The Treaty of Kulja (also spelled Kuldja) () was an

unequal treaty Unequal treaty is the name given by the Chinese to a series of treaties signed during the 19th and early 20th centuries, between China (mostly referring to the Qing dynasty) and various Western powers (specifically the British Empire, France, the ...

between Qing China and the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, signed in 1851, opening Kulja ( Huiyuan and later Ningyuan) and

Chuguchak TachengThe official spelling according to (), as the official romanized name, also transliterated from Mongolian as Qoqak, is a county-level city (1994 est. pop. 56,400) and the administrative seat of Tacheng Prefecture, in northern Ili Kazakh A ...

to Sino-Russian trade. Prepared by the first Russian consul to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, Ivan Zakharov, the treaty was preceded by a gradual Russian advance throughout the nineteenth century into

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

in direct competition with British efforts to impose self-advantageous trade terms on China.

Historical context

Cross-border trade became increasingly important to Russia and China in the 19th century with Russian merchants trading illegally at Kulja in

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

’s Yili River Valley. In 1803,

Tsar Alexander I Alexander I (; – ) was Emperor of Russia from 1801, the first King of Congress Poland from 1815, and the Grand Duke of Finland from 1809 to his death. He was the eldest son of Emperor Paul I and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg. The son of G ...

attempted to negotiate the opening of the entire Sino-Russian border to trade. This effort failed, however, when the Tsar’s representative refused to kow-tow to a tablet representing the Emperor. Preceded by a gradual Russian advance throughout the 19th century into

, in direct competition with British efforts to impose self-advantageous trade terms on China, the treaty was signed on July 25th 1851 by the

General of Ili The General of Ili ( Officially ), also known in western sources as the Kuldya Military Governor, was a position created during the reign of the Qing Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735-1799) to "pacify" Dzungaria (now part of Xinjiang) and suppress uprising ...

and his assistant. Under its terms Kulja ( Huiyuan and later Ningyuan) and Chuguchak (modern

Tacheng TachengThe official spelling according to (), as the official romanized name, also transliterated from Mongolian as Qoqak, is a county-level city (1994 est. pop. 56,400) and the administrative seat of Tacheng Prefecture, in northern Ili Kazakh A ...

) were opened to Russian trade. However the Qing court denied the Russian request to include trading in Kashgar. The treaty also allowed Russian merchants to trade and Russian consuls to reside in the Xinjiang towns of Yili ( Huiyuan before 1863 and Ningyuan after 1882) and Tarbagatai. Russian trade with Xinjiang flourished and

Alma Ata Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to 1936 as an autonomous republic as part of t ...

was founded in 1854 to become an important link in this trade. While the treaty primarily legalized ongoing practice, it also recognized the growing Russian presence in

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

. China’s defenses on this border had been greatly neglected since the start of the 19th century. The official text of the treaty was written in

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

, French and

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...

; the original treaty did not have an official

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

version.

Historical context

See also

References

Further reading