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Archive: November 2020 (1 Post)

In 1896 Russia obtained from China an eighty-year concession to construct and operate the Chinese Eastern Railway Company.  The railway became an all-out Russian colonial enterprise in Manchuria, with capital, personnel, and railway management all under the control of the chief proponent of the enterprise, Sergei Witte, Russian Minister of Finance.   This Russian map was published in 1901 by its Ministry of Finance, and shows both the Chinese Eastern Railway and the South Manchurian Railway.  The inset in the lower right corner depicts the Kwantung (Liaodung) Peninsula, and the lines to Port Arthur and Dalian.

A Place for Drying Fish Nets

Posted by: Mike Klein

By the 1890s the eyes of the western imperial powers were turning eastwards, especially towards Manchuria. Why had Manchuria become such a hot property? As any real estate agent will say, it’s “location, location, and location.” For Russia, its imperial gaze followed the ambitions of Tsar Nicholas II and Finance Minister Sergei Witte, who wanted …