Failed colonies of Russia
As you know, all empires once arise, expand, but then inevitably fall apart. The USSR collapsed in 1991, in the same vein, and the modern Russian Federation. The Russian Empire collapsed in 1917. As a result of the 1917 Revolution, Russia lost Finland, Poland, Kars region (now Turkey), and lost the First World War. As a result, 1991 from Russia moved Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Estonia. Earlier, as everyone knows, Tsar Alexander II sold Alaska to America. However, few people know, the attempts to create colonies were undertaken by the Russians in Africa, in America, in the Pacific Ocean. About this, little is being written and known in our country, for example, many will be surprised by the fact that Russian colonies were in Hawaii and California ...Missed colonies in America:
1. Tobago Island (now part of the state of Trinidad and Tobago). The total area of 300 square. km
The Russian colony off the coast of South America could become the island of Tobago, which was a colony of Courland, which became part of the Russian Empire. In 1652, the Duke of Courland Jacob took possession of Fr. Tobago off the coast of South America. During 30 years, 400 of Kurdish people moved here, and more than 900 Negro slaves were purchased in Africa. In Africa, the Courlanders acquired the island of St. Andrew (James Island, now part of the Gambia). However, in 1661, these territories in the two hemispheres were transferred to the use of England: the Duke of Courland actually contributed them as collateral for loans. When Courland became part of the Russian Empire, Catherine II tried to sue the two islands of the British to 1795, but without success.
Value: Trinidad is rich in oil, gas, and asphalt. Developed agriculture, tourism, metallurgy and chemical industry. Being relatively close to the United States and the Panama Canal, the island is of major strategic importance.
2. “Russian America”: Alaska, West Coast of North America, California
Alaska is a huge (1 481 347 sq. Km of land) - the US state, a former colony of Russia. The so-called Russian America was not limited to Alaska at all. Baranov and other leaders of the Russian-American company clearly understood the need for colonization of the west coast of America, up to California (and including it). Attempts to create settle at the mouth of the Columbia River (now Washington State, USA) proved impossible due to the fact that the Americans were the first to enter there. However, not far from San Francisco, the Russians still founded the famous Fort Ross in California, but then sold it. Alaska is rich in marine resources, oil, gas, gold, is of great strategic importance. The sale of Alaska is the most idiotic act of the Russian rulers before 1917.
Missed colonies in Asia
1. The Straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus
You could have become Russian if it were not for the 1917 revolution, since, by agreement with the allies, Russia would receive these straits. It was possible to capture them during the Second World War, but this chance was also missed.
2. Siam (Thailand)
Thailand is a large country in southern Asia, between the Indian and the Pacific, 514 000 sq. km Sandwiched between the British and French colonies, the kings of Thailand sought the protection of Russia. King Rama V at 1880 announced his desire to enter into a friendly alliance with Russia. In 1897, King Chulalongkorn arrives in the capital of Russia with a secret plan for Siam to become part of Russia as a dominion. However, the British managed to convince the Thai king that the Russians would send him to Siberia, and Thailand would become not a dominion, but a colony of Russia. Obviously, Russian diplomacy lost because of its passivity and inability to neutralize the influence of the enemy.
Value: the country occupies an important strategic position, the economy is based on tourism, gas production, rice cultivation, etc.
3. Mongolia
Having disconnected from China, Mongolia became in fact Russia's possession, but the Bolsheviks chose to impose Soviet power on the Mongols in order to make it clear that the USSR was not the only “socialist” country.
4. Northern Iran
Northern Iran could have become Russian (southern - British) if Russia had not lost the First World War because of the 1917 revolution and the Bolshevik policy, which had been abolished by all the "colonial" treaties of the Russian Empire with Iran.
5. Western Armenia
Western Armenia could have moved away from Turkey to Russia if it had not lost the First World War.
6. Manchuria
Manchuria (Northeast China) could have become Russian, if not for the defeat of Russia in the Russian-Japanese war.
7. The Bolsheviks, in exchange for the recognition of their regime by Afghanistan, presented him with some adjacent areas.
8. Some of the principalities in Indonesia, fighting the Dutch, offered to enter under Russian citizenship.
The first and last full-time Russian consul in Indonesia, Mikhail Bakunin, for five years (1895 — 1899) repeatedly made proposals for the establishment of direct trade relations between Russia and the island state. He also informed Petersburg about the possibility of joint colonization of Java and Sumatra with the Dutch (the Dutch, therefore, wanted to make an ally in the fight against the British in this region). He proposed to make here a naval base that would control the approaches to the Russian Far East. Nicholas II answered Bakunin: "Friendship with England is more important to me than these wild places."
