After the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Western powers set off a wave of carving up China, and they plundered our wealth and land through the signing of a large number of unequal treaties.
In such a context, it is a bit puzzling that after the First World War, France actually forcibly gave us a piece of "land"? What is the purpose of France's move? Is it really a flood of compassion?
Now, many years have passed, and the "land" that France has forcibly given us is still benefiting China, which no one expected back then, let's find out together.
The piece of "land" that France forcibly gave us was Svalbard.
The total area of Svalbard is about 620,000 square kilometers, located within the Arctic Circle, between the Barents Sea and the Greenland Sea, the climate is very cold, so it was discovered relatively late.
In the 12th century, it was first discovered by the Norwegians, but due to the cold local climate, it was difficult to develop, so it did not attract attention and did not have a unified name.
After many years, due to the progress of science and technology, the shipbuilding industry also ushered in the rapid development, and the explorers of the West did not dare to explore everywhere and rediscovered the place in 1596, so the Dutch navigator Wilhelm Barents named it "Svalbard", which means "cold coast".
In the following centuries, whaling ships from the Netherlands, Britain, France, Denmark and Norway came to hunt for whales, fighting over fishery resources and finally dividing spheres of influence along the coast to end the conflict.
But what they didn't expect was that the ** people would arrive before 1715, which made countries very worried, worried that the ** people would strike first and snatch Svalbard away.
Because at this time, the largest number of inhabitants in Svalbard are Norwegians and ** people, but the strength of Norwegians is limited, and in the long run, the interests of Britain, France and other countries will be lost.
So taking advantage of the October Revolution and the civil war, Britain, France and other countries lobbied everywhere and finally reached agreements with other countries.
On February 9, 1920, 18 countries, including Britain, France, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Japan, signed the Treaty of Svalbard in Paris.
The treaty recognized Norway's "full and complete sovereignty" and that the area "may never be used for the purposes of war". However, citizens of the States Parties are free to enter and engage in legitimate production and commercial activities within the limits of Norwegian law.
But later, the French went home and thought about it, and felt that they were a little at a loss: Britain and the United States were stronger than themselves, and they still had the support of many younger brothers, and he, as one of the advocates of the treaty, ended up making wedding dresses for others?
So, France thought about it behind closed doors for several days, and finally decided to bring China and other countries in to play together, and at the same time in exchange for our support.
At that time, it was Premier Duan Qirui who held the power of Beiyang **, and he couldn't figure out how to figure out what benefit to the Chinese of such an archipelago so far away? But he didn't dare to offend the French, and there would be nothing to lose by signing a treaty, so he simply did a favorSpecial envoys were sent to accede to the Svalbard Treaty in 1925.
The French and Duan Qirui could never have imagined that an unintentional move at the beginning would bring huge benefits to China many years later.
According to the Svalbard Treaty, Chinese can freely enter and leave Svalbard, do not need a visa, stay as long as they want, and can also engage in legitimate study work and production and business activities on it, without applying for permission documents from any country or region**.
It is in accordance with this treaty that the Chinese Academy of Sciences established the Arctic Yellow River Station in Svalbard in July 2004, which provides great convenience for China's scientific research activities in the Arctic region!