A Study On The Yakub Regime Supported By Britain

In the later half of the nineteenth century, western countries leaded by Britain developed far more quickly both politically, economically and militarily than any other places in the world. Increasing international trade made them expand overseas colony continually to seek bigger market and exploit more raw materials. Britain and Russia were the cases in point. They played "great game" in central Asia. Xinjiang had been painfully involved in this rival for a long time since Britain occupied India totally and Russia expanded toward central Asia. As for Britain, on the one hand, she wanted to protect so-called "British India's northern frontier" in order to check Russia's expansion in central Asia; on the other hand, she wanted to expand "free trade" in Kashgar to seek more profit. Thus, complicated history between Britain ang Xinjiang came into being.The dissertation presented here is just based on the premise of the study on the Yakub regime supported by Britain. It consists four chapters, totaling about 30,000 words.Chapter I serves as a discussion of the international background and internal situations in those days.The former was that western countries developed so fast as to expand overseas, especially the conflict in central Asia between Britain and Russia was aggrcvated. The latter was that a peasant uprising influnced by Taiping Heavenly Kingdom broke out in Xinjiang but eventually turned into several feudal separatist rulings. Just in that chaotic time, a Khokand officer named Yakub invaded South Xinjiang and began his ruling. In order to make his ruling more stable, Yakub decided to seek help from foreign countries.Chapter II is a study of the whole process of the Yakub Regime supported byBritain. According to the changing attitude which Yakub take toward Britain and Russia, this dissertation discuss how Britain support Yakub Regime politically, militarily and economically. At the same time, conflict between Russia and Britain was increasingly serious. Russia invaded Hi in 1871 and forced Yakub to sign a trade contract to protect its interest. Not to be outdone, Britain sent a strong-lineuped corps leaded by Sir D.Forsyth to visit Yakub and signed a contract with him to gain more profits.Chapter III is an exploration of British mediation during the decline and fall of Yakub regime. With Ili occupied by Russia and South Xinjiang ruled by Yakub, Xinjiang was involed the serious crisis of being seperated from motherland. After a heated dispute of "Haifang" and "Saifang", Qing court sent troops to Xinjiang, expelling Yakub and recovering Ili. During the course of recovery, Britain supported Yakub with arms to confront Qing troops and put pressure on Qing court diplomatically to survive Yakub regime. But its schemes and intrigues were smashed by the quick recovery of Xinjiang by Zuo Zongtang.Chapter IV probes into the reasons why Britain support Yakub regime and the geopolitical importance of Xinjiang from the aspect of international relations and geopilitics, hence from this period of history to better understand the complicated international situation faced by Xinjiang.As for the present study situation, internal study on Yakub regime lays paticular emphasis on relations between Russia and Yakub regime, while there was few works and thesis on relations between Britain and Yakub regime. There is no works on the study of Yakub regime supported by Britain abroad but some comprehensive works on Xinjiang talked about this problem very simply.During my writing this dissertation, I went to Beijing National Library,Shanghai Library and history department of Nanjing University (reference room of world history) to collect lots of useful mcterials including first-handed memorials to the throne of Qing dynasty and some English works, thesis, travle notes and diplomatic materials. On this basis, I have obsorbed the former research achievement, trying to reveal the whole process of Yakub regime supported by Britain and also, I hope it will be benificial to the further study of Xinjian...