The Kwantung Leased Territory (Chinese: 關東州, 关东州, Guāndōngzhōu; Japanese: 関東州, Kantōshū) was a territory in the southern part of the Liaodong Peninsula in northeastern China that existed from 1898 to 1945. It was one of the numerous concessions that China was compelled to award to foreign countries at the end of the 19th century. The territory included the militarily and economically significant ports of Lüshunkou (Port Arthur) and Dalian (Dal'niy or Dairen). The name Kwantung means "east of Shanhaiguan", a reference to part of Qinhuangdao in today's Hebei province where the eastern end of the Great Wall of China lies. Japan occupied the region during the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). In the Treaty of Shimonoseki signed by Japan and China at the end of the war, 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 Port Arthur harbor. In March 1898 Russia formally leased the region 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. The peninsula north of the lease was made a neutral territory in which China agreed not to offer concessions to other countries. In 1898 Russia began building a railroad north from Port Arthur in what would become the southern line of the Chinese Eastern Railway. Russia developed Port Arthur as a naval base, and in 1899 founded the town of Dal'niy (meaning "distant" or "remote") which would later become Dalian (Dairen in Japanese). Under the Portsmouth Treaty (1905) resulting from the Russo-Japanese War, Japan replaced Russia as leaseholder. Japan also leased the regions north of the territory adjacent to the 550 mile (885 km) South Manchurian Railway in 1905. These rights and the entire spurline were passed to the corporation known as the South Manchurian Railway. Japan established the Kwantung governor-general to administer the newly leased territory and the Kwantung garrison, reorganized in 1919 under the name of the Kwantung Army, to defend it. Heavy capital investment was concentrated in Dalian (now the capital of the territory), wherein the Russians and Japanese concentrated significant industry, as well as creating a first class port in a 'so-so' natural harbor, which they improved greatly. One of the most famous Japanese corporations, the South Manchurian Railway Company, was headquartered in Dalian. Approximately 100,000 Japanese nationals lived in the city in 1930. After the foundation of the Manchukuopuppet state 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 retained the territory apart from the nominally-independent Manchukuo until its final defeat of World War II in 1945.