Missed colonies in Europe
The islands in the Mediterranean, Malta and the Ionian Islands, annexed by Russia during the wars with Napoleon, were, however, ceded to the British.
Missed colonies in the Pacific
1. Hawaiian Islands
An employee of the Russian-American company Georg Schaeffer (1779 — 1836) tried to attach the Hawaiian Islands to Russia. In November, 1815 Schaeffer reached Hawaii, after a successful treatment course, Kamehameha and his wife won the "friendship and trust of the great king" who bestowed Schaeffer several dozen cattle heads, fishing grounds, land and buildings under the factory.
But then the negotiations were upset and in May 1816 on the approached Russian ships "Discovery" and "Ilmen" Scheffer sailed to Kauai. Kaumualia was pleased to have the opportunity to get a strong ally and with his help regain independence. May 21 (June 2) he solemnly asked Alexander I to take his possessions under the patronage, vowed loyalty to the Russian scepter, promised to return “Bering” and his cargo, gave the company a monopoly on the trade in sandalwood and the right of unimpeded establishment of trading stations in their territories.
1 (13) in June, Qaumualia under a secret agreement singled out Schaeffer 500 people to conquer the islands of Oahu, Lanai, Maui, Malokai and others, and also promised all possible assistance in the construction of Russian forts on all the islands. Schaeffer bought the Lydia schooner for Qaumualia and agreed to buy the Avon armed ship from the Americans. Finalize and pay for the transaction should have been Baranov. The cost of the ships of Kaumualia undertook to reimburse the company with sandalwood.
Schaeffer and his people were granted several Hawaiian villages and a number of territories by the king, where Schaeffer made a series of renames: the valley of Hanalei named Sheffertal (valley of Schaeffer), the Hanapepe river - Don. He gave Russian surnames (Platov, Vorontsov) and local leaders.
In the possessions of Kaumualia Schaeffer, by means of the king provided him several hundred workers, he laid out gardens, built buildings for a future trading post and three fortresses, naming them in honor of Alexander I, his wife Empress Elizabeth and Barclay de Tolly.
The message sent by Schaeffer to the Main Board of the Russian-American Company Baranov reached the addressee of only 14 (26) in August 1817. Although confident in the need to join the islands, but not daring to act independently, company directors V.V. Kramer and A.I. Severin sent a report to the emperor and foreign minister K.V. Nesselrode. In February, 1818 Nesselrode set out the final decision:
“The Emperor deigns to believe that the acquisition of these islands and their voluntary admission to his patronage not only cannot bring Russia any substantial benefit, but, on the contrary, in many respects is associated with very important inconveniences. And therefore, His Majesty is pleased that Tomari King, expressing all possible affability and desire to keep affectionate relations with him, not accept the mentioned act from him, but only limit himself to decree of the above-mentioned benevolent intercourse and act to spread the merchandise of the American company with the Sandwich Islands, pokazika these will be consistent with this order of affairs "
Such a decision was in accordance with the general direction of the policy of Russia at that time. Refusing acquisitions in the Pacific, Alexander I hoped to keep Britain from seizing the territory of the decaying Spanish colonial empire. In addition, the government did not want to worsen relations with the United States before the start of negotiations on their inclusion in the Holy Alliance. In general, as always, our rulers do not mind anything for friends.
Thus, the king refused to accept the Hawaiian Islands for citizenship, and soon the Russians were expelled from the islands by our then American friends.
2. Papua New Guinea.
The great Russian traveler and scientist Nikolai Nikolayevich Miklukho-Maclay (1846 – 1888) tried to attach Russia to New Guinea. In 1883, he met with Emperor Alexander III, to whom he expressed his old thought. He wanted Russia to establish a protectorate over the free part of New Guinea before England or Germany did it. In fact, he proposed to join his coast (Maclay Coast in the north of New Guinea) to Russia. He hoped in this way to protect the natives from the barbarity of the colonialists. The king remained indifferent to his proposal. Although Maclay Coast was owned by Miklouho-Maclay, Russia did not react at all when the Germans took over the colony.
3. Islands
Russian navigators discovered in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans near the 400 islands, but for some reason they belong to France and England. Many islands of Polynesia (Society Islands, Tuamotu, Marquis, Tubouai) were discovered by Russian navigators. Even a whole archipelago exists - the Islands of the Russians (however, the Russian tsars did not need them, but they needed France). The names of the islands speak for themselves: Arakcheev, Volkonsky, Kruzenshtern, Spiridov, Barclay de Tolly, Chichagov, Kutuzov, Wittgenstein, Bellinsgausen.
Missed colonies in Africa.
