Since the Opium War in 1840, the Qing government's borders have gradually been opened. Western powers knew the weakness of the Qing government and took the opportunity to invade the Qing Dynasty. From 1840 to 1912, the Qing government signed a total of 1,175 treaties, contracts, agreements and contracts with foreign governments, foreign businessmen, and international organizations, including 31 unequal treaties, involving various humiliating aspects such as compensation and cede land. So how much did the Qing government pay in total in these unequal treaties? Let’s talk to you about this article.
1, Chinese and British Treaty of Nanjing
" Treaty of Nanjing " is the first unequal treaty in modern Chinese history. After the failure of the First Opium War of , the Qing Dynasty was forced to sign with Britain on August 29, 842. One of the treaties in
involves compensation, that is, compensates the UK for opium prices, commercial arrears and military expenses, totaling 21 million silver dollars . During the Qing Dynasty, a silver dollar could be exchanged for about 0.71 taels of silver, so in the conversion, the Qing government had to compensate the UK 14.91 million taels of silver.
Opium War
2, " Tianjin Treaty "
858, with the support of the United States and Russia, the British and French fleets attacked Dagukou , and Dagu Fort lost, and the British and French coalition forces invaded Tianjin. The Qing government sent imperial envoys to sign the Treaty of Tianjin with representatives from Russia, the United States, Britain and France respectively.
Among them, in the Sino-British Treaty, the Qing government paid 4 million taels of silver to the UK, and in the Sino-French Treaty, the Qing government paid 2 million taels of silver to France.
3, " Beijing Treaty "
In August 1860, more than 217,000 British and French coalition troops arrived at the sea near Tianjin, conquered Dagu , occupied Tianjin, and defeated the main force of the Qing army in Tongxian. On September 22, Emperor Xianfeng Emperor fled to Rehe and appointed Prince Gong Yiliyuan as the plenipotentiary minister of peace and stayed in Beijing to seek peace and negotiate. During the negotiations, the Qing government did not resist and fully accepted the conditions of Britain and France.
Summer Palace
Then Prince Gong Yili signed the "Beijing Treaty" on behalf of the Qing government, respectively, with the Qing government's compensation to the UK to 8 million taels of silver, and the compensation to France also increased to 8 million taels of silver, which was a total of 16 million taels of silver.
4, China-Russia "Ili Treaty"
Since Britain opened the door to the Qing government, the Russian polar bear has also begun to take advantage of the situation.
1858 "HTM1 Aihui Treaty ", Russia cut off about 600,000 square kilometers of land from the Qing government south of the Xing'an Mountains and north of the Heilongjiang River;
860 "Beijing Treaty", Russia cut off about 400,000 square kilometers of land from the Qing government east of the Ussuri River, including Sakhalin Island, ;
1864's Sino-Russia "Discovery of the Northwest Boundary" was used to cut off the land of . The land of 440,000 square kilometers east of the Balkhash Lake to the south of ;
Land of tsarist Russia
Together with these three treaties, Russia took 1.44 million square kilometers of land from the Qing government, but the compensation was not involved.
In 1881, the Qing government signed the "Ili Treaty" with Tsarist Russia, in which Tsarist Russia seized the territory of about 70,000 square kilometers from Tacheng northeast and Ili and Kashgar , and it was also stipulated that the Qing government compensate Tsarist Russia 9 million rubles, which was equivalent to about 4 million taels of silver.
5, China-Japan " Treaty of Shimonoseki "
In history, Japan has always coveted our country. As early as , general Liu Rengui had defeated the Japanese army. After that, Japan did not dare to make rash decisions for hundreds of years. Ming Dynasty Japan began to invade China's southeast coast again, but was still defeated by the Ming army. Since then, Japan has been silent for hundreds of years. Since the Opium War, China's national gate was opened, Japan has once again begun to invade China.
Shimonoseki Treaty Signing Ceremony
894, taking the opportunity of North Korean Dongxue Party’s uprising, the North Korean government invited troops from China, Japan sent a large army into North Korea and provoked the Sino-Japanese War in 1895. Sadly, the Beiyang Fleet, which was claimed to be the number one in Asia at that time, was wiped out, and the Qing army was defeated and forced to make peace with Japan.
