Institutions of public power among the Manchu-Mongolian peoples of East Asia in the first half of the twentieth century (part 1: Imperial political order)

Abstract

In his article, the author, relying on the works of Russian researchers of the East Asian region, attempts to characterize the public-power institutions of the Manchurian-Mongolian peoples in the early 20th century. Remaining in the shadow of China, these peoples have accumulated considerable experience of statehood, which in different historical epochs allowed them to create powerful powers that conquer each other and neighboring countries. However, at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, power relations were exposed to some factors, as a result of which the political landscape of the region changed significantly. Among these, the author, first of all, highlights the Chinese colonization carried out in relation to the ancestral Mongolian lands when it was impossible to resist this on the part of the Qing emperors, who were once guarantors of their inviolability. Chinese administrative-territorial units with central subordination are created on the territories of ancestral principalities, and the vymorochnye possessions are transferred under the direct control of the provincial administration. Manchuria, as an ancient patrimony of the ruling imperial house, also turns out to be divided into three provinces, and the same fate awaits Inner and Outer Mongolia. Traditional military institutions, having proved their ineffectiveness in the fight against the Europeans and the Japanese, are being disbanded, and new formations are being created in the national regions of “Outer China”, designed to protect the border from a possible attack, and to keep dependent territories subordinate to the central authorities. Trying to follow the spirit of the times and, at the same time, solving the defense problem, plans are being hatched for grandiose railway construction in the studied space. However, it began in the autumn of 1911 the Xinhai Revolution led to the overthrow of the monarchy and the actual rupture of the personal alliances that held the national regions of the North of the Qing Empire in unity with the metropolis. Thus, the problem of the legitimacy of the central government of republican China in the eyes of the Manchurian-Mongolian peoples was generated, which led the country to the actual disintegration and formation of new national states in the Manchurian-Mongolian historical and cultural space.