Strangely enough, but the Russian kings to the rich Black continent almost did not show interest. Peter I was thinking about the colonization of Madagascar, for which he sent an expedition there at the head of the Swedish admiral Daniel Wilster. Peter the Great was the king of the clever, and he was well aware that for communications with the possessions of Russia in the Pacific Ocean, colonies in Africa were necessary for the parking of ships. However, due to the death of the king, the matter died down. However, the kings didn’t take any concrete action until that wonderful moment when all of Africa was already divided by the European powers. It was then that only for sluggish Russian rulers it became clear that a base in Africa is needed - on the way from European Russia to the Pacific Ocean, to Vladivostok. And even, it’s not that the kings understood it (that such a base is needed only in the Russian-Japanese war, when our squadron was refused to sell coal at ports by our future allies in the Entente).
There was only a timid attempt to colonize Ethiopia, which Nikolai Ivanovich Ashinov made (1856 - 1902). To begin with, it was necessary to convince the Ethiopians that we have one faith with them (this is not so). In 1883, Ashinov went to Abyssinia (Ethiopia), setting himself a plan to promote the political and ecclesiastical rapprochement of Abyssinia with Russia, and entered into relations with Negus John. Returning then to Russia, he, calling himself a "free Cossack", started an expedition to Abyssinia on 1889. At the head of a detachment of 150 Terek Cossacks founded the colony "New Moscow" in Fort Sagallo on the coast of the French Somalia (now Djibouti). However, this territory was claimed by our friends of the French at that time (and the Italians for Ethiopia itself). The French were in a difficult situation, but to their happiness, Petersburg hurried to disown Ashinov. 5 February 1889 Cossacks spotted a French squadron as part of a cruiser and three gunboats. Ashinov received from the messenger a letter with an ultimatum. But Ashinov, who did not know French, greeted the general, since he did not expect an attack from the friendly Russian empire of the country. The shelling of Sagallo began, as a result of which six Russians were wounded, several died. French shells destroyed all the landings. A shirt was raised over Sagallo as a white flag. Soon on the ships "Zabiyaka" and "Chikhachev" they were taken to Russia. In 1894, a retired captain of the Kuban Cossack troops N.S. Leontyev together with a prominent Russian traveler A.V. Eliseev, a retired staff captain of horse artillery K.S. Zvyagin and Archimandrite Ephraim organized an expedition to Ethiopia. In the old capital of Ethiopia - Entoto - the expedition was met by Emperor Menelik II. Leontyev succeeded in convincing the Russian government to donate to Menelik 30 thousand rifles, 5 million cartridges and 6 thousand sabers decorated as sold through French intermediary L. Chefne. In Massawa, all the materials were confiscated by the Italians, and only after the conclusion of peace between Italy and Ethiopia in 1896 were they transferred to the latter. In the period of the Italian-Ethiopian war 1895-96 Leontyev was in Ethiopia as a military adviser to the emperor Menelik. 9 May 1896 Negus granted Leontyev an honorary shield, a saber and a title of count, first established for this in Ethiopia. Leontyev also participated in the peace negotiations between Ethiopia and Italy. 12 August 1896 he arrived in Rome, where he reported on the latest conditions of the world proposed by Menelik. In 1897, Menelik appointed Leontyev Governor General of Uba and Bako counties in the south of the country. Leontyev tried to involve the Russian government in the exploitation of these territories, but was refused. However, he managed to get Russia to transfer Ethiopia another 30 thousand guns with ammunition, however, this party was arrested in London on the grounds that the trade certificate did not mention ownership weapons Russian government. In 1897, Russia sent its diplomatic mission headed by P.M. to Ethiopia. Vlasov. At this point, Leontyev, together with British, French and Belgian industrialists, founded the Society for the Operation of the Equatorial Provinces of Ethiopia, which Vlasov reported to St. Petersburg. The Russian government refused to further support Leontyev. The last milestone in his activities was the participation in the military campaign of the Ethiopian troops led by race Wolde-Georgis to Lake Rudolph (1898-1899). Leontyev was wounded and left Ethiopia forever. More fortunate one of his assistants, N.N. A masterpiece that hoisted the Ethiopian flag on the southwest shore of Lake Rudolph, thereby establishing the southern border of Ethiopia. Thus, due to the indecisiveness of the Russian tsars, it was not possible to get a colony in Africa.
The USSR, too, could well have seized any territory in Africa, in exchange for the aid and weapons supplied, but the Soviet leadership chose to donate. The General Secretaries (partly justified by the fact that they were in marasmus) preferred to be friends. So the USSR, for example, built a deep-water port in Berbera (Somalia), in the hope that there would be a Soviet base there. But after we built a port there, we were kicked out of there, and the base was placed by the Americans. Then the USSR began to create a military base in Eritrea (then part of Ethiopia), on the Dahlak Islands, but the Eritreans won the war with the Ethiopians, and we were kicked out again. If the general secretaries did not believe the words, and in exchange for weapons and assistance they would demand territory, the bases would still be Russian.
