Signed | May 28, 1858 |
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Location | Aigun, Manchuria, China |
Signatories | |
Parties | |
Language | Russian, Manchu, Mongolian |
Treaty of Aigun | |||||||
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Chinese name | |||||||
Traditional Chinese | 璦琿條約 | ||||||
Simplified Chinese | 瑷珲条约 | ||||||
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Russian name | |||||||
Russian | Айгунскийдоговор | ||||||
Romanization | Aygunskiy dogovor |
The Treaty of Aigun was an 1858 treaty between the Russian Empire and Yishan,official of the Qing dynasty of China. It established much of the modern border between the Russian Far East and China by ceding much of Manchuria (the ancestral homeland of the Manchu people),now known as Northeast China. [1] Negotiations began after China was threatened with war on a second front by Governor-General of the Far East Nikolay Muraviev when China was suppressing the Taiping Rebellion. [2] It reversed the Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689) by transferring the land between the Stanovoy Range and the Amur River from the Qing dynasty to the Russian Empire. Russia received over 600,000 square kilometers (231,660 sq mi) of what became known as Outer Manchuria. [3] [2] While the Qing government initially refused to recognize the validity of the treaty,the Russian gains under the Treaty of Aigun was affirmed as part of the 1860 Sino-Russian Convention of Peking. [4]
Since the reign of Catherine the Great (1762–1796),Russian emperors had desired to make Russia a naval power in the Pacific. They gradually achieved their goals by annexing the Kamchatka Peninsula and establishing the naval outpost of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in 1740,naval outposts in Russian America and near the Amur watershed,encouraging Russians to go there and settle,and slowly developing a strong military presence in the Amur region.
From 1850 to 1864,when China was heavily involved in suppressing the Taiping Rebellion,and Governor-General of the Far East Nikolay Muraviev camped tens of thousands of troops on the borders of Mongolia and Manchuria,preparing to make legal Russian de facto control over the Amur from past settlement. [3] Muraviev seized the opportunity when it was clear that China was losing the Second Opium War,and threatened China with a war on a second front. [2] The Qing dynasty agreed to enter negotiations with Russia. [3]
The Russian general Muraviev and the Qing official Yishan,both military governors of the area,signed the treaty on May 28,1858,in the town of Aigun. [2] [5] The Qing government initially refused to ratify the treaty and considered the treaty invalid,but in 1860 the Sino-Russian Convention of Peking affirmed Russian gains under the Treaty of Aigun and also ceded Primorye [4] and the Ussuri region [5] to the Russians.
The resulting treaty established a border between the Russian and Chinese Empires along the Amur River. (Chinese and Manchu residents of the Sixty-Four Villages East of the River would be allowed to remain,under the jurisdiction of Manchu government.) The Amur,Sungari,and Ussuri rivers were to be open exclusively to both Chinese and Russian ships. The territory bounded on the west by the Ussuri,on the north by the Amur,and on the east and south by the Sea of Japan was to be jointly administered by Russia and China—a "condominium" arrangement similar to that which the British and Americans had agreed upon for the Oregon Territory in the Treaty of 1818. [3] (Russia gained sole control of this land two years later.) [6]
In China,especially after the rise of Chinese nationalism in the 1920s,[ citation needed ] the treaty has been denounced as an unequal treaty. [7]
In September 2024,the President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) Lai Ching-te claimed that if China's claims on Taiwan are about territorial integrity then it should also take back land from Russia signed over by the last Chinese dynasty in the 19th century,mentioning the treaty. [8]
Manchuria is a term that refers to a region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China,and historically parts of the modern-day Russian Far East,often referred to as Outer Manchuria. Its definition may refer to varying geographical extents as follows:in the narrow sense,the area constituted by three Chinese provinces of Heilongjiang,Jilin,and Liaoning but broadly also including the eastern Inner Mongolian prefectures of Hulunbuir,Hinggan,Tongliao,and Chifeng,collectively known as Northeast China;in a broader sense,the area of historical Manchuria includes the aforementioned regions plus the Amur river basin,parts of which were ceded to the Russian Empire by the Manchu-led Qing dynasty during the Amur Annexation of 1858–1860. The parts of Manchuria ceded to Russia are collectively known as Outer Manchuria or Russian Manchuria,which include present-day Amur Oblast,Primorsky Krai,the Jewish Autonomous Oblast,the southern part of Khabarovsk Krai,and the eastern edge of Zabaykalsky Krai.
The Amur River or Heilong River is a perennial river in Northeast Asia,forming the natural border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China. The Amur proper is 2,824 km (1,755 mi) long,and has a drainage basin of 1,855,000 km2 (716,000 sq mi). If including its main stem tributary,the Argun,the Amur is 4,444 km (2,761 mi) long,making it the world's tenth longest river.
The Convention of Peking or First Convention of Peking is an agreement comprising three distinct unequal treaties concluded between the Qing dynasty of China and Great Britain,France,and the Russian Empire in 1860.
The Xianfeng Emperor,also known by his temple name Emperor Wenzong of Qing,personal name Yizhu,was the eighth emperor of the Qing dynasty,and the seventh Qing emperor to rule over China proper. During his reign,the Qing dynasty experienced several wars and rebellions including the Taiping Rebellion,the Nian Rebellion,and the Second Opium War. He was the last Chinese emperor to exercise sole power.
Manchuria is a region in East Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent,Manchuria can refer either to a region falling entirely within present-day China,or to a larger region today divided between Northeast China and the Russian Far East. To differentiate between the two parts following the latter definition,the Russian part is also known as Outer Manchuria,while the Chinese part is known as Northeast China.
