One of the great powers that caused the greatest loss of land to China in modern times was naturally Tsarist Russia. There are 1.51 million square kilometers of land that has been cut off by Tsarist Russia alone, and more than 1.8 million square kilometers of land that has been indirectly divided by Tsarist Russia. As a result, more than 3.31 million square kilometers of land were lost to Tsarist Russia.
This is not a small amount, it is more than 30 pieces of land in Jiangsu Province. However, if we carefully study the entire process of land cession, we will find a problem, even if Tsarist Russia went too far, the Qing Dynasty still did not dare to fight with it, and even called it brothers, vainly trying to form an alliance, what is going on?
In the Aihun Treaty, Muravyov gambled on Yishan for timidity
This is the most unequal treaty in modern history that has caused the most harm to China, because it directly allowed Tsarist Russia to cede more than 600,000 square kilometers of land from the Qing Dynasty, and also made 400,000 square kilometers of Sino-Russian condominium land.
It is equivalent to saying that with only one treaty, 10 territories the size of Jiangsu Province have been changed from Chinese territory to Russian territory, where can you reason?
What's more, the background of the signing of this treaty is that the two sides did not do anything at all, Muravyov just scared Yishan, and Yishan signed the contract directly.
Although Yishan is the general of Heilongjiang, even if he signs a contract, the matter of land cutting is invalid. But Tsarist Russia didn't care about this, they didn't say that this treaty was reasonable and legitimate, and they didn't have any reasonable ideas.
At that time, Muravyov was the governor of Eastern Siberia, and he saw that in 1858 the Anglo-French army was busy dealing with the Qing Dynasty, so he took the opportunity to threaten the Heilongjiang general Yishan to sign this treaty.
Yishan was also very righteous at the beginning, and directly moved out of the "Nebuchu Treaty", saying that the two sides were bounded by the Outer Khing'an Mountains, so why did they break the treaty privately?
Muravyov did not give Yishan a chance to refute at all, and threw the draft demarcation to Yishan, asking him to give a reply within a time limit, otherwise he would bear the consequences.
Yishan didn't take it seriously at first, but Muravyov fired artillery on the other side of the Heilongjiang River overnight, and Yishan was suppressed, and the treaty was signed the next day. So during the whole process, the two sides didn't go to war at all, and they just played with mentality.
In the Sino-Russian Treaty of Beijing, Ignatiev borrowed from Britain and France
With the "Aihui Treaty", Tsarist Russia has a bottom in its heart, and at least 600,000 square kilometers of black soil is in hand. But with the escalation of the Second Opium War, Tsarist Russia felt dissatisfied again.
Because they always wanted a natural harbor in the East, preferably with a large number of coastal areas. And the more than 400,000 square kilometers east of the Ussuri River are only land jointly managed by China and Russia.
As a result, Ignatiev, the minister of Tsarist Russia to China, once again played with the Qing court. On the surface, he came to mediate the war as a mediator, but in reality, he was constantly arching the flames.
Ignatiev sent people to inspect the Dagukou Fort in Tianjin, and sent the deployment map here directly to the British and French forces. After the Anglo-French forces captured Tianjin, Ignatiev encouraged them to march into the capital.
It was precisely because of the British and French alliance that the Tsarist Russia was able to make all kinds of demands to the Qing court without a bottom line. The Qing court was directly frightened, so it signed the "Sino-Russian Beijing Treaty" with Tsarist Russia, officially ceding more than 400,000 square kilometers of land east of the Ussuri River to Tsarist Russia.
In this land cession, the Qing Dynasty also did not fight any battle with Tsarist Russia, and it was Tsarist Russia that accurately caught the wealth brought by the British and French alliances.
The Treaty of Livadia, coercion and temptation
In 1864, Tsarist Russia and the Qing court signed the "Treaty on the Survey and Demarcation of the Northwest Boundary", this time it was not that a battle was not fought, but the two sides still fought the Battle of Ili Tower City for a period of time. However, this was completely a war in which the local army of the Qing Dynasty was passively defended by the invasion of Tsarist Russia, and it was also not a large-scale military dispatch by the Qing Dynasty to Tsarist Russia.
