At the end of the 19th century and in the first half of the 20th century, the region in Northeast China known in the West and Russia as “Manchuria” was characterized by expansionist ambitions and international power rivalries. The decisive impetus for the dynamic development of the sparsely populated border region in Northeast Asia and its growing strategic, military and economic importance for various great powers, above all Russia, China, Japan and the USA, was provided by the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway through Manchuria between 1897 and 1903.
This seminar deals with Russian imperialism and Russia’s expansion into Northeast Asia using the example of Manchuria and its multicultural centre Harbin in the years from 1896 to 1932. In particular, global entanglements and (trans-)cultural exchange processes between different ethnic or national population groups, especially Russians, Chinese and Japanese, under changing power relations will be analysed.