Hexi Corridor

In the “Longzhongdui”「隆中対」, the first strategy of the expedition to the north 北 伐 by Zhege Liang 諸葛亮 was described as follows. First, Liu Bei 劉備 conquered Jing Zhou 荊州 and Yi Zhou 益州. Then he adjusted the ruling system in his own territory, conciliated western and southern barbarians and made amicable relations with Sun Quan 孫権. After that, when confusion occurred in the land, Liu Bei asked his most reliable subordinate to serve as commanding generals leading an attack from Jing Zhou as well as making a sortie from Yi Zhou by himself. But eventually losing Jing Zhou and Guan Yu 関羽 to the invasion by Cao Cao 曹操 and Sun Quan, failing to recapture Jing Zhou and Liu Bei’s death, Zhege Liang, who was responsible for Liu Bei on his deathbed and took care of his affairs after he was gone, was executed while reproducing “Longzhongdui”. After Meng Da 孟達 was subdued by Sima Yi 司馬懿, he made a sortie into Longxi Jun 隴西郡 to shut off the road leading to the Silk Road, and over time sought Chang’an 長 安 written in the “Sanguozhi” 『三國志』 Chen Tai Chuan 陳泰傳. The underpinning of this strategy were the unstable social and political conditions of Longxi Jun and Hexi Corridor河西回廊that were populated by many barbarians, the strategy of the expedition to the north by Zhege Liang was planned while keeping in mind a full account of the revolt by the Qiang 羌 which started in 107 AD. It is thought that Zhege Liang schemed to cooperate with the Sogdian and the Yueshi 月支（月氏）sent by “monarchs of various nations in Liang Zhou” 「涼州諸國王」, and that he wanted to bring the Silk Road and “the Silk Road in the airy region” related to “Minzuzelang on the west of Sichuan” 川西民族走廊, “the South-western Silk Road” related to the Marine Road under his control for the purpose of trying to link these roads along with the territorial expansion of the Shu Han 蜀漢 so as to lower the tax burden in the country.

It is widely known that the Hexi Corridor in North-West China lies at a hub of trans-Eurasian cultural exchange. Its role became increasingly important during the late prehistoric period, particularly as the ancient Silk Road began to be used. While the profound transformation of local cultural characteristics in the late Neolithic and the Bronze Age is well documented, the detailed economic dynamics of cultural evolution have not yet been clearly illustrated. In this paper, we report on significant new zooarchaeological and faunal isotopic data from the Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in the Hexi Corridor. The primary objective is to systematically reconstruct the prehistoric economic context of this area by combining these new data with previous archaeological studies and radiocarbon dates. We argue that the primary economic
activities of local inhabitants changed dramatically in the prehistoric Hexi Corridor. This was marked by agricultural production at c.4800–4000 BP, agro-pastoral production at c.4000–3000 BP and animal husbandry at c.3000–2200 BP, respectively. The major subsistence
strategies of these three periods show considerable variation. It is very likely that these transformations of economic patterns in the prehistoric Hexi Corridor were primarily triggered by transcontinental cultural exchange and, to a lesser extent, by climate change.

Une autre façon de comprendre les raisons qui ont conduits l'empire des Han à s'étendre bien au-delà du fleuve jaune, à une époque qui finalement ne se prêtait pas forcément à une expansion territoriale aussi massive.
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An attempt to understand the political motivations of the Han Empire in conquering remote fields far from the capital, west of the Yellow River, and so close from their ennemies.

This is a compendium of texts on the topic of Yuezhi/Greater Yuezhi/Kushan and related studies.
The texts are quotes from monographs and journal articles ranging from 1738 to 2000.
They are confined to Western languages.
Although the collection is far from complete, most Western authors who contributed to our knowledge of Central and South Asian history from 300 BCE to 300 CE have been brought together here.
More texts will be added in due time.

