History of Port Arthur

The following article pens down the history of the territory known as Port Arthur, since antiquity. However, it is important to note that the Colony of Port Arthur, under administration of The Republic of Port Ember only came into existence in 2018.

ANCIENT HISTORY

In the Qin and Han periods (221 BC–AD 220), Chinese expanded their territories into northern Korea through the Dalian region, then under the jurisdiction of Liaodong county. During the Sixteen Kingdoms era (3rd through 5th centuries), the kingdom of Goguryeo controlled this region. In the early Tang Dynasty (618–907), the Dalian region was part of Andong Prefecture in Jili state; during the Liao Dynasty (916–1125), it was part of Dong Jing Tong Liaoyang county. Dalian was named Sanshan in the period of Wei Jin (220–420), San Shanpu in the Tang Dynasty (618–907), Sanshan Seaport in the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), and Qingniwakou during the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911).

QING DYNASTY

In the 1880s, Jinzhou, the north of downtown within Dalian, now Jinzhou District, was a walled town and centre for political intrigue and economic activity. The Qing government built bridges and heavily fortified the peninsula. Mining camps on the northern coast of Dalian Bay became the small town of Qingniwa or Qingniwaqiao, near what became downtown Dalian.

BRITISH, RUSSIAN AND JAPANESE OCCUPATIONS HISTORY

The British occupied Qingniwa in 1858, but it returned to Chinese control in the 1860. Port Arthur at the peninsula's tip took its English name from Royal Navy Lieutenant William C. Arthur, but the Chinese called it Lüshun. Although China heavily fortified the area, in which it allowed trade with foreigners, Japan swiftly overcame those defenses in the First Sino-Japanese War, committing the Port Arthur massacre during the war in November 1894. In April 1895, China conceded defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, ceding Liaodong Peninsula, Taiwan and Penghu, and making many other concessions in the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

The Triple Intervention by Russia, France and Germany forced Japan to return the Liaodong Peninsula to China, despite the treaty's terms; instead the Russian Empire coerced a lease of the peninsula from the Qing Dynasty in 1898. For Russia the region of the peninsula was of particular interest as one of the few areas in the region that had the potential to develop ice-free ports. The Russians built a modern commercial port city, which they wanted to become the Paris of the Far East, and called it Dal'niy. Linked to the Trans-Siberian Railway's branch line from Harbin, Dalniy became Russia's primary port-city in Asia, and also served other western traders. Russia signed the Pavlov Agreement (1898) with China, which granted Russia a 25-year lease on Dalian and Lüshun and exclusive right to lay a branch of the Chinese Eastern Railway—what would become the South Manchurian Railway. Russia spent more than 10 million golden rubles building the new ice-free port city.

Russia heavily fortified both Dalniy (Qingniwaqiao of Zhongshan District) and the Port Arthur naval base (Lüshunkou) before and after the Boxer Rebellion. Missionaries and converts were killed in the peninsula during the insurrection, although the massive massacres of ethnic Chinese Christians including Metrophanes, Chi Sung occurred at Harbin. Also, Western expeditionary forces suppressed the Boxers across the Yellow Sea in Shandong.

During the Russo-Japanese War, the peninsula became a major battleground. Major-General Baron Anatoly Stoessel defended the siege of Port Arthur, for five months, but the Japanese army managed to sink several Russian ships attempting to relieve him through long-distance fire in early December. Admiral Eugene Alexeyeff was blamed for splitting precious resources shipped 5,000 miles (8,047 km) across the single tracked Trans-Siberian Railway and Manchurian Railway between Dalniy and Port Arthur. After the Japanese navy crippled the remaining Russian battleship Sevastopol in three weeks of constant attacks, and explosives detonated in tunnels destroyed Port Arthur's remaining defenses at year's end, Russia surrendered the port on 2 January 1905.

The Treaty of Portsmouth ceded Port Arthur to Japan, which set up the Kwantung Leased Territory or Guandongzhou, on roughly the southern half (Jinzhou District and south) of present-day Dalian. Japanese invested heavily in the region, which became the main trading port between Manchuria and Japan. Japan leased the area from Manchukuo after establishing the puppet state in 1932. In 1937, as the Second Sino-Japanese War began, Japan enlarged and modernized the trade zone as two cities: the northern Dairen (Dalian) and the southern Ryojun (Lüshun or Port Arthur).

POST WORLD WAR 2 HISTORY

With the unconditional surrender of Japan in August 1945, Dairen was passed to the Soviets, whose Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation had liberated the city. The Soviets and Chinese Communists cooperated to develop the city, relatively undamaged during the war, especially its industrial infrastructure and the port. The Soviet government rented the port and in 1945 the first Chinese Communist mayor of the new Lüda Administrative Office had been appointed.

In 1950, the USSR presented the city to the Chinese Communist government without any compensation. Dalian and Lüshun (former Port Arthur) merged as Lüda on 1 December 1950. From 12 March 1953 to 1 August 1954 it was a direct-controlled municipality and not part of Liaoning. Soviet troops left the city in 1955.

UKRANIUMSTAN OWNERSHIP

In 1981 the area once again transferred hands, when it was sold to Ukraniumstan, who turned it into a major trade port.

In the 1990s the city benefited from the attention of the local Ukraniumstan administration, who, among other things, banned motorcycles and planted large, lush parks in the city's many traffic circles. He also preserved much of the city's Japanese and Russian architectural heritage.

In 2010, one of the worst recorded oil spills in the area's history occurred in Port Arthur.

PORT EMBERIAN OWNERSHIP

The most recent change of ownership of the area occured in 2018 as a direct result of the Fire & Steel Incident, which saw the area transferred to Port Ember and the establishment of the Colony of Port Arthur.

In the wake of the The Razing of Port Arthur, the entire area was left destroyed and the few survivors fled the area, majorly towards the Chinese mainland to the north. When Port Ember assumed ownership of the area, it had zero residents and a completely destroyed city and surroundings.

Port Ember, in a bold and unique political move, invited The Armed Republic of The Chuck and The Free Lands of The Selkie to assume a seat in the governance of the new city state, alongside large area's deemed Quarters, which was to be developed and administrated by the respective representatives of the invited nations. Although the rebuilding process is still in its infancy, the Colony is attracting a massive influx of immigrants and foreign business, creating the largest and most impressive rebuilding project in history.

For Further reading relating to this topic, please read:

- The Razing of Port Arthur

- Alternatively; Return to Main Wiki Page of Port Arthur