, on one occasion, more than 500 villagers gathered in Haitou and other villages to attack the French army, and although they also killed 2 French soldiers, the villagers sacrificed more than 30 people.
(Monument)
Later, this rebellion evolved into an organized activity. At that time, Li Zhongyu, the county governor of Suixi, had just arrived. In the face of the French army's aggression, on the one hand, he personally went to Haitou to negotiate with the French army, and on the other hand, he recruited regiments for training and stepped up drills.
Our regiment practiced many battles with the French army. The first battle took place in Xinbu, and two of the regimental training soldiers were killed and many were wounded. And the French army also suffered some casualties. According to Li Zhongyu's report, the French army suffered 8 wounds, and some people claimed that the number of French troops drowned was as high as 20, and the number of combat casualties was as high as 40.
Although the local people and local government put up a heroic resistance to the French invasion, the corrupt Qing government did not want to be the enemy of the French.
(The people fought a bloody battle with the French army)
Eventually, the Qing court signed an agreement with France in November 1999 to designate large tracts of land in Suixi and Wuchuan counties and Ephedra Bay as concessions and lease them to France for a period of 99 years.
Fourth, the return of Guangzhou Bay
Since Guangzhou Bay was occupied by France, the Chinese people and government have not given up recovering this land.
The first opportunity was the Paris Peace Conference at the end of World War I, when the mainland delegates not only proposed the recovery of Shandong, but also the recovery of Guangzhou Bay.
(Gu Weijun, representative of China)
At the meeting, the mainland delegates first proposed the abolition of the unequal treaties, and then demanded the return of the forcibly leased land. For this reason, the delegates submitted a "Statement of Hope Conditions" to the conference, but the meeting refused to include the issues raised by our delegates in the scope of discussion of the meeting on the grounds that the post had nothing to do with the purpose of the meeting.
At that time, the presiding officer of the meeting happened to be French Prime Minister Clemenceau, and he replied to my delegates that the Peace Conference would at best recognize that the issue raised by the Chinese delegates was indeed important, but that it was not within the purview of the Peace Conference and could be brought to its attention at the Federation of Nations.
Since the Chinese delegates at that time did not have much hope of recovering the country, they did not make any further insistence after being refused.
(Gu Weijun stills)
Two years later, the Washington Conference was held, and the Chinese delegates rekindled hope. Gu Weijun, who was the British minister at the time, submitted a bill to the government to abolish the unequal treaties. During the meeting, Gu Weijun once again put forward a request for the resumption of the leased land.
In reply to Gu Weijun's request, the French representative put forward three conditions: First, the other powers that also had leased land in China should first return their leased land, second, China would ensure the rights and interests of the French after recovering the leased land, and third, after the leased land was returned, it would not be able to lease other countries.
Since Britain, Portugal and other countries have not returned the leased land to China, the matter will naturally not be settled. This time, although the Chinese delegates did not achieve the goal of recovering Guangzhou Bay. But at least the issue was already being discussed at the meeting, a step closer than the Paris Peace Conference, which gave great encouragement to the Chinese delegates.
(Guangzhou Bay)
Subsequently, the Chinese government in Nanjing also negotiated with France several times about the recovery of Guangzhou Bay, but in the end it was still fruitless.
During World War II, France suffered a crushing defeat, and in 1943, Japan seized the opportunity to occupy Guangzhou Bay. However, the French government signed a treaty with Wang's puppet government and handed over the leased land to Wang's puppet government. The Nationalist Government protested against France. After the French Vichy regime surrendered to Germany, France could not enjoy the privileges of Canton Bay.
In 1945, at the end of World War II, China was once again the victorious power, and at the same time China was counted as one of the world's great powers. Although France had a Charles de Gaulle government, it could no longer continue to exercise its privileges in Canton Bay in the face of China, which was becoming stronger. After several rounds of negotiations, the Nationalist Government signed a series of agreements with France, and the content of the agreements was how to recover Guangzhou Bay.
On September 12, the Nationalist Government first accepted the surrender of Japan at Chikan. After that, China and France sent representatives to handle the delivery of Guangzhou Bay. On December 11, with the departure of Luo Hua, the French Minister of Guangzhou Bay, from Guangzhou Bay by boat, it was announced that Guangzhou Bay had completely ended its colonial history.
The process of Jiaozhou Bay and Guangzhou Bay being forcibly leased by foreign powers reflects China's humiliating modern history, and the difficult process of returning these two places also proves two truths: one is that a weak country has no diplomacy, and the other is that only a strong country can protect its territorial sovereignty.
(French Legation in Guangzhou Bay)
Resources
Wang Baoguo, Sun Changhai.Why Germany chose Jiaozhou Bay as a leased land[J].History Xi, 2003.
Guo Kangqiang.Analysis of Several Issues of the Guangzhou Bay Concession Treaty[J].Chinese Historical and Cultural Relics, 2020, 000(007):127-140.