Social responses to climate change over human history have been widely discussed in academia over the last two decades. However, the transformation of the human-environment nexus crossing prehistoric and historic periods and the processes associated with it are not yet clearly understood. In this study, based on published works on radiocarbon dating, archaeobotany, zooarchaeology, and archaeological sites, together with a synthesis of historical documents and high-resolution paleoclimatic records, we trace the extent to which human settlement patterns in the Hexi Corridor in northwestern China evolved in conjunction with climate change over the last 5,000 years. A total of 129 Neolithic, 126 Bronze Age, and 1,378 historical sites in the Hexi Corridor (n=1,633) were surveyed. Our results show that, in the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age periods (~2800-100 BC), climate change contributed to the transformation of subsistence strategies and the subsequent changes in human settlement patterns in the Hexi Corridor. The warm-humid climate in ~2800-2000 BC promoted millet agriculture and helped the Majiayao, Banshan, and Machang Cultures to flourish. The cold-dry climate in ~2000-100 BC resulted in the divergence and transformation of subsistence strategies in the Xichengyi-Qijia-Siba and Shajing-Shanma Cultures and in a shift in their settlement patterns. However, in the historical period (121 BC-AD 1911), human settlement patterns were primarily determined by geopolitics related to the alternating rule of regimes and frequent wars, especially in the Sui-Tang dynasties. We also find that trans-Eurasian cultural exchange since ~2000 BC improved social resilience to climate change in the Hexi Corridor, mediating the human-environment nexus there. Our findings may provide insights into how human societies reacted to climate change in arid and semi-arid environments over the long term.

The present article examines the claim that Manuel Giadán Ruiz and Jose Antonio Neto González, Copper foundry workers, former employees of Rio Tinto Company Limited in Huelva, against the Government of the Republic of China in 1912 for breach of contract of the Imperial Copper Works. This enterprise was owned by the Gansu Provincial Government.
Through this claim we can observe the causes of the failure of the modernization attempts carried out by the “Westernization Movement” in late Qing times; and also we can see the causes of frustration of Xinhai Revolution and the beginnings of the Republic of China. In particular, the “Neto and Giadan Claim” shows how the nascent Republic of China is unable to shake off the exploitation to which China was subject by the colonial powers. In fact, through this case, we see how the Republic of China was forced to yield to the economic claims of any European country, even to Spain, which at that time lacked the coercive or military capacity to impose its wishes on China. For the writing of this article, we have used original documentation from The Archive of Administration, The Archive of National History; The Archive of Historical Miner of Red River Fundation; The Archive of Huelva Province; Archivo of Huelva Diocesan, and The Archive Nerva Municipal. We have supplemented this documentation with the Belgian Foreign Ministry Archive and the personal archives of Belgian “technicians” led by "Belgian Mandarin" Paul Splingaerd and his son Alphonse. They were the managers of the industrialization process of Gansu Province launched by the Taotai of Lanzhou Peng Yingjia.

本文考察力拓有限公司在韦尔瓦矿的两名 铸造工人马努艾尔⋅吉塔恩⋅鲁伊斯和侯赛⋅安东 尼奥内⋅托冈萨雷斯在1912 年因帝国铜矿合同 反对甘肃政府的这一事件。通过对该事件的考 察，我们试图探讨晚清时期洋务运动失败的根 本原因，从而进一步探讨辛亥革命失败和中华 民国诞生的因。根据内托和吉塔恩的观点，新诞生的中华民国不能改变殖民势力对其进行
掠夺的局势，同时，通过这一事件，我们也发 现中华民国由于缺乏军事实力而不得不屈服于 包括西班牙在内的欧洲列强，被迫在利益上一 再退让。本文对《管理档案》、《国家历史档案》、《红河基金会的历史矿工档案》、《韦尔瓦省档案》、《维尔瓦教会档案》和《涅尔瓦市政档案》等原版资料进行了分析，同时对由甘肃政府兰州道尹彭英甲发动的工业运动的经理比利时人林辅臣及其子林阿德编写的《比利时外交档案》和《比利时技师档案》进行了补充。