Today in 2022, the geography book of primary and secondary schools in China clearly indicates the top three islands in China, namely Taiwan Island , Hainan Island and Chongming Island .
But what most people don’t know is that just a few hundred years ago, there was an island on the territory of the Qing Dynasty. Its area is larger than today’s three major islands, which is Sakhalin Island .
Today, you can see Sakhalin Island by boat in the northeast of Heilongjiang. Now this island belongs to Russia, they call it Sakhalin Island.
According to historical records, as early as , the Chinese discovered Sakhalin Island as early as , the Jin Dynasty . When it came to , the Hei Shui Mie was the ruler here. It was from this time that the Chinese called this " library page ". Although the Hei Shui Mohe did not belong to the Tang Dynasty, it was also governed by the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty.
When Yuan Dynasty , the iron hooves of the Mongols conquered this Sakhalin Island and officially became part of China's territory. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Chinese rulers strengthened their management of Sakhalin Island and sent special personnel to inspect the place many times. We can know that Sakhalin Island has been China's territory since ancient times. However, due to its special geographical location, the Chinese rulers have never paid attention to it, so most Chinese people are not very familiar with it, but even so, Sakhalin Island was once a part of China.
So why was Sakhalin Island lost?
1685, the Qing government ordered the recovery of Yaksha and expelled the invading Tsarist Russian troops. After several games, Russian finally agreed to sign the "HTM1 Nibchu Treaty ", but because there were many unclear territories between the Qing and Russia at that time, the Qing Dynasty representative, under the intentional guidance of Russia, transferred many uncertain territories to the other side.
Even so, Sakhalin Island still belongs to the territory of the Qing Dynasty. However, because Sakhalin Island was very far away from the Qing court, the Qing government did not send too many troops to station. This has led to Russia and neighboring Japan always eyeing Sakhalin Island. They have obvious advantages in geographical location than the Qing government, so they are naturally unwilling to give up this piece of fat.
It was this period that Japan and Russia also had a battle called " Russo-Japanese War " because of Sakhalin Island. The losses of both sides in this battle were extremely heavy, but in the end, Japan won the victory.
But even if he lost the war, the Tsar at that time was unwilling to cede land and pay compensation. Later, the United States stepped forward as a peacemaker and proposed to divide Sakhalin into two, with Japan and Russia taking one of them, so that neither side suffered a loss. The state of
continued until after in World War II. Japan, as a defeated country, handed over Sakhalin's general jurisdiction to the Soviet Union. It was from this time that Sakhalin's ownership officially belonged to the Soviet Union.
Seeing this, many people will have questions in their minds, why do the Japanese and Russians fight on China's territory? What did the Qing government do at that time?
In fact, Emperor Kangxi at that time also attached great importance to Sakhalin Island. It not only established a jurisdiction in the local area but also sent princesses to marry, with the purpose of strengthening the connection between the two places and facilitating the management of Sakhalin Island.
was due to the extremely inconvenient transportation at that time, and it took several months to get to Sakhalin Island from Beijing, so it was extremely difficult to truly manage Sakhalin Island.
Another point is that China in feudal society has always adhered to Confucianism, while the traditional culture of Sakhalin does not believe in Confucianism. As time goes by, the Qing government no longer attaches importance to Sakhalin Island and allows it to develop, and even makes no requests for annual tribute.
This situation lasted for a long time. At that time, the Tsar saw that there were no troops stationed in Sakhalin Island and became interested in it. When Russia's strong ships and guns hit the shore of Sakhalin Island, the Qing government still made no statements and handed over Sakhalin Island without any concern.
celebrating the eleventh year, the Qing court focused on the sea war in the Fujian-Zhejiang direction, and had no extra thoughts to care about this distant Northeast island. They didn't even know what was happening here.
1809, the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan sent Mamiya Linzang to Sakhalin Island, and also visited the local government established by the Qing court in Heilongjiang. Japan intends to contact the Qing court to fight against Tsarist Russia, but it has not received a positive response.
1854, Tsarist Russia was trapped in the quagmire of war in Europe. In order to increase its strength on the frontal battlefield, Russia withdrew its troops stationed on Sakhalin Island. Logically speaking, this period was a good opportunity for the Qing court to re-occupy Sakhalin Island, but at this time the Qing court was having a headache about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and had no time to care about it.
During the Second Opium War, Tsarist Russia finally found an opportunity to blackmail the Qing court.
At that time, the British and French coalition forces had just captured Dagu , and Beijing city was in danger. The Russian Governor-General Muravyov led his army to Aihui City and demanded negotiations with Yishan .
Russia claims that it is here to "help the Qing government defend Britain and France" and also defend its own territory. But they had a requirement that the Qing court need to re-demarcate the boundary between Heilongjiang and Wusuri River.
The Qing court representative Yishan refused Russia in person after hearing this unreasonable request and said sternly: "The border between the two countries has been set long ago. You are now leading troops to negotiate. It is clearly intended to seize our land and bully me Qing ."
Russia was precisely aware of the Qing court's inability to fight again. After being rejected, it revealed its werewolf nature and forced the Qing court to negotiate and sign the contract by force.
On November 14, 860, China and Russia signed the humiliating " Beijing Treaty ". This treaty recognizes the legality of Russia's culling more than 600,000 square kilometers of land in China, and Sakhalin Island is one of them.
Since then, there is no Sakhalin Island in China.
