I vaguely remember that when I was a child, my parents and teachers told us,
Our home country is vast and livable
, and the land area is the third largest in the world. Russia and Canada, which are at the top of the list, have not much really livable area despite their large territory, and because of this, they are large but have small populations.
As we all know, the territorial area of a country is stable and unchanging in peacetime, but once it encounters war, it is very likely to change, if you are strong, it will become larger, if you are weak, it will become smaller, the essence of war is in the final analysis a resource war, the most direct way to plunder resources is to encroach on your land.
After the Warring States, Qin Shi Huang officially unified the Central Plains, but despite this, the area of the Qin Dynasty at that time was only
More than 3.5 million square kilometers.
How come we feel so little today?
The Han Dynasty, the Qiang Han Emperor Han Wudi, began to expand outwards, of which Wei Qing defeated the Xiongnu the most profitable, but the territory of the Qiang Han Dynasty had only just reached about 6 million square kilometers.
At the peak of the Tang Dynasty, it reached more than 10 million square kilometers, and during that period, China and the world began to truly connect and interact.
So people in many parts of the world still call us Tang people.
At the peak of the Ming Dynasty, because it was the Yuan Dynasty that succeeded it, it naturally took over a land area of 10 million square kilometers, but soon it shrank, and it shrank very badly, and most of the time, the Ming Dynasty only had a territory of 4 million square kilometers. It was also said that someone had said it during the Qing Dynasty
"The territory of the Qing Dynasty was more than three times larger than that of the Ming Dynasty."
The territory of the Qing Dynasty in the most prosperous "Kangqian Prosperous Era" period reached an area of more than 13 million square kilometers, so calculated, it is indeed more than three times larger than the Ming Dynasty, but this area of more than 13 million also covered some of the vassal states at that time, but after the 19th century, the world situation changed dramatically, and most of these territories were separated in the form of various treaties.
So why is it said that the Qing Dynasty laid the territory of China?
What do you mean by that?
The Treaty of Nebuchu signed by the Qing Dynasty and Russia seems to have ceded a lot of territory, but in fact, it also has sovereignty over the northeast region and khalkha Mongolia, and because of this, the territory of our country has been internationally recognized.
In the initial demarcation of the Sino-Russian border, China's territorial area has actually expanded.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Western powers forcibly occupied China's territory and divided the concession, here I know that since it is a lease, then there will inevitably be a day of return, compared with the permanent cession, the form of the concession also "protects" from the side and consolidates China's territorial sovereignty, and all this credit is attributed to the Qing Dynasty and Li Hongzhang.
Because once 100 years have passed, according to international law, the concession is someone else's.
Therefore, when Li Hongzhang signed the treaty,
Bite this one of the 99 years and don't let go
It was also this wise move of the Qing Dynasty, and the land that seemed to be ceded was legitimized by sovereignty.
In the Republic of China, which entered the warlord chaos, although the rule of many territories was in the hands of the Western powers, because of some treaties signed by the previous Qing Dynasty government, when the world underwent great changes, it held these territories.
However, the foundation of all this must be thanks to the hard work of "Kangqian's prosperous life", otherwise,
China's territory is now limited to 4 million square kilometers south of the Great Wall.
References: History of Tang, History of Tang, Treaty of Nebuchadnezzar