Kwantung Leased Territory

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Kwantung Leased Territory

The Kwantung Leased Territory (; ) was a territory in the southern part of the Liaodong Peninsula

Liaodong Peninsula

The Li?odong Peninsula is a peninsula in the Liaoning province of northeastern China, historically known in the west as southern east-Manchuria....
in northeastern China

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
that existed from 1898 to 1945. It was one of the numerous concessions

Concession (territory)

In international law, a concession is a territory within a country that is administered by another entity than the state which holds sovereignty over it....
that China was compelled to award to foreign countries at the end of the 19th century. The territory included the militarily and economically significant ports of Lüshunkou

Lüshunkou

L?shun city or L?shunkou or L?shun Port , formerly known as both Port Arthur and Ryojun, is a town located at the extreme southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, in the district of Dalian of the People's Republic of China....
(Port Arthur) and Dalian

Dalian

Dalian is the governing sub-provincial city in the eastern Liaoning Province of Northeast China. Dalian is China's northernmost Warm water port....
(Dal'niy or Dairen).

The name Kwantung means "east of Shanhaiguan", a reference to part of Qinhuangdao

Qinhuangdao

Qinhuangdao is a city in Hebei province, People's Republic of China. It is about 300 km east of Beijing, on the Bohai Sea, the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea....
in today's Hebei

Hebei

For the people of Hebei, see Hebei people is a North China province of China of the People's Republic of China. Its one-Chinese character abbreviation is "" , named after Ji Province , a Han Dynasty province that included southern Hebei....
province, with the eastern end of the Great Wall of China

Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China or is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in China, built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 5th century BC and the 16th century to protect the northern borders of the History of China from Xiongnu attacks during the rule of Dynasties in Chinese history....
.

a class="link1" onMouseover='showByLink("m2265345",this)' onMouseout='hide("m2265345")'href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Qing_Dynasty">Qing dynasty

Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty , also known as the Manchu Dynasty, followed the Ming Dynasty in History of China, and was the last ruling Chinese Dynasties of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 ....
China, the Liaodong Peninsula was administratively part of Liaoning

Liaoning

is a Northeast China political divisions of China of the People's Republic of China. Its one-Chinese character abbreviation is Liao ."Li?o" is an ancient name for this region, which was adopted by the Liao Dynasty which ruled this area between 907 and 1125....
Province.

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Encyclopedia

The Kwantung Leased Territory (; ) was a territory in the southern part of the Liaodong Peninsula

Liaodong Peninsula

The Li?odong Peninsula is a peninsula in the Liaoning province of northeastern China, historically known in the west as southern east-Manchuria....
in northeastern China

China

Concession (territory)

Lüshunkou

Dalian

Qinhuangdao

Qinhuangdao is a city in Hebei province, People's Republic of China. It is about 300 km east of Beijing, on the Bohai Sea, the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea....
in today's Hebei

Hebei

Great Wall of China

History

In Qing dynasty

Qing Dynasty

Liaoning

Beiyang Fleet

The Beiyang Fleet was one of the Naval_history_of_China#Qing_Dynasty in the late Qing Dynasty. The navies were heavily sponsored by Li Hongzhang, who was the Viceroy of Zhili....
established a naval base and coaling station

Coaling station

A coaling station is a seaport built for the purpose of replenishing supplies, including but by no means limited to coal. The term is most often associated with 19th and early 20th century blue water navy, who used coaling stations as a means of extending the range of warships....
at Lüshunkou

Lüshunkou

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
occupied the region during the First Sino-Japanese War

First Sino-Japanese War

The First Sino-Japanese War was a war fought between Qing Dynasty China and Meiji period Imperial Japan over the control of Korea. The Sino-Japanese War would come to symbolize the degeneration and enfeeblement of the Qing Dynasty and demonstrate how successful modernization had been in Japan since the Meiji Restoration as compared with the...
(1894-1895). Under the terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki

Treaty of Shimonoseki

The Treaty of Shimonoseki , known as the Treaty of Maguan in China, was signed at the Shunpanro hall on April 17, 1895 between the Empire of Japan and Qing Dynasty, ending the First Sino-Japanese War....
signed by Japan and China ending the war in April 1895, Japan gained full sovereignty

