Show the past, and let the future generations.
Fast forward 83 years, December 13, is another annual national memorial day; in the early morning of December 13, 1937, the invading Japanese army invaded Nanjing, committed 6 weeks of crimes against humanity, and 300,000 Chinese civilians and prisoners of war were brutally killed by the Japanese army! This is the famous "Nanjing Massacre" event. Nowadays, the land of Jinling is full of peace and vitality, and the only thing that can arouse many memories is presumably the remnants of the "Nanjing Massacre Victims Compatriots Memorial Hall" and the cluster burial memorial sites distributed in Nanjing.
Desperate mothers and swaddled babies in their hands
In addition to the trauma brought by the war, the history of humiliation in modern China is far less than this, and many humiliations are leveled by cutting the land with money, which has to mention "unequal treaties", and the unequal treaties that we are familiar with are only partial;
Such as the Treaty of Nanjing, signed with britain after the defeat of the First Opium War, which opened the five ports of Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai, ceded Hong Kong, and compensated 21 million silver;
After the defeat of the Second Opium War, the Treaty of Tianjin, which was signed with Britain and France to open nine additional treaty ports including Nanjing, Tainan, Hankou, and Jiujiang, and compensated Britain with 4 million taels of silver and the Treaty of Beijing, which increased the amount of compensation to 8 million taels;
The Treaty of Maguan, signed with Japan after the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War, which forcibly occupied Taiwan, the Penghu Islands, and the Liaodong Peninsula, and compensated Japan for its military expenses of 200 million taels;
The Boxer Rebellion and the Eight-Power Alliance signed a maximum amount of 450 million taels of indemnities after the invasion of China, which was repaid in thirty-nine years, with an annual interest rate of 4 percent, and a total of more than 980 million taels of principal and interest; the "Xinugu Treaty" was forever forbidden for Chinese to establish or participate in various organizations that "enemies with the countries" and were executed in violation of the "Xinugu Treaty."
It is said that in the 72 years of the late Qing government, a total of 1175 unequal treaties were signed.
However, it is hard to imagine that the Qing government also forced other countries to sign unequal treaties and demanded compensation. In 1911, Chinese Mexicans were massacred and 300 people were killed. The Qing government ordered cruisers visiting the United States to Cuba and Mexico. The Qing army suppressed the border, and the Cuban and Mexican governments immediately relented and had to sign an unequal treaty. The compensation offered by the Qing government was 30 million Mexican silver dollars, which is also a lion's big mouth, which can be eaten a full meal;
From the forced Mexican treaties and reparations, it can be seen that there is no need for detailed exploration of how many unequal treaties China was forced to sign in the late Qing Dynasty, after all, a strong country is the king.
Scenery of Xuanwu Lake in Nanjing
Today's China is prosperous, the people live happily, the important international status, the foreign policy of being tough and soft, and the peace of mind and effective epidemic prevention policy all make us feel extremely proud as Chinese, never forget the lessons of the past, look back at history, carry forward the past, my Chinese sons and daughters are not old with the sky, and my Chinese land and country have no boundaries!