The Treaty of Nerchinsk of 1689 was the first treaty between the Tsardom of Russia and the Qing dynasty of China after the defeat of Russia by Qing China at the Siege of Albazin in 1686. The Russians gave up the area north of the Amur River as far as the Stanovoy Range and kept the area between the Argun River and Lake Baikal. This border along the Argun River and Stanovoy Range lasted until the Amur Annexation via the Treaty of Aigun in 1858 and the Convention of Peking in 1860. It opened markets for Russian goods in China,and gave Russians access to Chinese supplies and luxuries.
Aigun was a historic Chinese town in northern Manchuria,situated on the right bank of the Amur River,some 30 kilometres (19 mi) south (downstream) from the central urban area of Heihe.
Outer Manchuria,sometimes called Russian Manchuria,refers to a region in Northeast Asia that is now part of the Russian Far East but historically formed part of Manchuria. While Manchuria now more normatively refers to Northeast China,it originally included areas consisting of Priamurye between the left bank of Amur River and the Stanovoy Range to the north,and Primorskaya which covered the area in the right bank of both Ussuri River and the lower Amur River to the Pacific Coast. The region was ruled by a series of Chinese dynasties and the Mongol Empire,but control of the area was ceded to the Russian Empire by Qing China during the Amur Annexation in the 1858 Treaty of Aigun and 1860 Treaty of Peking,with the terms "Outer Manchuria" and "Russian Manchuria" arising after the Russian annexation.
Heihe is a prefecture-level city of northern Heilongjiang province,China,located on the Russian border,on the south bank of the Amur (Heilong) River,across the river from Blagoveshchensk. At the 2020 census,1,286,401 people lived in the prefecture-level city of whom 223,832 lived in the built-up area made of Aihui District.
The Treaty of Kyakhta,along with the Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689),regulated the relations between Imperial Russia and the Qing Empire of China until the mid-19th century. It was signed by Tulišen and Count Sava Lukich Raguzinskii-Vladislavich at the border city of Kyakhta on 23 August 1727.
Primorskaya Oblast was an administrative division of the Russian Empire and the early Russian SFSR,created on October 31,1856 by the Governing Senate. The name of the region literally means "Maritime" or "Coastal." The region was established upon a Russian conquest of Daur people that used to live along Amur River. Before the Russian conquest of Russian Manchuria,the territory belonged to the Chinese region of Manchuria.
Count Nikolay Nikolayevich Muravyov-Amursky was a Russian general,statesman and diplomat,who played a major role in the expansion of the Russian Empire into the Amur River basin and to the shores of the Sea of Japan.
The 1991 Sino–Soviet Border Agreement was a treaty signed between China and the Soviet Union on May 16,1991. It set up demarcation work to resolve most of the border disputes between the two states. Initially signed by China and the Soviet Union,the terms of the agreement were resumed by Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The treaty resulted in some minor territorial changes along the border.
Yishan,courtesy name Jingxuan,was a Manchu lesser noble and official of the Qing dynasty. He is best known for his failure to defend Guangzhou (Canton) from British forces during the First Opium War,and for signing the treaties of Kulja and Aigun with the Russian Empire in 1851 and 1858 respectively.
The Sino-Russian border conflicts (1652–1689) were a series of intermittent skirmishes between the Qing dynasty of China,with assistance from the Joseon dynasty of Korea,and the Tsardom of Russia by the Cossacks in which the latter tried and failed to gain the land north of the Amur River with disputes over the Amur region. The hostilities culminated in the Qing siege of the Cossack fort of Albazin in 1686 and resulted in the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689 which gave the land to China.
The Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula is a peninsula in Primorsky Krai,Russia,located in the Peter the Great Gulf of the Sea of Japan. Vladivostok,the administrative center of Primorsky Krai,is located on the southern tip of the peninsula.
Between 1858 and 1860,the Russian Empire annexed territories adjoining the Amur River belonging to the Chinese Qing dynasty through the imposition of unequal treaties. The 1858 Treaty of Aigun,signed by the general Nikolay Muravyov representing the Russian Empire and the official Yishan representing Qing China,ceded Priamurye—a territory stretching from the Amur River north to the Stanovoy Mountains,but the Qing government initially refused to recognize the treaty's validity. Two years later,the Second Opium War concluded with the Convention of Peking,which affirmed the previous treaty as well as an additional cession including the entire Pacific coast to the Korean border,as well as the island of Sakhalin to Russia. These two territories roughly correspond to modern-day Amur Oblast and Primorsky Krai,respectively. Collectively,they are often referred to as Outer Manchuria,part of the greater region of Manchuria.
The Russian invasion of Manchuria or Chines expedition occurred in the aftermath of the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) when concerns regarding Qing China's defeat by the Empire of Japan,and Japan's brief occupation of Liaodong,caused the Russian Empire to speed up their long held designs for imperial expansion across Eurasia.
Imperial Russia was a participant of the Chinese Opium Wars,more specifically in the second war which occurred in 1856-1860. Russia played a role of mediator,being both an ally with Britain,France,and the United States and negotiator with the elites of the Qing dynasty. Throughout the whole war period Russia provided minimal amount of military aid and used diplomatic power to present its interests in the conflict. As a result of the ratified agreements in 1860 Russia received former Manchurian lands along the Ussuri river and increased its economical influence on China.
Events from the year 1858 in China.