Kwantung lease area

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Map of the Kwantung lease area and the neutral zone

The leasehold Kwantung ( Chinese  關東州  /  关东州 , Pinyin Guandong Zhou . Jap reading Kantōshū , shinjitai -Schreibung: 関東州 ; Russian область Квантунская , colloquially: Гуаньдун or Квантунг ) was a 1898 by Imperial China to the Russian Empire has been rented area in the south of the Liaodong peninsula on the Yellow Sea .

Because of its outstanding strategic importance, the Liaodong peninsula was already in the focus of the great powers at the end of the 19th century. In the First Sino-Japanese War 1894-1895 it was occupied by the Japanese and should be ceded to Japan according to the Treaty of Shimonoseki of April 17, 1895 . After the intervention of Shimonoseki by Russia , France and Germany , Japan renounced the acquisition of the peninsula in return for compensation of 30,000,000 silver tael .

In the agreement on the lease of the Liaodong Peninsula , the Treaty of Beijing of March 15, 1898, China leased a small part of Guandongs (Kwantungs), the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula , to the Russian Empire for 25 years . The lease area essentially consisted of Port Arthur , which was developed into a naval base, and the trading port of Dalni to the northeast . There was a neutral zone north of the lease area, which Chinese troops were only allowed to enter with Russian permission.

In the Russo-Japanese War 1904–1905, Port Arthur was besieged by the Japanese for 157 days. In the Treaty of Portsmouth of September 5, 1905, Russia ceded its rights to the lease area to Japan. As a result, the Japanese Kwantung Army was stationed here.

At the end of World War II , the area was captured by the Red Army in an airborne operation in August 1945 as part of Operation Auguststurm . In doing so, the Soviet Union fulfilled the commitment it made at the Yalta Conference in February 1945 to start the war in Europe in the Far East 90 days after the end of the war and to attack Japan and its allies.

1945–1955 it was under joint Soviet-Chinese administration before it was completely handed over to the People's Republic of China on October 11, 1955, in accordance with the Allied war aims ( Cairo Declaration ) .

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Coordinates: 39 ° 10 '  N , 121 ° 45'  E