A Study Of The Archives On The Exploitation Of The Chahar Areas In The Early Years Of The Republic Of China(1915-1917)

In the last years of the Qing Dynasty,the Regime and its government,burdened with numerous debts from the several unequal treaties forced upon by western powers,was knee-deep in financial difficulties.The government decided to exploit the Mongol Lands to ease its financial crisis.In 1901,the then provincial governor of Shanxi,Cen Chunxuan,proposed to the Regime the idea of “population migration and frontier exploitation”.In the next year,the government named Yi Gu,the then deputy head of the Ministry of Defense,to be the supervisor official on events related to the exploitation of the Mongol Lands(hereinafter referred to as the exploitation),which mainly covers the Chahar and Suiyuan areas.The burgeoning land exploitation went on for several years till Yi Gu was dismissed in 1908.In the meantime,a series of documentations on the exploitation were composed and reserved during this period,which includes both the official papers among different levels of offices and the private correspondences among Yi Gu and his fellow officers.In the early years of the Republic of China,the Exploitation was rebooted by the then Peking government to solve its frontier crisis and financial problems.In 1915,the Chahar General Administration of Land Exploitation was established in Zhangjiakou,with Long Xiang as the head of the Administration.From 1915 to 1917,the land exploitation spread among all the Chahar region,and the exchanges of official papers were frequented among all level of offices,which became valuable documentations and were compiled into The Review of the Documentations on the Exploitation of the Chahar Areas(hereinafter referred to as The Review).This thesis offers a detailed research on thefiles documented in The Review,in order to help both general readers and professionals with an interest to better understand and make use of these documentations.This thesis consists of three parts: the introduction,the main body,and the conclusion.The introduction explains the reasons for the choice of such a topic and its academic values.The main body is divided into five parts: a brief review on the history of the land exploitation in the Chahar Areas pre-ROC years;the land exploitation in the Chahar Areas during the early years of the Republic of China,including the reasons for the reboot of the exploitation,the administrative structures and the exploitation scales;a detailed recount of the documentations;a classification of the official papers in the documentations;and a review on the historical and academic values of the documentations.The conclusion is a concise summary of the whole thesis.