Outer Manchuria


Outer Manchuria is a term for a territory in Northeast Asia that is part of Russia and had formerly belonged to the Qing dynasty. It is considered part of Manchuria. Russia annexed this territory by way of the Treaty of Aigun in 1858 and the Treaty of Peking in 1860. The northern part of the area was in dispute between 1643 and 1689.
Outer Manchuria comprises the present-day Russian areas of Primorsky Krai, southern Khabarovsk Krai, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, the Amur Oblast and the island of Sakhalin.
The Treaty of Nerchinsk signed in 1689 after a series of conflicts, defined the China–Russia border as the Stanovoy Mountains and the Argun River, making Outer Manchuria a part of Qing dynasty China. After losing the Opium Wars, the Qing dynasty was forced to sign a series of treaties that gave away land and ports to the imperialist Western powers, Russia and Japan; these were known as the Unequal Treaties. Starting with the Treaty of Aigun in 1858 and the Treaty of Peking in 1860, the Sino–Russian border was realigned in Russia's favor along the Amur and Ussuri rivers. As a result, China lost Outer Manchuria, and access to the Sea of Japan.

History of the term

Place names

Today, there are reminders of the ancient Manchu domination in English-language toponyms: for example, the Sikhote-Alin, the great coastal range; the Khanka Lake; the Amur and Ussuri rivers; the Greater Khingan, Lesser Khingan and other small mountain ranges; and the Shantar coastal archipelago. Evenks, who speak a closely related Tungusic language, make up a significant part of the indigenous population.

History

Disputes

Outstanding boundary issues between China and Russia have been officially settled. Article 6 of the 2001 Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship provides that the contracting parties—the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation—have no territorial claims.
As the Republic of China, now based in Taiwan, has never recognized the People's Republic of China or its border treaties with other countries, some maps published in Taiwan still consider the entire Heixiazi Island and the Sixty-Four Villages East of the River to be Chinese territories. However, these maps show Outer Manchuria, sometimes called "lost territories in the Northeast", to be Russian territory.