The Treaty of Kulja was a treaty

Treaty

A treaty is an express agreement under international law entered into by actors in international law, namely sovereign states and international organizations. A treaty may also be known as an agreement, protocol, covenant, convention or exchange of letters, among other terms...

 established in 1851 between Qing Dynasty

Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....

 (China) and Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

, opening Kulja and Chuguchak

Tacheng

-References:* Khālidī, Qurbanʻali, Allen J. Frank, and Mirkasym Abdulakhatovich Usmanov. An Islamic Biographical Dictionary of the Eastern Kazakh Steppe, 1770-1912. Brill's Inner Asian library, v. 12. Leiden: Brill, 2004....

 to Sino-Russian trade. The treaty was preceded by a gradual Russian advance throughout the nineteenth century into Kazakstan in direct competition with British efforts to open China.

Historical context

Cross-border trade became increasingly important to Russia and China in the 19th century. Russian merchants were even trading illegally at Kulja in Xinjiang

Xinjiang

Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...

’s Yili River Valley

Ili River

thumb|right|300px|Map of the Lake Balkhash drainage basin showing the Ili River and its tributariesThe Ili River is a river in northwestern China and southeastern Kazakhstan .It is long, of which is in Kazakhstan...

. In 1803, Tsar Alexander I attempted to negotiate the opening of the entire Sino-Russian border to trade. This effort failed, however, when the Tsar’s representative refused to kow-tow to a tablet representing the Emperor.

The treaty was preceded by a gradual Russian advance throughout the 18th century into Kazakstan. This was in direct competition with British efforts to open China. The 1851 Sino-Russian Treaty of Kulja (modern Yining), opened Kulja and Chuguchak (modern Tacheng

Tacheng

-References:* Khālidī, Qurbanʻali, Allen J. Frank, and Mirkasym Abdulakhatovich Usmanov. An Islamic Biographical Dictionary of the Eastern Kazakh Steppe, 1770-1912. Brill's Inner Asian library, v. 12. Leiden: Brill, 2004....

) to Russian trade.

The treaty also allowed Russian merchants to trade and Russian consuls to reside in the Xinjiang towns of Yili (Kulja, Yining) and Tarbagatai (Chuguchak, Tacheng

Tacheng

-References:* Khālidī, Qurbanʻali, Allen J. Frank, and Mirkasym Abdulakhatovich Usmanov. An Islamic Biographical Dictionary of the Eastern Kazakh Steppe, 1770-1912. Brill's Inner Asian library, v. 12. Leiden: Brill, 2004....

) for eight and one half months each year. Russian trade with Xinjiang flourished and Alma Ata was founded in 1854 to become an important link in this trade.

While the treaty primarily legalized ongoing practice, it also recognized the growing Russian presence in Central Asia

Central Asia

Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...

. China’s defenses on this border had been greatly neglected since the start of the 19th century.

The official text of the treaty was written in Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

, French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 and Manchu

Manchu language

Manchu is a Tungusic endangered language spoken in Northeast China; it used to be the language of the Manchu, though now most Manchus speak Mandarin Chinese and there are fewer than 70 native speakers of Manchu out of a total of nearly 10 million ethnic Manchus...

; the original treaty did not have an official Chinese

Chinese language

The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

 version.

See also

• Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1881)
  Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1881)
  The Treaty of Saint Petersburg , also known as Treaty of Ili, was the treaty between the Russian Empire and the Chinese Empire, signed in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on 12 February 1881...
  
  
• Economic history of China
  Economic history of China
  China's economic system before the late-1990s, with state ownership of certain industries and central control over planning and the financial system, has enabled the government to mobilize whatever surplus was available and greatly increase the proportion of the national economic output devoted to...