Central Asia immigrated to the Far East.

During the period of colonial expansion around the world, western countries with Europe as the main body divided the world into several regions: Southeast Europe and northeastern Africa were called the Near East; West Asia is called the Middle East; Taking India as the dividing line, the eastern part of China, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines and the Russian Pacific coast east of Pamirs are all called the Far East.

At the beginning of the First World War, because the world was dominated by the Kingdom of Great Britain, the world pattern was re-divided, and the area affected by the former Ottoman Empire was called the Near East. The scope of the former Middle East has expanded to include parts of Central Asia, India and Thailand. The Far East also includes Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries. In a sense, the Far East at this time covered all areas including the Pan-Pacific. Theoretically, even Australia and New Zealand, the easternmost parts of the Pacific Ocean, should be included in the Far East.

But no matter how it changes, it is against the world trend to divide the world into several regions with Europe as the center as the sphere of colonial influence of these countries.

After World War II, the world pattern was completely broken. Countries that used to be colonies of Britain and France, the old European powers, became independent one after another. They may still stay in the Commonwealth, but they are already an independent country institutionally. In this situation, it is undoubtedly inappropriate to call these areas the Near East, the Middle East and the Far East with strong colonial colors. Therefore, except for history books, these nouns will appear, but in the official text, these words have basically disappeared or their use has been restricted.

The word Far East has the closest relationship with China. Because according to the colonial history, China is the largest area in the Far East.

However, it should be noted that the word Far East has two meanings, and the meanings it represents are different.

As mentioned above, the word "Far East" is the product of the colonial expansion period centered on Europe. It covers a very large area, not only in China, but also in Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia and the Pan-Pacific region.

Geographically, the Far East basically belongs to an area with China as the basic framework and then extended; Culturally, the Far East is still an extension of China's cultural circle; Economically, it is still an economic interest circle with China as the core. In short, when it comes to the Far East, people think of China first.

However, we don't want to hear this word with a strong colonial color, but history is there, and the weak Qing Dynasty not only lost its ability to protect a large number of neighboring countries, but also lost its own.

Since the Opium War, the decadent Qing Dynasty was defeated again and again, and signed agreements to betray the country and seek glory again and again, which not only lost a large number of neighboring countries, but also lost about 6.5438+0.6 million square kilometers of its own land. In the eyes of western powers, China in the Far East has become a big cake that everyone can share.

Especially in a series of traitorous treaties signed by Russia and the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty lost Siberia, Outer Xing 'an Mountains, Sakhalin Island and so on, including Lake Baikal, which has belonged to China since the Han Dynasty. Russia's influence finally extended to the Pacific Ocean, and this vast territory is the Russian Far East.

Compared with the Far East in a broad sense, the Far East in a narrow sense refers to the present Russian Far East.

In Russian territory, the Far East refers to the central and eastern Siberia, including the Bering Sea and kamchatka peninsula in the east, Outer Mongolia, Outer Manchuria and Sakhalin Island, which all belonged to Lingbei Province and Liaoyang Province in the Yuan Dynasty.

Especially after the signing of the "Love-faint Treaty" and the "Sino-Russian Beijing Treaty", after the Qing Dynasty ceded Sakhalin Island and the mouth of Tumen River to Russia, northeast China lost its access to the Sea of Japan, and Jilin Province changed from a coastal province to a sea-free province overnight.

Hunchun to Tumen River mouth is only15km. We can see the sea with the naked eye, but we can't get there all the way.

After the founding of the Soviet Union, Lenin twice proposed to lift the unequal treaties that Russia used to force the Qing Dynasty to sign, and return the territory it seized from the Qing Dynasty to us in exchange for China's support for the Soviet Union, thus forming a powerful ally in the East, weakening the support of Britain, France and other countries for the Russian remnants and stabilizing the Soviet regime. However, due to the incompetence of Beiyang government at that time and the destruction of supporters behind warlords, China lost an excellent opportunity to recover lost ground.

Otherwise, imagine what the territory of our country will be like!

According to the western regional definition of the Far East, Australia and New Zealand, which belong to the pan-Pacific region, should also belong to the Far East, but why has there never been such a statement? These two countries have never considered themselves to belong to the Far East.

In fact, this should also be discussed from a cultural perspective.

As I mentioned above, the Far East is not only a geographical concept, but also a cultural concept and an economic concept.

Although Australia and New Zealand belong to the Far East in western geography, they do not belong to the circle centered on China culture. Therefore, even if Australia and New Zealand are geographically farther east from Europe, they will not call these two countries part of the Far East.

After World War II, the Far East was renamed, and the Soviet Union was called the Soviet Far East. China, Korea and Japan are called East Asia; The south is called Southeast Asia; The former Near East and the former West Asia merged, collectively known as the Middle East, including today's Israel and Arabia; The Central Asian part of the former Middle East joined the Soviet Union.