1887-1891 Rong Hepeng's Exploration And Research In The Pamirs

In the late 19th century,"the Great Game" between Russia and Britain was severely.China's Pamirs gradually became the region where three empires met.Although Qing Dynasty sent more troops to guard its frontier,the Pamir was still divided up by the Russia and Britain in 1895 while Qing government denied the treaty.This manual partition is the evidence of Qing's weakness,which also has a direct impact on the boundaries between China and central Asia,implying a danger to the international security of central Asia.In this context,Francis Younghusband,a representative of British India's "forward policy",played a role and became an important figure in the competition.From 1887 to 1891,he entered the Pamir plateau for four times,carrying out geographical mapping and intelligence collection in the name of "exploration".In 1887,he passed through the eastern Pamir,becoming the first European to cross the Muztagh Pass;In 1889,he explored all the mountain passes in the north of Kanjuti.In 1890,he went to the Pamirs to investigate the implementation of Qing dynasty's sovereignty there.In 1891,he was driven out of the Pamirs by Russian Colonel Yanoff,which triggered the first Pamir crisis between Britain and Russia.Meanwhile,Younghusband's connection with Russian and Qing's officers,was an epitome of the complex international relations on the Pamirs.Through the method of literature review,this paper analyzed the specific route of Younghusband's exploration on the Pamirs.With the comparison of Chinese and English literatures and historical maps,it applied Adobe illustrator to combine history and geography closely.This paper not only tried to research Younghusband's geographical exploration to the map making of the Pamirs,but also to restore the history of "the Great Game" between Britain and Russia.Moreover,it is also an example of life history to understand how the expedition influenced Younghusband's life.