The treaty ceded all 440,000 square kilometers of land in northwest China to Tsarist Russia. Naturally, it is a huge loss for China.
In 1871, Tsarist Russia sent people to occupy the entire territory of Ili, which caused even greater damage, after all, throughout the Western Regions, Ili was one of the few regions that could produce grain on a large scale.
Naturally, the Qing court wanted to ask Tsarist Russia for an explanation, and Tsarist Russia smiled and said that as long as the Qing Dynasty could recover Xinjiang from Agubai, then they would return Ili.
In the eyes of Tsarist Russia, the Qing Dynasty, which did not dare to show its sword, could not spend so much money to recover Xinjiang. For this reason, Tsarist Russia thought that they had eaten Ili.
Unexpectedly, Zuo Zongtang actually completed the feat of recovering Xinjiang from 1877 to 1878. At this time, Tsarist Russia was speechless, so it could only return Ili.
But they were reluctant, so when the representative of the Qing court, Chonghou, came, Tsarist Russia entertained with good wine and food, and on the other hand, threatened with language, and finally forced Chonghou to privately sign the "Treaty of Livadia" with Tsarist Russia without the permission of the Qing court.
This treaty directly ceded most of the territory of Ili to Tsarist Russia, and even part of Tacheng was ceded to Tsarist Russia. The two sides also didn't make a move, and Tsarist Russia wanted to eat such a big piece of fat, which was really a good calculation.
The Ili Treaty, Prince Gong Yi Yi confessed
After learning of the treaty signed by Chonghou, the high-level Qing court was scolded. For this reason, the Qing court sent Zeng Jize to negotiate. But Tsarist Russia already had a treaty in their favor, and they naturally refused to change it, so they didn't see Zeng Jize at all.
After Zuo Zongtang learned about it, he immediately carried the coffin into Xinjiang and threatened to recover Ili by force, and he was ready to fight. At the critical moment, Tsarist Russia admitted its cowardice and began to negotiate with Zeng Jize, promising to return the Turks River valley to the Qing Dynasty, but still wanted to cut off more than 70,000 square kilometers of land in the outer northwest.
According to Zuo Zongtang's character, he would definitely not agree to this unequal treaty, but Prince Gong admitted it at this time. Yi Yi's reason was that Tsarist Russia was so domineering and arrogant, and if they didn't accede to their request as soon as possible, maybe they would want more. Thus, the Treaty of Ili of 1881 was born.
The two Opium Wars terrified the Qing court
The reason why the Qing court was so cowardly was because in the two Opium Wars, the Qing court tasted the might of the Western powers, and thought that there should be no difference between Tsarist Russia and Britain and France, both of which were Western powers, and their combat effectiveness should be about the same.
But is that really the case? I don't think so. For example, in the Battle of Ili Tacheng from 1862 to 1864, the performance of the Qing army was remarkable, while Tsarist Russia has not been able to conquer Ili and Tacheng, but the difference in strength between the two sides is not very large.
During the First Opium War, the Qing court learned for the first time about the power of the Western powers, but it was not completely intimidated. After all, the Anglo-French forces did not invade the capital, and the Qing Dynasty did not really feel a sense of crisis.
Originally, after the British and French forces conquered Tianjin, they did not intend to march into the capital, and the two sides had even signed the "Treaty of Tianjin," so why did they enter the capital again later? Mainly because of Tsarist Russia.
Tsarist Russia knew too well the psychology of the Qing court, so they knew how much shock it would cause to the Qing court by attacking the capital, so they vigorously instigated the Anglo-French army to attack the capital.
The British and French forces captured the capital, and the high-level Qing court was really aware of the crisis, so they were naturally willing to agree to any conditions. I have to say that the one who knows the Qing court best has to be Tsarist Russia.