1 On April 17, 1895, Li Hongzhang On behalf of the Qing government and the Meiji government of Japan signed the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Shimonoseki in Shimonoseki in Shimonoseki, Japan. One of them was that the Qing government compensated Japan with 200 million taels of silver as compensation for military expenses, and paid in 8 times.
7. Sino-Japanese Treaty of South Liao
One of the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Shimonoseki signed in 1895 was that the Qing government ceded the Liaodong Peninsula to Japan. However, the contradictions between Russia and Japan infringed on the Far East hegemony. For this reason, Russia and Germany and France took joint action to prevent Japan from occupying the Liaodong Peninsula, sent a note to Japan and responded within a time limit. At this time, Japan was in internal and external difficulties, and in order to ensure other interests, it was forced to declare its abandonment of the Liaodong Peninsula. For this reason, Japan forced the Qing government to sign the Treaty of South Liao.
One of the treaties is that is used as the "redemption fee for Liao" and the Qing government must pay Japan 30 million taels of silver.
8, " Xinchou Treaty "
At the end of May 11900, the eight countries of Russia, Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Italy, Austria and Japan jointly organized troops and assembled in Tianjin in a large number of ways despite the opposition of the Qing government. In mid-June, the great powers took new invasion steps, and captured Dagu Fortress on the grounds that the Qing government failed to suppress the Boxer Rebellion and laid out mines in Haikou and made difficulties for various countries, and then marched towards Beijing. Soon after Eight-Nation Alliance attacked Beijing, and Empress Dowager Cixi was forced to flee westward.
Xin Chou Treaty signed on site
For this reason, Empress Dowager Cixi appointed Li Hongzhang as a plenipotentiary minister and negotiated with the great powers. 901-September 7, Yi Li and Li Hongzhang represented the Qing court and met with the ministers of 11 countries in Germany, Austria, Biography, Britain, the United States, France, Italy, Japan, Russia, the Netherlands and the West and signed the "Xin Chou Treaty" in the Spanish Embassy of Dongjiaomin Lane, Beijing. The sixth paragraph of the treaty stipulates that the Qing government will compensate the great powers with 450 million taels of silver, with an annual interest of 24 cents, and will be paid off in 39 years. In 39 years, a total of about 980 million taels of silver will be paid, and the local compensation of 20 million taels of silver will be paid.
summary :
or above is an unequal treaty signed by the Qing government with a large amount of compensation signed by the great powers. The total amount is about 720 million taels of silver. If the interest is added to the above 1.25 billion taels of silver, this is just to calculate the interest in the "Xin Chou Treaty". If the interest in other treaties is added, the compensation will be countless.
The late Qing government's finances were even less than enough. In order to compensate these compensations, they had to find ways to borrow money. However, for the huge compensation numbers, it was still a drop in the bucket. In the end, the Qing Dynasty was destroyed in the internal and external difficulties.
After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, this confusing account fell into the hands of the Republic of China government again, but this confusing account changed a few times during the Republic of China period. Originally, according to the division of the spoils of the great powers, Germany divided 196.6 million taels of silver, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire scored 8.73 million taels of silver. During the First World War, China joined the Allied Powers. After the end of the First World War, Germany was defeated. The Austro-Hungarian Empire split and said that Austria and Hungary were called Austria and Hungary, and they gave up the compensation.
After the demise of Tsarist Russia, the successor Soviet Union also gave up the claim for compensation in 1924. The United Kingdom and the United States also gave up part of the compensation and used the money for railways, highways, education and other causes.
Whether it is sincere or pretending, these countries have at least given up part of the compensation. What is hateful is that Japan has never given up the compensation. After the Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, the Republic of China government was still paying compensation to Japan until 1938. What's even more hateful is that Japan used the indemnity for the war of aggression against China.
was calculated comprehensively, and the government of the Republic of China compensated the great powers a total of 576 million taels of silver. Among so many unequal treaties, compensation is only one, and more serious is the cemetery. The Qing government ceded more than 3 million square kilometers of land.These are all humiliations from modern China.
Fortunately, after the founding of New China, Chairman Mao abolished a series of unequal treaties, and the Chinese nation embarked on the path of independence, prosperity and strength. Today's China is no longer a country that dares to bully it at will.
