In
Qing dynasty China, the Liaodong Peninsula () was administratively part of
Liaoning Province. In 1882, the
Beiyang Fleet established
a naval base and coaling station at
Lüshunkou near the southern end of the peninsula. The
Empire of Japan occupied the region during the
First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), and under the terms of the
Treaty of Shimonoseki signed by Japan and China ending the war in April 1895, Japan gained full
sovereignty of the area. However, within weeks,
Germany, France and
Russia pressured Japan to cede the territory back to China, in what was called the
Triple Intervention. In December 1897,
Russian naval vessels entered Lüshunkou harbor, which they began to use as a forward base of operations for patrols off of northern China,
Korea and in the
Sea of Japan. The Russian Empire renamed the harbor
Port Arthur. In March 1898 Russia formally
leased the region for 25 years from China. The leased area extended to the northern shore of Yadang Bay on the western side of the peninsula; on the eastern side it reached Pikou;
Yevgeni Ivanovich Alekseyev, chief of
Russian Pacific Fleet, became the head of this territory. The peninsula north of the lease was made a neutral territory in which China agreed not to offer concessions to other countries. In 1899, Russia founded the town of
Dalniy (meaning "distant" or "remote"), just north of the naval base at Port Arthur. This would later become the city of
Dalian (Dairen). In 1898 Russia began building a railroad north from Port Arthur to link Dalniy with the
Chinese Eastern Railway at
Harbin; this
spur line was the
South Manchurian Railway. Under the
Portsmouth Treaty (1905) resulting from the
Russo-Japanese War, Japan replaced Russia as leaseholder. Port Arthur was renamed
Ryojun (), and Dalniy was renamed
Dairen (). Japan also obtained
extraterritorial rights in the region north of the territory adjacent to the
South Manchurian Railway in 1905 (i.e. the
South Manchuria Railway Zone), which was extended north of
Mukden to
Changchun. These rights, along with the railway and several spur lines were passed to the corporation known as the
South Manchurian Railway Company. Japan established the to administer the new territory, and based the Kwantung Garrison to defend it and the railway. The Kwantung Garrison later became the
Kwantung Army, which played an instrumental role in the founding of
Manchukuo. In negotiations with the
Republic of China under the
Twenty-One Demands, the terms of the lease of the Kwantung Leased Territory were extended to 99 years. After the foundation of Japanese-controlled Manchukuo in 1932, Japan regarded the sovereignty of the leased territory as transferred from China to Manchukuo. A new lease agreement was contracted between Japan and the government of Manchukuo, and Japan transferred the South Manchurian Railway Zone to Manchukuo. However, Japan retained the Kwantung Leased Territory as a territory apart from the nominally-independent Manchukuo until its
surrender at the end of World War II in 1945. After World War II, the Soviet Union occupied the territory and the
Soviet Navy made use of the Ryojun Naval Base. The Soviet Union turned it over to the
People's Republic of China in 1955. ==Administration==