The Tsonkoan outer region of Walchéren (瓦尔赫伦岛) celebrates its 200 years this year, so let's review a quick summary of its history.
The late Ming were relatively uninterested in trade with europe, and this sentiment also applied for the Ts’ing during K'angsi's rule, however during the first years of his successor's, Ioung-cheng, rule, the Tsonkoan army under the Bordered Yellow Banner was entirely defeated by the Dzungars in the Ts'inkhai, this setback made the emperor realize that the army needed better weapon, and so he decided, relunctantly, to widden the rules of trade with western merchants in Canton to import and study advanced firearms. This change would herald an era of increasing trade between the two worlds, slowly european craft, such as optics, would become more and more common among the Tsonkoan elite , the revocation of the Ex illa die by the Pope Clement XI would help the Church slowly but surely renew its influence in Tsonko, the Houpou's - the ministry of revenues - control over taxation was relaxed. All of this would make relations between Cantonese trade and European merchant better, illustrated by George Anson's warm welcome in the city during its circumnavigation.
Meanwhile in Europe, France's position as the dominant power was definitely confirmed after its decisive victory in the Six Year's War, Britain was broken, large part of its empire, and importantly its indian possessions, were taken away, and it would decline further after the Irish Rebellion. French merchant were now the main force in the Indian ocean, but the next target oversea for France's mercantilism was the central kingdom, where trade was still regulated, even if more lax. And so after a decisive victory against the Hapsburgs and the Dutch which allowed France to win the southern half of the Netherlands, the French king Louis XVI decided to send an ambitious embassy to Peking led by the seasoned diplomat Charles-Maurice de Tayllerand along with 3 ships full of gifts, the endeavour was carefully planned with the help of French Jesuits who had uncomparable knowledge of Tsonko. The Embassy would arrive in 1795 and Tayllerand would meet the Emperor K'ian-Loung, 84 years of age, who had managed to defeat the Dzungar and keep Tsonko stable, if needed through giving up his predecessor's land and tax reforms. Tayllerand would agreed to K'eou-T'eou , showing the utmost reverance to the emperor. During the Embassy various economic matters were discussed, but one of the backdrop events was the ongoing tensions between France and Russia, while at the same time Russian farmers and prospectors were more and more encroaching past the boundaries drawn by the Treaty of Nerchinsk, both countries agreed to start cooperating and communicate informations about Russia.
France's main goal was securing an exclusive trading post that would be better located than Canton's, which it eventually got on the island of Choushan, near the mouth of the Yang-Tse, the Emperor had however several request in exchange, one of the first was the adoption by western nations, assumed by the Emperor to be subvenient to France, of a single official name for the Middle Kingdom, French Jesuits eventually decided on the name "Tsonko", based on the pronunciation of 中國, the main request was for Tsonko to get a trading post in Europe, as a counterpart to the Choushan concession. This request would be hard to accept for Tayllerand, eventually after much discussion it was agreed to give the island of Walchéren, recently taken from the Dutch.
The treaty of friendship would officially be ratified in 1801, just before K'ian-Loung's death, and so the Tsonkoan history of Walchéren would begin. The truth is that the place was a backwater, subject to regular flooding and with little economic interest beyond Fishing and Oyster farming, most of the early Tsonkoan merchant and officials thought they had been deceived, as the place was much less impressive than the nearby Antwerp or Bruges, nevertheless they stuck around, as the opportunity of trading directly in europe was too attractive for a small part of the merchants. The Tsonkoan were a novelty for the local zeelanders, yet both group got along quickly. Tsonkoans brought back to the empire important knowledge of damming and irrigation, which would be invaluable in improving farming along the coast of Northern Tsonko, particularly in the quickly growing province of Chentong.
