The Chinese-Mongolian Frontier: Under the Manchu dynasty
The Manchu (Qing) dynasty pledged to uphold the political and economic rights of its Mongol allies after its conquest of China in 1644. The Qing government's overriding concern was to secure strategic positions in the frontier regions, and to maintain the necessary level of garrisons and postal routes. Once this had been achieved, first in the areas closest to China proper (already in the early Kangxi period), but not until early Qianlong in the Suiyuan area (Jehol and further north), the Court halted further Han-Chinese emigration to areas outside the Great Wall. However, Chinese settlements had their own dynamics, and under favourable conditions were capable of growth.
By EDUARD B. VERMEER
Slowly but surely the Han Chinese encroached on the Eastern Mongolian territories. This stemmed from the expansionism of the Qing dynasty, population growth in China proper, and commercialization in response to increased Chinese demand for products of the steppe, rather than from internal Mongolian causes.
To which extent the Mongols in various leagues had, by the end of the Qing period, become sinicized or at least agriculturalists, is difficult to say, as reliable records of Mongol population and farmland are wanting. Nearest to China proper, intermarriage and changeover of registrations from Mongol to Han Chinese and later from Han Chinese to Mongol had changed the composition of both peoples, perhaps even obliterated the distinction. In less densely populated areas, both Mongols and Chinese had taken to mixed farming, including cultivation of fodder crops.
It is too simplifying to characterize the changes as the advance of Chinese agriculture at the expense of Mongol pastures, or as the product of an age-old conflict between the Mongol nomad and the Chinese farmer. A third element was most important: the Manchu government and its restrictive or expansionist policies. In active pursuit of strategic control over Xinjiang, Tibet and the Amur region (none of which were of particular interest to the Chinese or Mongols), Manchu armies were sent through Mongolia. Later on, garrisons, military farms, and supply and postal stations were established along the lines of communication in order to guarantee supplies and military controls. The additional burden for the Mongol population, or economic opportunities, as the case might be, fuelled exploitation of the Mongolian plateau's resources. Following the loss of territory to Russia in 1860, local commanders and, to a lesser extent, central government began promoting 'filling the frontiers' to consolidate Manchu control. Ultimately, the Muslim rebellion and subsequent Manchu reconquest in the second half of the nineteenth century weakened both the Mongol and Chinese populations.
Moreover, both animal husbandry and agriculture developed. Many Mongols had been semi-sedentary all along, staying with their herds in sheltered communities during the winter and spring seasons. With the introduction of wells, and later fences and fodder crops, larger numbers of cattle and sheep could be kept. In areas with sufficient precipitation grain crops were added, and a mixed farming system resulted. Settlement also depended on local military and Mongol kings' initiatives: imperial farms, military colony farms, penal colonies, the estates donated to Mongol princesses at the Court, and several other categories. Although such farms and estates might have been very large, they were spread all over the Mongol territories, often located along rivers and on superior soils. Their presence set examples of agriculture and trade, which later also attracted some Mongols, but mainly served to ease the advance of Han-Chinese settlers.
Actively promoted by some Mongol kings, the introduction of agriculture resulted in higher productivity. The mixed farming and crop cultivation systems could support much larger population numbers the question why these opportunities were not more fully used by Mongol farmers is a complicated one.
There appear to have been many factors. The Mongol herdsmen were in a weak position. They had no recourse if their king wished to increase the revenues from his banner by letting out land to attract Han-Chinese farmers. The sheltered position of the Mongol kings, lamaseries, and people had been to their advantage in the eighteenth and most of the nineteenth century, but did not prepare them for modern times. Once the Qing government began to support reclamation of farmland, the weak foundation of the Mongol political and economic status quo was exposed. Lack of education and agricultural skills, ethnic discrimination, and exploitative relations with Chinese merchants made many Mongols succumb to the invading government-backed settlers. Yet in Han-Chinese settlement areas, the definition of Mongol versus Han Chinese seems to have been cultural rather than ethnic. The legal and economic position of the Chinese colonists was quite weak. The kings and lamaseries retained formal ownership of the land of their banners until after the end of the Qing dynasty. Neither Manchu nor Mongol government sided with the Chinese. This is one reason why unlike in Southwest China there were so few armed conflicts between Han colonists and native people.
In most areas, the economic and social changes caused by the immigrant farmers antedated the administrative change. Some areas, which were closest to China proper (Chahar), had favourable conditions for irrigated and dry agriculture (the Southern Manchurian plain and the Yellow River Bend) or were located along strategically and commercially important routes (Suiyuan) were completely sinicized. The outlying drier and colder areas (the western parts of Mongolia, Heilongjiang, and Hulun Buir) were not affected by Han-Chinese farming before the construction of railways in the twentieth century. Until then, these sparsely settled border regions were influenced primarily by Manchu directed movements of troops, garrisons, and convicts.
After 1900, the Mongol lands came to be regarded as under-utilized territories, which should be exploited to the fullest in the shortest time possible. Numbers of immigrants finally reached millions, where they had only reached thousands in the eighteenth century and tens and hundreds of thousands in the nineteenth century. A combination of factors was responsible for the policy change: territorial losses, budgetary shortages, the additional burden of Boxer indemnity payments and, most of all, a fundamental change in the concept of government as the promoter and participant in economic modernization and land development. Officials involved in modernization, investors, and land developers had become aware of the foreign examples of colonization and chartered companies, and the Mongols, their feudal kings, and their pastoral farming customs now suddenly seemed backward. There were profits to be obtained and there was an unlimited supply of willing Han-Chinese farmers. The belatedness of this turnaround shows the remarkable effectiveness of the Qing interdiction policy, which slowed down the advance of Han-Chinese agriculturalists for about two centuries.
With the first wave of government supported Chinese settlement in 1902-1908, the land issued for agricultural reclamation amounted to 500,000 hectares in West Mongolia and 1,600,000 hectares in East Mongolia for the latter, that is about one-fifth of the present acreage of Inner Mongolia. At the 1900 productivity levels, this new land could support about one million people. The rapid growth of immigration and land reclamation exploded in the early Republic, with the advance of modern transportation, the reversal of government policies, increased foreign intervention, and further loss of Mongol power. *
Dr Eduard B. Vermeer, is affiliated with the Sinological Institute, Leiden University.
E-mail: envermeer@let.leidenuniv.nl .