Incident in Tientsin – A Piece of the „Doppelmonarchie“ in China 1917


                                         Balázs Pálvölgyi

                               Faculty of Law, Széchenyi University


                                           András Földi




Key words

Tientsin, China, Austro-Hungarian Empire, concessed territories in 1917, the “Doppelmonarchie” in
China, Hungarian State Archive, Emmanuel Skalitzky


Resume

It is clear that the Austro – Hungarian Empire was not a typical colonialist power, nevertheless it
held a “mini-colony” in China: after the boxer-revolt the Empire became a concessed-territory
possessor at the bank of Peiho river in 1901.


Despite the fact, that some economic groups were trying to accelerate the out-building of Chinese
relationships and in the 1860-70 an official expedition was sent to the Far East, the outcome of
these efforts was minimal: only three bilateral contracts between the Empire and in that time
sovereign states were closed. Theoretically this made possible the evolution of trade and
diplomatic connections, but except the establishing of the Austro – Hungarian Consulate, no other
visible gains were achieved.


The Boxer revolt in 1900 together with the united policy of the European powers in China enabled
new possibilities  for the Austro-Hungarian Empire too. Because the Empire represented itself with
military units in the “expedition” led by von Waldersee, it was possible to acquire – according to
the historical records – a quite plain domain near the Italian territory.


After the outbreak of the World War the status of the concessed territory became more and more
unhandy. The open harbors, concesed territories existed as “European islands” and simultaneously
also as neutral territories until 1917. Of course, this fact did not eliminated the political
efforts towards destabilizing the local position of the colonies. This was the case of the
Tientsin-territory also. According to the historical records a company of British, French and
Japanese escaped war prisoners, sailors and local adventurers tried to get possession over
steamships Lloyd anchoring in Shanghai as well as weaken the Empires regional status in Tientsin.


So there were some processes of colonization, which remained unfinished – among others caused with
the Chineses declaration of war. but one thing is sure: after the declaration of war, in 1917 the
consulates personnel left and the Chinese territories of the Empire were lost for ever.


Contact: bpalvolgyi@yahoo.com