Sovereignty

File:Leviathan gr.jpgSovereignty is the exclusive right to control a government, a State, a people, or oneself. A sovereign is a supreme lawmaking authority....
of the area. However, within weeks, Germany, France

France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
and Russia pressured Japan to cede the territory back to China, in what was called the Triple Intervention

Triple Intervention

The was a diplomatic intervention by Russia, Germany, and France on 23 April 1895 over the terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki signed between Japan and Qing dynasty China that ended the First Sino-Japanese War....
. In December 1897, Russian naval vessels

Imperial Russian Navy

The Imperial Russian Navy refers to the Tsarist Naval fleet prior to the Bolshevik Revolution....
entered Port Arthur harbor, which they began to use as a forward base of operations for patrols off of northern China, Korea

Korea

Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries, a civilization, and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia....
and the Sea of Japan

Sea of Japan

The Sea of Japan is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, bordered by Japan, South Korea, North Korea and Russia. It is referred to in North Korea as the Korea East Sea and in South Korea as the East Sea....
. In March 1898 Russia formally leased the region for 25 years from China. The leased area extended to the northern shore of Yadang Bay on the western side of the peninsula; on the eastern side it reached Pikou. The peninsula north of the lease was made a neutral territory in which China agreed not to offer concessions to other countries. In 1899, Russia founded the town of Dal'niy (meaning "distant" or "remote") which would later become Dalian

Dalian

Dalian is the governing sub-provincial city in the eastern Liaoning Province of Northeast China. Dalian is China's northernmost Warm water port....
(Dairen in Japanese).

In 1898 Russia began building a railroad north from Port Arthur to link Port Arthur with the Chinese Eastern Railway at Harbin

Harbin

is a sub-provincial city and the Capital of the Heilongjiang in Northeast China. It lies on the southern bank of the Songhua River. Harbin is ranked as the tenth largest city in China, serving as a key political, economic, scientific, cultural and communications center of Northeastern China....
; this spur line would become the South Manchurian Railway.

Under the Portsmouth Treaty (1905) resulting from the Russo-Japanese War

Russo-Japanese War

The Russo-Japanese War or the Manchurian Campaign in some English sources, was a conflict that grew out of the rival imperialism ambitions of the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over Manchuria and Korea....
, Japan replaced Russia as leaseholder. Japan also obtained extraterritorial rights in the region north of the territory adjacent to the South Manchurian Railway in 1905 (the South Manchurian Railway Zone, which was extended to Changchun

Changchun

Changchun is the capital and largest city of Jilin Provinces of China, located in the northeast of the People's Republic of China, in the centre of the Songliao Plain....
. These rights, along with the railway and several spur lines were passed to the corporation known as the South Manchurian Railway Company.

Japan established the to administer the new territory, and based the Kwantung Garrison to defend it and the railway. In negotiations with the Republic of China

Republic of China

The Republic of China , also known as Nationalist China is a country in East Asia that has evolved from a single-party state with full global recognition into a multi-party democratic state with Political status of Taiwan....
under the Twenty-One Demands

Twenty-One Demands

The were a set of demands made by the Empire of Japan under Prime Minister of Japan Okuma Shigenobu sent to the nominal government of the Republic of China on January 18, 1915, resulting in two treaties with Japan on May 25, 1915....
, the terms of the lease were extended to 99 years, or until 1997.

After the foundation of Japanese-controlled Manchukuo

Manchukuo

Manchukuo was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia. The region was the Qing Dynasty's historical homeland, created by former Qing Dynasty officials with help from Imperial Japan in 1932....
in 1932, Japan regarded the sovereignty of the leased territory as transferred from China to Manchukuo. A new lease agreement was contracted between Japan and the government of Manchukuo, and Japan surrendered the South Manchurian Railway Zone to Manchukuo. However, Japan retained the Kwantung Leased Territory apart from the nominally-independent Manchukuo until its surrender

Surrender of Japan

The surrender of Japan in August 1945 brought World War II to a close. On August 10, 1945, after the Soviet Union Soviet invasion of Manchuria and the United States atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan's leaders at the Supreme War Council decided, in principle, to accept the terms the Allies of World War II had set down...
at the end of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
in 1945.