Eventually industrialisation spread across the Low Countries and the Rhineland, as most of these region were under French control, the Kingdom reaped the benefits and grew ever stronger to be the hegemon of Western Europe, but these new devices and methods interested Tsonkoans scholars, who brough them and the scientific method to Tsonko, the latter found particular echo in the relatively recent K'aocheng school of thought, which initially promoted evidential study of Confucian texts, and eventually grew into a true Tsonkoan interpretation of the Empirical Scientific method. This however would only slowly bear its fruit in the East, to the contrary of the Southern Low Countries, which saw very real change form the industrialisation, Wallonia had become one of the leading industrial center of the world, and the Rhineland was quickly growing to rival it, both industrial region's output would go through Zeeland, Brabant and Flanders to reach the ocean and international market, as a result these region also very quickly grew in importance, however this also attracted many French, whose number was quickly growing, soon entire neighborhood of Flemish cities would become french speaking, the situation for flemish wouldn't be made easier by the strong assimilationist policies of Paris which forbade the use of Dutch in schoo. In this situation the Extraterritorial status of Walchéren was particularly useful, and the growing city would become a haven for the various Dutch speakers of French, Dutch Language insitute would become nearly as common as Tsonkoan language ones, and French Dutch speaker would gain privilegied place among European traders (so that today Dutch is the third european language learned in Tsonko and nearly 2 millions Tsonkoan can trace partial or total dutch ancestry).
As its importance grew, Walchéren would become limited in land area, in 1901 as celebration of the centenary of the Island's Tsonkoan history, the French kingdom gave away the two islands of Bévelande to Walchéren, multiplying the concession's area more than Threefold. Upon the celebration the Emperor would also officially make Walchéren an Outer Region of Tsonko, overseen by a Tut'ong, a civilian leader. This would make civilian migration to Walchéren signficiantly easier. As population movement became ever easier so did missionary and proselytism, the Zeeland region was always a very devout Calvinist region, and so Walchéren became a center of Calvinist missions to Tsonko, these were highly succeful, so that today about 45 millions or nearly 3% of Tsonkoans are members of Reformed churches. The Reformed influence in trade with Tsonko also became an important lever in the various political action to bring full freedom of religion and acceptance of protestant in France.
By the first quarter of the 20th century Walchéren was a booming city, arguably the most cosmopolitan in europe after Constantinople, a plurality of its population was Han, and important canal work and port construction made it the largest port in the Rhine delta. Its prosperity wouldn't be uninterrupted as the Island saw fierce fighting during the World War, when the Birmingham-Moscow-Kyoto Axis declared war on both France and Tsonko, just as its counterpart in Choushan was devastated by Japonese attacks, Walcheren was hit by British Navy and Bombs, destroying dikes and submerging large part of the island and the region. The Franco-Tsonkoan alliance would prevail however, and afte the end of the war the Island and the rest of Zeeland was rebuilt, with impressive Rhine Delta works being started to improve defence in the case of another war, which thanksfully never came.
The war did leave a strong mark in the city, but it rebuilt larger than ever, Today Walchéren is without a doubt the First European port, but it faces new challenges, it arguably isn't as important as it used to be, as the world is increasingly multipolar, with Choushan being relegated as only a large Tsonkoan city among dozens other in the face of strong competition, some French start to wonder why Tsonko still reaps the benefits in Walcheren while France doesn't anymore in its eastern counterpart, the City also has a large corruption problem, as the last Tut'ong Françoise Tchou resigned after overhwelming accusations. Culturally the city is still however a very important bridge between the East and West, and it produced an extraordinary high number of Literary and Kinema classics, the old quarter, of mixed Zeelander-Tsonkoan inspiration is a protected world heritage place, as is the mixed race Walcherenois culture and food. As a result of the large recent growth that led to the island having 8 millions resident (with another 2 millions commuting workers), land reclamation projects are abunding in the city board's meeting room, and the Island is still the wealthiest and most dynamic non micro state in Western Europe, although harsh competition make it hard for the poorest to live in the city or afford housing.