2) Libya: Churchill in the "Second World War" claims that he tried to give Stalin Libya at the Yalta Conference in exchange for reducing the Soviet dominions in Eastern Europe.
Arctic and Antarctica.
1. Antarctica was discovered by Russian navigators, but for some reason Russia never made any claims on the territory of this continent (rich in resources), unlike many other countries. For example, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Norway, Great Britain and France claim to parts of Antarctica, and we, who discovered it, have nothing to pretend.
Value: huge marine bioresources in coastal waters, gas, oil.
2. Russia's northern polar possessions / USSR are lost due to the lack of rigidity and consistency of Russia's foreign policy. Therefore, now the Polar possessions are disputed by other countries, not only the seas, but also the islands (Franz Josef Land - Norway, Wrangel Island - the USA, which does not prevent us from disarming further).
Value: marine bioresources, gas, oil.
3. The Svalbard Archipelago (Grumant) could have been Russian / Soviet, but due to the indecisiveness of Molotov (formerly Kings), was ceded to Norway.
Value: coal, marine bioresources, gas, oil, 90% of all fresh water.
Kosmos
.
Despite the fact that the USSR was the first to launch spacecraft on the Moon, Venus and Mars, for some reason he did not raise the question of the distribution of sovereignty to these space objects (or at least parts of them). By analogy, the US and the EU could claim Titan (Saturn’s satellite) and Jupiter, to which they first launched space probes.
Value: vast natural resources (metals, thermonuclear fuel in the form of deuterium, etc.), the promising possibility of terraforming (creating conditions suitable for human life), that is, settling.
Despite this, Russia (and the USSR) do not even try to extend their sovereignty to parts of the solar system. Although frankly speaking, having a voice in the UN Security Council, and a certain number of not yet rusty nuclear missiles, it was possible to share space with the Americans. In any case, in years 30-50 the problem will become actual, but by that time, will we have any arguments?
The conclusion is that the idiocy and pofigism of the authorities stipulates that, despite the fact that we were in space the first, the Americans, the Chinese, the Europeans, and the Japanese will be the owners there in the future, but not us.
What would happen if?
For example, if we didn’t miss the colonies, we would have had Ethiopia, the Hawaiian Islands, Alaska, the northeastern part of New Guinea, 1904, Thailand. What would have changed?
Well, first of all, Japan would not be able to defeat us if our fleet were not locked in Vladivostok and in Port Arthur, but located in the center of the Pacific Ocean in Hawaii. From there he could strike at the Japanese islands. The fleet, under the leadership of Rozhestvensky, was, firstly, better supplied, if we had colonies in Africa, and secondly, entering the Pacific Ocean, it would not break through meaninglessly through the Tsushima Strait, but would stand up in bases - in Hawaii or in Thailand, already from there making raids against Japan. And the lack of experience sailing in the southern seas in this war led to the fact that the shells from Rozhestvensky actually deteriorated due to humidity.
In a word, we would not lose the Japanese war, and therefore the 1905 Revolution would be weaker, the power of Nicholas II would be more popular, and therefore we would not have lost the First World War either. Therefore, there would be no 1917 Revolution. Explain how Russia would be different if 70 were more than the years of “Soviet power”, if not for the Civil War, the Genocide of the Cossacks, the Holodomor, Raskulachivaniya, etc. etc. I think normal people are not worth it. The Russian Empire did not develop, we approached World War II, firstly, with a large population, secondly, we would have Finland, which means there would be no Finnish front, and there would be no Siege of Leningrad ...
I must say that there are still individuals who fully justify the sale of Alaska and other concessions. Their arguments boil down to 2 points:
1) These distant territories are difficult to supply, expensive, they are far.
2) We would still have taken away everything by force. It is better to donate or sell.
Essentially, the 1 clause contradicts the 2 clause, because the 1 clause says that these territories are not needed, and 2 - that they are needed not only by us, but also by other countries. In fact, they are really needed, in any case, the Americans grant independence to Alaska not to rush (in Alaska, the topic of disconnection is popular).
So that?
1. To supply Alaska is no more difficult than Kamchatka or Chukotka - also by sea and aviation. If we do not need Alaska, then why do we need Kamchatka and Chukotka? What is the difference between them?
2. Still, because of Alaska, no one was going to fight with Russia, and the agreements with the United States and Great Britain on the delimitation of the borders of Russian America confirm this.
By the way, even during the Crimean War, the allies did not even try to seize Alaska, and the troops who attempted to seize Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky were defeated.
Information