In modern Chinese history, the Qing Dynasty was forced to sign the Xinchou Treaty by the Eight-Nation Alliance, which stipulated that the Qing Dynasty needed to compensate **4500 million taels, known as Gengzi indemnity in history, for the great powers, the Qing Dynasty's indemnity is not just taken, some countries in the next few years, have returned a lot of Gengzi indemnity, among them, especially the United States is the most active, and this return of Gengzi indemnity, but also in the future development of Chinese history, has had a far-reaching impact.
When the Xinchou Treaty was signed in 1901, the total fiscal revenue of the Qing Dynasty was 88 million taels a year.4500 million taels is equivalent to several years of financial revenue, the Qing Dynasty could not take out so much money for a while, so the great powers stipulated that from 1901, it would be paid off in 39 years, then it would be until this 1940, the principal and interest were a total of 980 million taels**, Tsarist Russia accounted for the largest head, 29% he took more than 100 million taels, then this Germany and France, and then Britain and the United States, for the United States, the total amount of this indemnity was 32 million taels**, which was equivalent to 24 million dollars at that time, which was also quite a huge amount of money.
In addition, the silver of the Qing Dynasty was not the international ** at that time, and the exchange rate of gold and silver fluctuated from time to time, and there was a lot of difference between the two and the other, so the final powers reached an agreement, in order to facilitate the repayment of the Qing Dynasty, or to repay it with silver, as for the exchange rate difference between gold and silver, if the price of silver fell, it was regarded as the Qing ** to the great powers The debt needs additional compensation, on the contrary, the excess share will be returned to the Qing **, so from 1902 to 1904, the silver price was **, the United States and the rest of the powers, together with the Qing ** Additional Indemnity.
Liang Cheng, the minister to the United States at the time, was discussing this matter with the United States, and during the negotiations, U.S. Secretary of State John Hymers inadvertently revealed that the United States demanded too much Gengzi indemnity, and after verification, this is a fact, the United States participated in the Eight-Nation Coalition in the year of Gengzi, and the military expenditure was 10 million US dollars, and the compensation demanded was 24 million, so Liang Cheng seized this point to make a fuss and did not talk to the United States He said that if your country can take the initiative, the righteous voice will be sown, and John Hymers agreed to Liang Cheng's request, and Liang Cheng ran to tell him at the top of the American political circles, and won the support of Theodore Roosevelt in the United States at that time.
At that time, the United States won the Spanish-American War, mediated the Russo-Japanese War, and began to emerge on the international stage, and for the United States at that time, holding high the banner of morality was undoubtedly the best way to gain a firm foothold in the international community, and returning China's excess Gengzi indemnity was the best means for the United States to demonstrate its morality. Therefore, under Liang Cheng's propaganda, the newspapers in the United States were full of articles about the necessity of returning the Gengzi indemnity, and finally Congress made a final decision in 1908 and completely handed over the power to dispose of the excess Gengzi indemnity to Roosevelt**, and Roosevelt decided that from 1909 onwards, the Geng money that had not yet been paid, after accounting, would be returned to Qing **.
Of course, Qing ** still has to pay the Geng fee in accordance with the original regulations, and the part refunded by the United States will be handed over to Citibank in the United States to set up a student grant**, which will be supervised and used by the United States**. The Qing Dynasty was also very satisfied with this, and the Foreign Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Prince Shangshuqing, replied to the United States** that in view of the achievements of your country's education in the past and of our country, the Qing Dynasty should send students to your country for education on an annual basis.
According to the agreement between the two parties, from the year of the return of the Geng money, the first four years of the Qing Dynasty will send 100 students, until the Geng money is paid, at least 50 students will be sent every year, in 1909 in order to implement the Geng money of the school plan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Department of the Qing Dynasty, detailed provisions on the method of sending foreign students, in Beijing to set up a tour of the United States Office, by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent personnel to manage, and re-set up a school hall, select students to enter the museum for experiments, choose their learning and practice of beautiful qualifications, send them to the United States at any time, study here is not finished, students must go through 8 years of Xi training, complete the basic studies at the same time, familiar with the American language and customs Xi habits, social and political, after passing the exam, you can directly enter the United States to study in the third year, and only after you get a degree in the United States can you graduate.
This school was renamed Tsinghua School in 1911, and later called Tsinghua School, after the Xinhai Revolution, although the Qing Dynasty was gone, but the Chinese sent students to continue to study, so at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, a large number of intellectuals were able to study in the United States, Tsinghua School also became Tsinghua University, has been cultivating pillars of talent for the society, to 1924, the United States has been after World War I, the country is rich and strong, simply announced the return of all Gengzi indemnity, because China was in a period of war at that time, there was no stable **regime, the United States** Entrusted by the Chinese and American people, the Chinese Education and Culture Association, to manage the refund, the Chinese Education and Culture Association with the returned indemnity, to set up cultural and educational undertakings, continue to train international students, fund Tsinghua University, and in 1931, the establishment of the most advanced library in the Far East at that time, the National Beiping Library, which is the predecessor of today's National Library of China Ancient Books Branch.
The United States set an example, and other powers also followed suit, such as Britain and France, in 1926, France returned part of the Geng money, which was used to fund the Sino-French University of Lyon to train Chinese students to study in France, and the British returned the Geng money through the missionary Timothy Lee, and later built Shanxi University Hall in Shanxi, which is the predecessor of today's Shanxi University, and later donated funds to Tianjin Nankai University to purchase equipment。
In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, China did have a trend of studying abroad, most of them went to Japan, and the study was also a crash course in military and political affairs, such as Chiang Kai-shek, there was not much systematic knowledge Xi precipitation, and the school established by using the Gengzi indemnity was to start from scratch, bit by bit to consolidate the educational foundation, and really have the opportunity for students to go to Europe and the United States to see the world, which directly affected a generation of intellectuals, and from the cognitive level, improved the quality of China's study abroad education. There are many students who have studied in Europe and the United States, and they have also become experts in various fields, such as Hu Shi and Qian Xuesen, who have influenced China in the following decades and even today.