China's ancient ancestors basically began to struggle from the Qin and Han dynasties, struggling and conquering for two thousand years before extending china's territory to the northeast and northwest, and the vast frontier areas in the southwest. However, because the frontier areas are not suitable for farming and are sparsely populated, so the control is insufficient, and many borders are not even demarcated, so in modern times, they have become the object of encroachment, the most serious of which is the northwest region. What many people are concerned about is how much land has been lost in the northwest region in modern times. You might not think of it.
In the northwest region, in fact, there are narrow and broad meanings. If it is in a narrow sense, it is basically China's Xinjiang region. If it is in a broad sense, then it also includes the Outer Mongolia region and the Tangnu Wulianghai region during the Qing Dynasty. In a narrow sense, there are the following lands occupied in modern China.
First, in 1864, 440,000 square kilometers of land in the outer northwest were ceded, mainly because Tsarist Russia forced the Qing Dynasty to sign the "Sino-Russian Boundary of the Northwest Boundary", which ceded so much land, equivalent to 4.5 Koreas. Second, it was during the Guangxu Emperor's reign, that is, in 1881, when Tsarist Russia forced the Qing government to sign the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty, once again ceding more than 70,000 square kilometers of land in the outer northwest, plus the first time, which exceeded 510,000 square kilometers.
The third time, in the last year of the Qing Dynasty, that is, in the early 20th century, Tsarist Russia completely disregarded our government, did not even sign a treaty, and directly sent troops to forcibly occupy the Pamir Plateau region, surrounding more than 30,000 square kilometers of land. Therefore, in a narrow sense, China's northwest region has lost a total of 540,000 square kilometers of land.
Then in a broad sense, in fact, this is not the case at all, at least three pieces of land must be added: First, the Tangnu Wulianghai area. A total of 170,000 square kilometers of land, also occupied by Tsarist Russia, is now the Republic of Tuva; second, the Outer Mongolia region, now Mongolia, is under the control of Tsarist Russia, moving towards independence, and supporting its independence, a total of 1.56 million square kilometers.
In addition, there are about 70,000 square kilometers, which were cut off by Tsarist Russia from Outer Mongolia and divided into Central Asia and the Far East. So broadly speaking, in the Northwest, the lost land combined is 2.34 million square kilometers, which is basically larger than most countries in the world, basically ceding more than two-thirds of India.
Although these lands are now divided into Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Outer Mongolia and Russia in Central Asia. But now that the border is basically demarcated, it's hard to come back. Therefore, this is an irreparable loss for the Chinese nation. What do you readers think about this? Welcome to leave a message and discuss with the editor!
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Reference: Modern and Contemporary World History.