In the northeast of our country, there used to be a large island that belonged to us. The area of this island was nearly 80,000 square kilometers, equivalent to two Taiwans. Province. Covered by dense forests, it has abundant resources. The coal reserves alone are as high as 100 million tons, ranking among the top 20 domestic coal mines. It is such a magical island. After witnessing a thousand-year history with China, it was ruthlessly abandoned by the Qing government and became the territory of another country. Today we are talking about the once largest island in China – Sakhalin Island.
The first island without a sense of existence
The Classic of Mountains and Seas “The first recorded the existence of Sakhalin Island, the book wrote that “the country of Maomin is in the north of it, for the life of hair, and it is in the north of Xuangu”, in which Xuangu country is generally considered to be Jilin, Heilongjiang In this area, the dense body hair should refer to the indigenous ethnic minorities of Sakhalin Island, who wear fur to keep out the cold because of the cold climate.
Of course, most of the things recorded in The Classic of Mountains and Seas are rather mysterious, which only shows that people had I vaguely know that there is a very strange land in the north, and it was not really documented until the official history The Book of the Later Han·Dongyi Biography appeared. It is written in the book that “there are women in the sea, but no men”, should also refer to the characteristics of the matriarchal society of Sakhalin Island, and the later Wu Chengen’s “Journey to the West” is a reference to this setting.
Afterwards, the Heishui Governor’s Mansion designed in the Tang Dynasty, the Gongying Road in the Liao Dynasty, and the Huli diversion in the Jin Dynasty all included the ownership of Sakhalin Island into China. In the Yuan Dynasty, because of the royal family’s independent expedition of territory, Sakhalin Island became a genuine territory under the territory of the expedition and envoys, and it was an inseparable part. Both the Ming and Qing dynasties designed garrison and administrative jurisdiction on this basis, but continued the “stocking” attitude of the previous dynasties in governance.
The concept of feudal society territory is derived from population, resources, prestige Several other strategic purposes, Sakhalin did not meet any of them at that time. The population of Sakhalin Island is less than 500,000 even now, of which most of them are resource developers who migrated from Russia, and the native people are only about 10,000. It can be seen that in ancient times this The Super Island is literally uninhabited.
Although Sakhalin Island is rich in resources, under the condition of inconvenient transportation in ancient times, even if I wanted to transport wood and coal back to the Central Plains, it was powerless. Every year, only some furs and medicinal materials are paid by the locals to the Central Plains Dynasty. It is normal for the emperor to dislike it. Sakhalin Island is surrounded by the sea on three sides in the southeast and north, and the Sikhote Mountains are separated by a river in the west. Since ancient times, it has been an area that even nomads are reluctant to approach.
It is this harsh geographical environment that the rulers of all dynasties are Interested in occupying, but not interested in management, gradually forming an autonomous environment. Every year, there are envoys paying tribute, and the officials who acted to thank them replied with a reply, and no one would think of it without the tribute. It is this looming existence that made Sakhalin Island a victim of diplomacy in the Qing Dynasty and has since fallen to other countries.
The victim of the cowardly government
Around 1851, Emperor Xianfeng quickly fell into the quagmire of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Nian Uprising after taking office. Decrease. Under such circumstances, Japan and Russia successively launched aggression against Sakhalin. In the following 50 years, Japan occupied the southern part of Sakhalin and Russia occupied the northern part. The aborigines of Sakhalin still expressed their hearts to the Qing court and paid tribute to Beijing every year, hoping to solve the problem of foreigners. The issue of the invasion, but the news all fell to the ground.
In 1858, the Anglo-French allied forces captured Dagu, and Tianjin was about to fall. Force Heilongjiang, and station troops under the city of Aigun. Under this circumstance, the Qing government was unable to resist the invaders from all walks of life, and even considered moving the capital to flee. In this case, the Russian envoys took advantage of the situation and requested the Qing government to renegotiate the border issue, and shamelessly said that this negotiation was to help China fight against the British and French coalition forces.
Russia demanded that the Sino-Russian border be moved to the south, and the north of Heilongjiang and the east of the Ussuri River should be assigned to Russia. Once the contract is signed under these conditions, my country’s territory will face the largest humiliating cession in history. . The Qing representative, Yi Shan, rejected this plan. Kangxi’s concession a hundred years ago had already brought Russia the greatest benefits, and dividing the border again would be tantamount to losing the face of the ancestors. Russia fired shots that night and said it would go to war if it didn’t agree. The Qing government also asked the negotiators to “deal with it as soon as possible”, so the unequal treaty was signed.
600,000 square kilometers of land north of Heilongjiang and south of the Outer Xing’an Mountains was divided into Russia, and the territory east of the Ussuri River was changed from Chinese jurisdiction to Sino-Russian joint jurisdiction. Heilongjiang and the Ussuri River to allow Russia to sail. These are the main contents of the “Aigun Treaty”. This piece of land more than four Henan Provinces was looted by Russia.
This is not the end, after that, in 1860, Russia again forced the Qing government to sign the “Sino-Russian Treaty of Peking”, taking away the “common jurisdiction” territory including Sakhalin
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The series of operations of the Qing government can only be said to be a show of cowardice, and Sakhalin has become a victim of corruption and incompetence.
Japan and Russia compete for ownership
Sakhalin Island has a special geographical location. The east is close to Hokkaido, Japan, and at the same time, it is rich in forest resources, and minerals are of great help to Japan, which is resource-poor, so Japan has been in constant conflict with Russia over the Sakhalin issue.
As early as the 16th century, Japan included Sakhalin as its own territory, and since then has been invading and harassing, but because of fear of China, it has occupied a small area Also paid tribute to the Chinese government on a regular basis, so no one paid attention. Later, Tsarist Russia invaded and competed with Japan to start a war on Sakhalin Island. The common people could not bear to harass and report to the Qing government. When Qianlong learned about it, he just said “I know, just ignore it” and dismissed it hastily.
After the signing of the Sino-Russian Beijing Treaty, Japan realized that it has As the Sakhalin issue was unavoidable, they took the lead in signing the “Huatai Anti-Rules” to jointly manage and develop Sakhalin. In 1875, Japan exchanged the southern part of Sakhalin and Tsarist Russia for 18 islands in the northern part of the Kuril Islands, seemingly withdrawing from the contest for Sakhalin.
After the Meiji Restoration, Japan’s national strength greatly increased, and the southern part of Sakhalin was recaptured from Tsarist Russia, and the entire island was taken away by the Russian October Revolution. After the outbreak of World War II, the Japanese Pacific Navy was destroyed, and the Soviet Union once again regained control of Sakhalin.
In today’s view, Sakhalin Island is of different strategic significance due to the existence of coastlines and industrial resources. In all cases, the abandonment of the Qing government caused great losses to China, and future generations were extremely distressed. In the past few years, the “public knowledge” has been denying the various developments and the Great Patriotic War of the new China, but what they must not know is that the strength of the great man on the issue of territorial sovereignty is reserved for future generations. resources, one generation solves the problems of future generations. Now China has a prosperous national strength. If there is another territorial issue, we can defend our dignity with more confidence.
Author: Old Dreams Preliminary Review: Ding Haier Proofreading Editor: Wei Yang