Administration

In a reorganization of 1919, the Kwantung Garrison was renamed the Kwantung Army

Kwantung Army

The , also known as the Guandong Army , was an army group of the Imperial Japanese Army in the early twentieth century. It became the largest and most prestigious command in the IJA....
and separated from the civilian administration of the territory, which was designated the . The Kanto-cho initially directly reported to the office of the Prime Minister of Japan

Prime Minister of Japan

The is the usual English-language term used for the head of government of Japan, although the literal translation of the Japanese name for the office is Prime Minister of the Cabinet....
; later it was subordinated to the Ministry of Colonial Affairs

Ministry of Colonial Affairs

The was a Cabinet -level ministry in the government of the Empire of Japan from 1923-1942....
. Internally, the Kwantung Leased Area was divided into two districts, with two cities and nine towns. The city assemblies were in part elected, and in part appointed by the governor.

Economy

Massive capital investment was concentrated in Dairen (now the capital of the territory), wherein Japanese firms developed a significant industrial infrastructure

Infrastructure

Infrastructure can be defined as the basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise , or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function....
, as well as creating a first class port

Port

||-||-|-||-||-||-||-||-||-|}A port is a facility for receiving ships and transferring cargo. They are usually found at the edge of an ocean, sea, river, or lake....
out of the mediocre natural harbor. The facilities of the port at Dairen and its free trade port

Free port

A free port or free zone is a port or area with relaxed jurisdiction with respect to the country of location. Free economic zones may also be called free ports....
status made it the principal trade gateway to northeast China. The South Manchurian Railway Company was headquartered in Dairen, and some of the profits from its operation were channel into transforming Dairan into a showcase city of modern city planning and modern architecture

Modern architecture

Modern architecture is a set of building styles with similar characteristics, primarily the simplification of form and the elimination of Ornament ....
, with hospitals, universities and a large industrial zone.

Demographics

In the national census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population....
of 1935, the population of the Kwantung Leased Territory was 1,034,074, of whom 168,185 were Japanese nationals. The numbers excluded military personnel. The area of the territory was .

Governor-General of Kwantung Leased Territory

	Name	From	To
1	General Baron Yoshimasa Oshima	1905-10-10	1912-04-26
2	Lieutenant General Yasumasa Fukushima	1912-04-26	1914-09-15
3	Lieutenant General Akira Nakamura Akira Nakamura is a Japanese historian and scholar of English literature born on Showa 9 at Tokyo. A representative of Showashi Research Institute.He is an assenter of "The Truth about Nanjing."...	1914-09-15	1917-07-31
4	Lieutenant General Yujiro Nakamura	1917-07-31	1919-04-12
5	Gonsuke Hayashi	1919-04-12	1920-05-24
6	Isaburo Yamagata	1920-05-24	1922-09-08
7	Hikokichi Ijuin	1922-09-08	1923-09-19
8	Hideo Kodama Hideo Kodama Count , was a politician and wartime cabinet minister in the Empire of Japan. He was the eldest son of famed Russo-Japanese War general Kodama Gentaro, and his wife was the daughter of Prime Minister of Japan Terauchi Masatake....	1923-09-26	1927-12-17
9	Kenjiro Kinoshita	1927-12-17	1929-08-17
10	Masahiro Ota	1929-08-17	1931-01-16
11	Seiji Tsukamoto	1931-01-16	1932-01-11
12	Mannosuke Yamaoka	1932-01-11	1932-08-08
13	General Nobuyoshi Muto Nobuyoshi Muto Baron was Commander of the Kwangtung Army in 1933, Japanese ambassador to Manchukuo, and a Field Marshal in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II....	1932-08-08	1933-07-28
14	General Takashi Hishikari Takashi Hishikari was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army....	1933-07-28	1934-12-10
15	General Jiro Minami Jiro Minami was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army and Governor-General of Korea between 1936 and 1942....	1934-12-10	1936-03-06
16	General Kenkichi Ueda Kenkichi Ueda was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War, most notably during the Soviet-Japanese Border Wars of the late 1930s....	1936-03-06	1939-09-07
17	General Yoshijiro Umezu Yoshijiro Umezu was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II....	1939-09-07	1944-07-18
18	General Otozo Yamada	1944-07-18	1946-08-28

Kwantung Leased Territory

History

Administration

Economy

Demographics

Governor-General of Kwantung Leased Territory

See also

External links