In the late Qing Dynasty, it was a big piece of fat. Every great power saw it, and they were eyeing it. But it was precisely because several great powers targeted the Qing Dynasty at the same time that the Qing Dynasty was not immediately divided by the foreign powers.
Think of Ottoman Turkey at the same time, from 5.5 million square kilometers, which was encroached up by various powers, to Turkey, which is now only 780,000 square kilometers. From this point of view, the Qing Dynasty was still very lucky.
However, the Qing Dynasty was also very dangerous, and almost had the same fate as the Ottoman Turks. What is the situation? In fact, it all started with the fact that Tsarist Russia was too ugly.
Before 1900, which powers occupied which territories of the Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty did sign a large number of unequal treaties with the foreign powers, but the vast majority of them were requirements for reparations and open trade cities.
First, in 1840, the Qing Dynasty ceded Hong Kong Island to the British, about 78 square kilometers
This was the first time that the Qing Dynasty was opened by foreign powers, and it also allowed the Qing Dynasty to see the changes in the development of the world. At that time, the British threatened to sail warships to Tianjin and approach the capital. This forced Emperor Daoguang to sign the Treaty of Nanjing.
This treaty is the first unequal treaty in China's modern history, and it is of great significance. In addition to the indemnity payments and the trade with the Five Ports, the treaty also ceded 78 square kilometers of Hong Kong Island to the British. Hong Kong Island and Hong Kong are not the same concept, Hong Kong is much bigger.
Second, from 1858 to 1860, the Qing Dynasty ceded 1 million square kilometers of northeastern China to Tsarist Russia
This is what happened during the Second Opium War. At that time, Tsarist Russia saw that the Qing Dynasty and the Anglo-French alliance were fighting fiercely, so they took advantage of the fire to loot and forced Heilongjiang General Yishan to sign the "Aihui Treaty" in 1858.
The treaty ceded more than 600,000 square kilometers of land north of the Heilongjiang River to Tsarist Russia, and at the same time demanded that a large area of land east of the Ussuri River become a Sino-Russian condominium.
In 1860, Tsarist Russia saw that the Qing Dynasty had confessed to the British and French alliances, so it intensified its efforts to take advantage of the fire to loot, and did not want to be jointly managed by China and Russia, and directly asked the Qing Dynasty to cede more than 1 million square kilometers of land in the outer northeast to Tsarist Russia. So much so that all the coastal areas of the Qing Dynasty in Jilin were occupied by Tsarist Russia.
Third, in 1860, the Qing Dynasty ceded the south of the boundary street of the Kowloon Peninsula to the British, about 8 square kilometers
Britain, as the main victor of the Second Opium War, naturally also put forward territorial claims, but what is surprising is that this guy only needs about 8 square kilometers of territory south of Boundary Street on the Kowloon Peninsula.
Compared with the more than 1 million square kilometers that Tsarist Russia will need to disagree, the territory south of Boundary Street is really a small thing. What's more, Tsarist Russia has not yet made a move, and Britain and France are the main participants?
Fourth, in 1864, the Qing Dynasty ceded 440,000 square kilometers of northwest China to Tsarist Russia
In 1862, in order to grab more land in the northwest of the Qing Dynasty, Tsarist Russia sent 30,000 troops to the northwest of the Qing Dynasty. After they invaded the pastures of the Kazakhs, they directly fought near Ili and Tacheng, which is known as the Battle of Ita.
Two years later, according to the ceasefire line, the Qing Dynasty was forced to sign the "Treaty on the Survey and Demarcation of the Northwest Boundary" with Tsarist Russia, ceding 440,000 square kilometers of land in the outer northwest to Tsarist Russia.
Fifth, in 1881, the Qing Dynasty ceded 70,000 square kilometers of northwest China to Tsarist Russia
Even so, Tsarist Russia was still not satisfied, they felt that the fat of the Qing Dynasty must not be cheaper than other powers, especially the Ili River Valley, which they had been hungry for many years.
So in 1871, Tsarist Russia again marched to the northwest and captured Ili. Ten years later, in 1881, the Qing Dynasty and Tsarist Russia signed the Treaty of Ili, which again ceded more than 70,000 square kilometers of land in the outer northwest to Tsarist Russia.
Sixth, in 1887, the Qing Dynasty was forced to give Portugal "permanent administration of Macao", about 10 square kilometers
As early as the Ming Dynasty in the 16th century, the Portuguese had already obtained the temporary residence status in Macao. At that time, they just asked the Ming court for a place to live, so that they could come here to do business.
But after a long time, they came to regard themselves as the masters of this place. Especially after the First Opium War, the Portuguese claimed to be Europeans, so they were arrogant and simply did not pay rent. Moreover, Portugal occupied Taipa Island in 1851 and Coloane Island in 1864.
In 1887, Portugal simply forced the Qing court to sign the Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Friendship and Commerce, and forcibly obtained the qualification of "permanent administration of Macao". At that time, about 10 square kilometers of Macau were occupied by Portugal.
Seventh, in 1895, the Qing Dynasty ceded Baodao and the Penghu Islands to Japan, about 36,000 square kilometers
The Qing Dynasty was a bully, and at the end of the 19th century, it was already well-known all over the world, but all the great powers wanted to come over and get a piece of the pie. Therefore, Japan next door also has this plan.
