1911, in a city in Mexico, half of the Chinese were killed, and the lives of 303 innocent Chinese were cruelly deprived! Only 110 years later did the injured Chinese descendants receive a formal apology! What is the reason for
? What makes the government of the country that caused the accident re-recommends the old incident that has long been lost in history and formally apologize?
Chinese immigrants created Torreon's prosperity
At the end of the 16th century during the Ming Dynasty period, a very small number of hardworking Chinese arrived in Mexico! Mexico, which was a relatively large number of Chinese, came to Mexico in the second half of the 19th century! In the 1860s, American businessmen recruited many Chinese workers to Mexico to build the Central Railway and engage in mining!
Torreon
1876, the Mexican regime was in the hands of Pofirio Dias, and Mexican society gradually stabilized! The president encouraged investment, road construction and mining of minerals, and worked hard to revitalize the economy, so someone had to come to work, creating labor demand! In order to quickly solve the labor problem, the government also advocates using immigration to solve the problem of lack of workforce! The Chinese are diligent and hardworking, and they need low wages, of course they are high-quality and cheap labor!
1899, the two countries' ministers to the United States, Wu Tingfang, and Aspiros signed the China-Mexico Trade Treaty. After the contract was signed, Chinese people began to come to Mexico to work and live in large numbers. By 1910, there were about 13,000 Chinese in Mexico. Among them, in the northern city of Toleiong, a small town where two railways meet has become the destination of some Chinese people. About 600 Chinese people work hard.
Huamo Commercial Bank Debt
Chinese in Torreon City worked hard day after day and finally achieved some success. Many restaurants, vegetable plantations, laundry rooms, and daily necessities stores are all opened by Chinese. There is also an "Huamo Commercial Bank" opened after Kang Youwei exile overseas. This bank also invested in the construction of Torreon's first tram! Torreon has gradually become a prosperous city with transportation integration!
The hard work of Chinese people has become an excuse to be excluded
The hard work of Chinese people, flexible mind, patient, and good at creating wealth, has aroused dissatisfaction among local Mexicans! They think job opportunities are crowded by foreign immigrants, and even think that Mexican women have married foreigners, which is extremely unfair to them. The local government later introduced a policy to prohibit local women from getting married with foreign immigrants. The concepts accumulated over the years laid the hidden secret for the subsequent incidents of harming Chinese people
In May 1911, the Mexican civil war became more and more intense, and 4,500 Madero revolutionary soldiers surrounded Torreon, hoping to win this transportation rush in one fell swoop! There were only a pitiful more than 600 government troops in the city, so naturally they could not resist the so-called revolutionary army. On May 14, Torreon fell into Madero's hands!
Old photos of the Torreon incident
When the soldiers rushed into the city, there were about thousands of refugees mixed with them. These people's disgust towards foreign immigrants suddenly vented their anger. The first thing they were tortured by the Chinese, smashed shops, banks, and robbed property. Ten hours passed, and a total of 303 Chinese were brutally killed, including 25 employees of Huamo Commercial Bank and 5 Japanese. At this time, the revolutionary leader Madero entered the city and began to stop the continued massacre!
The Qing government's deterrence from outside and strong and the incident was incomplete. After the Torreon incident, the Qing government sent Zhang Yintang to deal with the matter, formally filed a compensation claim to Mexico and demanded a formal apology! But the Mexican revolutionary government ignored it!
Zhang Mengtang
After a while, there was a rumor in Mexico: " Qing Dynasty will send a giant ship to Mexico to Xuanwei! Already on the way ", another saying, this rumor may be Wu Tingfang's strategy.In fact, the saying of giant ships is not groundless. At this time, the Qing Dynasty "Haiqi" cruiser , which was sailing around the world, did arrive at Cuba , which is very close to Mexico!
The approach of Haiqi did indeed have a temporary deterrence to Mexico. After that, the Mexican side began to agree on a compensation plan with Zhang Yintang. At the beginning, Zhang Yintang proposed a compensation claim of 30 million Mexican peso , but the Qing government was already at the end of the strong outside and the middle. The Xinhai Revolution broke out soon and the Qing government was overthrown!
Haiqi
After that, Zhang Yintang continued to represent Beiyang government and negotiated with Mexico. Until November 1921, the negotiations were over, and the amount of compensation had been reduced to 3.1 million pesos , and 35 murderers who killed Chinese were punished! Just when people thought that even if it was 3.1 million, it would be a result to get it, but the revolutionary President Madero stepped down. The compensation became a blank check and it was left alone!
Until a hundred years later:
2000, the descendants of Chinese victims received several compensations;
2021, the leaders of Mexico formally apologized to the victims that year!
The historical evolution of the Torreon incident shows that only by continuously improving the national destiny can the country's strength be enriched. If you work strong outside and strong at the same time, how can you protect the safety of the people!
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In the historical context, experience the road to becoming a strong country for a century! @海日本日本日本日本
