THE FAR EASTERN TERRITORIES

(1840 – 1860)

The article refers to the annexation of the southeast corner of Siberia. The two areas involved are between the Amur river and the Stanovoy Range to the north and the territory which runs down the coast from the Amur mouth to the Korean border. Socially and politically, from about 600 AD, it was the northern fringe of the Chinese-Korean-Manchur world.

In 1643 Russian adventurers spilled over the Stanovoys, but by 1689 they were driven back by the Manchurs. By the treaty of Nerchinsk (1689) the two empires recognized the Stanovoy and the Argun River as their border. This remained stable until 1840s.

Following the voyages of Captain James Cook significant number of British, French and American vessels began entering the Pacific. They were followed by Russians like Grigory Shelikhov and Nikolai Resanov who were mainly concerned with the new Russian colonies in Alaska. This raised the problem of naval defense of the east coast of Siberia and the possibility of using the Amur River as a supply route to the Pacific.

In 1848 Gennady Ivanovich Nevelskoy (1813-1876) led the expedition in the Russian Far East, exploring the area of the Sakhalin and the outlet of the Amur River. He proved that the Strait of Tartary was not a gulf, but indeed a strait, connected to the Amur’s estuary by a narrow section.

The Tartar Strait was a puzzle to European explorers since, when approached from the south, it becomes increasingly shallow and looks like the head of the bay. In 1787 the coasts of the strait were charted by La Perouse, but he decided not to risk and turned south. Later two more European seafarers failed to penetrate the strait. Nevelskoy passed the strait from the north. The Russians kept this a secret and used it to evade a British fleet during the Crimean war. They named the northernmost, narrowest section of the strait, the Strait of Nevelskoy, in captain’s honour. In 1850 Nevelskoy founded Nikolayevsk-on-Amur on what was allegedly Chinese territory. He also established other forts around the mouth of the Amur.

Nikolay Muravyov, governor-general of East Siberia, converted 20,000 mining serfs into Cossacks to give himself a military force. In May-June 1854 he and 1,000 men sailed down the Amur to Nikolayevsk. The Manchu governor at Aigun had no choice but to let them pass. In 1855 Muravyov sent a 3,000 man force down the Amur, including settlers. The Chinese declared this to be illegal, but did nothing.

The foreign minister of Russia Alexander Gorchakov decided that it was time to “activate Russian Far Eastern policy”. In 1858, in Aigun, Muravyov presented the local governor with a treaty, which was signed. This treaty assigned all the land north of the Amur to Russia and declared the area east of the Ussuri River and south of the Amur to be a Russo-Chinese condominium until further negotiations.

Muravyov continued down the Amur and founded Khabarovsk at the mouth of the Ussuri. In 1859 he sent an exploring expedition down the coast. On July 2, 1860 the military supply ship Manchur, under the command of Captain-Lieutenant Alexey Shefner, called at the Golden Horn Bay to found an outpost called Vladivostok.

Meanwhile on the 13^th of June 1858, Admiral Yevfimy Putyatin made a separate deal with the Chinese. In return for cannon, 20,000 rifles and military instructors the frontier would be adjusted in some specified way. In March 1859 Major-General Nikolay Ignatyev was assigned to accompany the Russian weapons and instructors. At the frontier he found that the Chinese had rejected the treaty and would not accept the weapons. Ignatyev continued negotiations in Peking. The result was the Russo-Chinese Convention of November 14, 1860. By this, all the lands north of the Amur and east of the Ussuri were ceded to Russia.

Thus, by pure diplomacy and only a few thousand troops, the Russians took advantage of Chinese weakness to annex 910,000 km² of Chinese territory.

Sea of Okhotsk

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