However, at that time, they were not considered a great power, and only through a big war could they prove that they were a great power, and the Qing Dynasty seemed to have become a touchstone for the great powers, and only by winning the Qing Dynasty could they advance to become a great power.
Thus, from 1894 to 1895, Japan and the Qing Dynasty fought a Sino-Japanese War. As a result, the Qing Dynasty suffered a crushing defeat, and the Beiyang Naval Division was almost completely annihilated, so it had to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki with Japan.
In this treaty, Baodao and its affiliated islands, as well as the Penghu Islands, totaling about 36,000 square kilometers of land, were ceded to Japan. And Japan has officially entered the ranks of the great powers.
Tsarist Russia is not greedy enough, and it has the Outer Northeast, the Outer Northwest, and the Northeast
The above is all the territory ceded by the Qing Dynasty after 1840, we can roughly classify it, and we can know how ugly it was to eat in Tsarist Russia.
The Qing Dynasty ceded a total of 86 square kilometers to Britain, about 10 square kilometers to Portugal, about 36,000 square kilometers to Japan, and a total of 1.51 million square kilometers to Tsarist Russia.
This gap is inevitably too obvious, so it is clear who wants to eat the Qing Dynasty. I have to say that Tsarist Russia's eating appearance is too ugly, relying on the border with the Qing Dynasty, it wantonly devoured the territory of the Qing Dynasty.
Even so, Tsarist Russia was not satisfied.
In 1900, when the Eight-Nation Coalition invaded China, the great powers of all stripes were doing things in the capital one after another, forcing the Qing court to sign an unequal treaty, but as a result, Tsarist Russia seized the opportunity to send 170,000 troops and directly occupied more than 800,000 square kilometers of land in northeast China.
Good guys, no one can stand this kind of eating, and the great powers have begun to accuse Tsarist Russia of eating alone. Tsarist Russia was a little afraid at first and planned to withdraw its troops, but later they not only did not withdraw their troops, but instead sent many more people to the northeast. The meaning is obvious, they are determined to eat this alone!
At that time, there were more than 10 million Chinese people in Northeast China, all of whom entered Northeast China after 1860, and they naturally wanted to defend their homeland. Therefore, the Qing court did not act, and they could only build a series of anti-Russian rebels on their own.
The Russo-Japanese War taught it to be human, but it didn't
The pressure of international public opinion does not seem to have worked against Tsarist Russia, and the other powers are not vegetarians. They put pressure on the Qing court, if they promised Tsarist Russia to cut off the northeast, then Britain would occupy the Yangtze River, France would occupy the south, and Japan would definitely have to grab a piece of territory.
If this is the case, then the Qing Dynasty will really be divided by the great powers after 1900. Then we may have the same fate as Ottoman Turkey, and it is indeed chilling to think about the situation of Iraq, Syria, and the Palestinians.
Therefore, at the critical moment, the Qing court could only resist the pressure and refuse to sign any treaty in which Tsarist Russia ceded the Northeast, even if it found an agent to manage the Northeast.
At the same time, Britain and Japan are also planning big plans.
In 1902, Britain and Japan formed an alliance, and in 1904, Japan launched a surprise attack on the Tsarist Russian naval base in Arthur, and the Russo-Japanese War broke out. In 1905, Tsarist Russia was defeated and could only withdraw from the northeast in disgrace.
It is clear that the Russo-Japanese War effectively restrained the pace of the annexation of Qing territory by Tsarist Russia. But once ambition grows, it's hard to disappear. Tsarist Russia did not learn from the Russo-Japanese War, but continued to play the idea of Qing territory.
From 1907 to 1916, Tsarist Russia took the initiative to find Japan and signed a secret treaty with it, agreeing to carve up Northeast China, Inner Mongolia and other places together. At the same time, Tsarist Russia took advantage of the collapse of the Qing Dynasty to encourage Outer Mongolia and the Tangnu Ulianghai region to go it alone. If you look ugly, you really can't change it.
It seems that the appearance of food is ugly, and it seems that it has not changed
Tsarist Russia collapsed in 1917 and was replaced by the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was not much better at eating, for example, in the early stage of World War II, it ate part of the territory of the three Baltic states, Finland and Romania, and took away half of Poland.
In modern times, the strength of polar bears is indeed much worse than that of their predecessors in Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union. But in the area of eating appearance, there is actually not much improvement.
For example, the issue of Crimea and the four regions of eastern Ukraine can actually be handled better. For example, after they vote, you can let them come out and work alone for a few years.
Then, when the time is ripe, let them vote to join the polar bears, maybe there will not be such a big contradiction. They voted to go it alone and set up their own group, and if the Uzbek came over, then the polar bears could help them fight against the invasion in the name of justice.
At least morally, international public opinion would be much better. Who can't see what is going on with the polar bears who voted to go it alone last month?
Eating is also artistic, and people who look good always eat what they want to eat slowly in a silent way. For example, the former Minister of Finance of Tsarist Russia, Witte, is a master in this regard. He built railways, built banks, built Russian language studies, and built churches in the Northeast, just to slowly eat the Northeast into his stomach.
As a result, Tsar Nicholas II was about to swallow the Northeast alive as soon as he came up, and what could be done? As a result of eating Haise, he was destined to suffer from indigestion and even choke to death.