Russian Manchuria (Russia)

Russian Manchuria, sometimes "For these services Moscow exacted a staggering territorial price: a broad swath of territory in so-called Outer Manchuria along the Pacific coast, including the port city now called Vladivostok.¹⁴ In a stroke, Russia had gained a major new naval base, a foothold in the Sea of Japan, and 350,000 square miles of territory once considered Chinese.""New Russian leaders may or may not look to the West rather than Beijing, and might be so weak that the Russian Federation’s fragmentation, especially east of the Urals, isn’t inconceivable. Beijing is undoubtedly eyeing this vast territory, which potentially contains incalculable mineral wealth. Significant portions of this region were under Chinese sovereignty until the 1860 Treaty of Peking transferred “outer Manchuria,” including extensive Pacific coast lands, to Moscow." understood as Outer Manchuria, a term popularized in the late 2000s,Russian Manchuria, Outer Manchuria
in refers to a region of Russia in Northeast Asia that historically formed part of Manchuria, and now constitutes the southern part of the Russian Far East. Manchuria, which more normatively refers to Northeast China, originally included areas in present-day Russian Manchuria. Control of areas within the region was ceded to the Russian Empire by the Qing China during the Amur Annexation in the 1858 Treaty of Aigun and 1860 Treaty of Peking, with the term 'Russian Manchuria' arising after the Russian annexation. The same general area became known as Green Ukraine after a large number of settlers from Ukraine came to the region.

History of the term

"Manchuria" was coined in the 19th century to refer to the northeastern part of the Qing Empire, the traditional homeland of the Manchu people. After the 1858 and 1860 cessions, the ceded areas were known as Russian Manchuria. The term "Outer Manchuria" became popularized in the late 2000s. In Chinese, names for the region include ''Wai Manzhou'' or ''Wai Dongbei'' (russian: Приаму́рье, translit=Priamurye; zh, s=外满洲, t=外滿洲, p=Wài Mǎnzhōu or zh, s=外东北, t=外東北, p=Wài Dōngběi, l=outer northeast).

Russian Manchuria comprises the modern-day Russian areas of Primorsky Krai, southern Khabarovsk Krai, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, the Amur Oblast and the island of Sakhalin. "Amoor, Territory of, a name applied to Russian Manchooria, or the region of Southeastern Siberia acquired from the Chinese and Japanese by the Russians since 1858. It is bounded on the N. by Siberia proper, on the E. by the Seas of Okhotsk and Japan, the coast being Russian as far S. as the river Toomen, which divides it from Corea (the island of Saghalin being now included) ; on the W. by Chinese Manchooria, the rivers Oosooree, Argoon, Soongaree, and Amoor forming (for the most part) the boundary; and on the N.W. by the government of Transbaikalia. Its area, 905,462 square miles, is over four times that of France. It is divided into the provinces of Amoor and Primorsk."

The northern part of the area was disputed by Qing China and the Russian Empire, in the midst of the Russia's Far East expansion, between 1643 and 1689. The Treaty of Nerchinsk signed in 1689 after a series of conflicts, defined the Sino–Russian border as the Stanovoy Mountains and the Argun River. When the Qing sent officials to erect boundary markers, the markers were set up far to the south of the agreed limits, ignoring some 23,000 square miles of territory.

In 1809, the Japanese government sent explorer Mamiya Rinzō to Sakhalin and the region of the Amur to determine the extent of Russian influence and penetration.

To preserve the Manchu character of Manchuria, the Qing dynasty discouraged Han Chinese settlement in Manchuria; nevertheless, there was significant Han Chinese migration into areas south of the Amur and west of the Ussuri. By the mid-19th century, there were very few subjects of the Qing Empire living in the areas north of the Amur and east of the Ussuri, and Qing authority in the area was seen as tenuous by the Russians. In 1854, the Tartar-general of Heilungkiang memorialized that the only way to stop Russian expansion into the region was to bring Han Chinese settlers to the unpopulated areas. In 1856, Russian military entered the area north of the Amur on pretext of defending the area from France and the UK, Russian settlers founded new towns and cut down forests in the region, and the Russian government created a new maritime province, Primorskaya Oblast, including Sakhalin, the mouth of the Amur, and Kamchatka with its capital at Nikolayevsk-on-Amur. After losing the Opium Wars, Qing China was forced to sign a series of treaties that gave away territories and ports to various Western powers as well as to Russia and Japan; these were collectively known by the Chinese side as the Unequal Treaties. Starting with the Treaty of Aigun in 1858 and, in the wake of the Second Opium War, the Treaty of Peking in 1860, the Sino–Russian border was realigned in Russia's favour along the Amur and Ussuri rivers. As a result, China lost the region that came to be known as Russian Manchuria (an area of ) and access to the Sea of Japan. In the wake of these events, the Qing government changed course and encouraged Han Chinese migration to Manchuria ('' Chuang Guandong'').

In 2016, Victor L. Larin , the director of the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East in Vladivostok, said that the fact that Russia had built Vladivostok, “is a historical fact that cannot be rewritten,” and that the notion that Vladivostok was ever a Chinese town is a “myth” based on a misreading of evidence that a few Chinese sometimes came to the area to fish and collect sea cucumbers.

Despite the potential for territorial claims (in theory) coextensive with the Qing dynasty, Chinese leaders as of 2014 had not suggested that Mongolia and part of Russian Manchuria would be a legitimate objective. In April 2023, US diplomat John Bolton speculated that China (PRC) is "undoubtedly eyeing this vast territory, which potentially contains incalculable mineral wealth," (referring to Asian Russia generally) further noting that " gnificant portions of this region were under Chinese sovereignty until the 1860 Treaty of Peking".

Place names

Today, there are reminders of the ancient Manchu domination in English-language toponyms: for example, the Sikhote-Alin, the great coastal range; the Khanka Lake; the Amur and Ussuri rivers; the Greater Khingan, Lesser Khingan and other small mountain ranges; and the Shantar Islands. Evenks, a non-Manchu Tungusic people, who speak a closely related Tungusic language, make up a significant part of the indigenous population.

In 1973, the Soviet Union renamed several locations in the region that bore names of Chinese origin. Names affected included: Partizansk for Suchan (Sucheng); Dalnegorsk for Tetyukhe; Rudnaya Pristan for Teyukhe‐Pristan; Dalnerechensk for Iman; Sibirtsevo for Mankovka; Gurskoye for Khungari; Cherenshany for Sinan cha; Rudny for Lifudzin; and Uglekamensk for Severny Suchan.

On February 14, 2023, the Ministry of Natural Resources of the People's Republic of China relabelled eight cities and areas inside Russia in the region with Chinese names. The eight names are: Boli for Khabarovsk, Hailanpao for Blagoveshchensk, Haishenwai (Haishenwei) for Vladivostok, Kuye for Sakhalin, Miaojie for Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, Nibuchu for Nerchinsk, Outer Khingan (Outer Xing'an) for Stanovoy Range, and Shuangchengzi for Ussuriysk.

See also

* Chinese Tartary
* 1991 Sino–Russian Border Agreement
* Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island
* Zhenbao Island
* Sixty-Four Villages East of the River
* 1900 Amur anti-Chinese pogroms
* Amur Annexation
* (1972 Russian Far East Place Name Changes)

Notes

References

External links

*

Books.google.com: ''Russia in Manchuria''
— 1903 illustrated article.

{{Chinese historical placenames in Outer Manchuria
*
East Asia
Inner Asia
Geography of Northeast Asia
Geography of the Russian Far East
Historical regions of China
History of Manchuria
China–Russia border
China–Russian Empire relations
China–Russia relations