The Republic of Hainan

June 1885

Amédée Courbet smiled[1], the war was just about over. It appeared that the Chinese were about to accept the treaty, the mandarin Li Hongzhang[2] was set to sign it. Amédée Courbet wasn't so sure they might accept the loss of territory, but the total defeat of whatever chinese forces there were in Hainan convinced Li to give it up.

The Chinese forces may have been more numerous, but they were all poorly equipped, there were plenty of times when only a fraction of their soldiers had rifles and they lost much of their numbers to disease. However, it appeared that all these factors has convinced Li to start reforming the chinese military.

A group of chinese men suddenly entered the room. They all had the pony-tails and dressed like a chinese bureaucrat. They were the officials of Hainan, they were all pretty much under someone from Guangdong[3].

"Gentlemen, I presume that you know about how you now work for us." said Courbet. His translator said it for him.

The Chinese men shifted about uncomfortably. However, they mainly maintained a inscrutable face.

"We have decided to leave the kings and emperors in charge of their respective territories[4], however, Hainan represents a challenge for us." said Courbet. "Since there's no king here, we've decided to make the chinese bureacracy more independent of Guangdong and keep the bureacracy as it is, under us of course."

The men looked at each other for a moment, Courbet suspected that some of them would refuse, but some would accept and Hainan will be part of the French empire. The chinese bureacracy will remain intact with the highest official responding to them, it was small and like the resistance they put up in the war, easy to tame.



[1] French admiral who led the French forces during the Sino-French war.
[2] Chinese official that signed the treaty with French.
[3] Hainan was part of Guangdong province at that time.
[4] The French left the local rulers rule as figureheads.
 
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Sounds interesting so far, Bishop. Though I know that in the case of France, they ran their colonies as if they were actually part of France - if this is in the 19th century, then Hainan would be a département (analogous to a US county) and region unto itself (though regions did not exist until around the 1970s), possibly split into several arrondisements (districts), then communes (municipalities). This is using modern French parlance, though, and it could be different depending on whether this takes place during the restoration of the Bourbons, the Second or Third Republic, or during the Second Napoleonic Empire. Every high official would be appointed from Paris.
 
Sounds interesting so far, Bishop. Though I know that in the case of France, they ran their colonies as if they were actually part of France - if this is in the 19th century, then Hainan would be a département (analogous to a US county) and region unto itself (though regions did not exist until around the 1970s), possibly split into several arrondisements (districts), then communes (municipalities). This is using modern French parlance, though, and it could be different depending on whether this takes place during the restoration of the Bourbons, the Second or Third Republic, or during the Second Napoleonic Empire. Every high official would be appointed from Paris.

Or could be a protectorate? Annam and Tonkin for example were french protectorates.

Hainan is a protectorate, the French left kings in charge though as figureheads in Annam and Tonkin, in Hainan, they decided to leave the local chinese bureaucracy in charge of most things with the top officials appointed by them.

Hainan is pretty small and is considered part of Guangdong then, the chinese bureaucrats that I mentioned answered to some higher official in Guangdong, now they just answer to a high French official rather than some official in Guangdong. Those chinese bureaucrats were all mid-level, since Hainan isn't considered province-level then.
 
I see - now you guys mentioned that, I'm reminded by how Wallis and Futuna has "chiefdoms" and "royal courts" instead of the usual départment-arrondisement-commune makeup. I'm sure that Hainan would be big enough to be considered a départment - it sure fits the size of the average one.

Anyway, bonne chance! :D
 
Nationalism in Hainan



From - "Chinese Nationalism in Hainan during the late 19th century" by Zhang Jingmei. (1987, Hainan University Press):

Altough nationalism was seemingly absent from Hainan during the late 19th century as opposed to Vietnam, there certainly was rising nationalistic sentiment in Hainan. This nationalism however wasn't the same nationalism of Hainanese people as one would expect. However our perceptions of Hainan as a relatively peaceful place during this time is most certainly true, but only up to a certain extent. Hainanese nationalism, something that was thought to arise only during the occupation by the Imperial Japanese army was really on the rise for decades and really only manifested itself during the occupation by the Imperial Japanese army.

In Vietnam, there was much violence and nationalist movements[1], it's no wonder why people thought there were no nationalism expressed by the local Hainanese people. Vietnam had far more stronger nationalistic sentiments then Hainan during the time so it was no small wonder why they resorted to violence, but we must also remember that Hainan was much smaller than Vietnam and had a smaller population at the time. The French focus and the world's for that matter on Vietnamese nationalism totally disregarded the rise of nationalism in Hainan.

This nationalism that was on the rise at the late 19th century wasn't what many people might think it is. When people think of nationalism and a country, they think of nationalism for that country, but in the late 19th century, there were no trace of Hainanese nationalism rising. Rather, ethnic chinese nationalism was on the rise a long with nationalism in China. The Hainanese people seemingly expereienced the same feelings and surges as the mainland chinese.

Violence in Hainan could be said to be almost non-existent during the 19th century, but there are several incidents between 1889-1892 worth mentioning:

  • 1. In September 1889, several officials under the French were killed near Wenchang
  • 2. In May 1890, A Foreign businessman was killed near Danzhou.
  • 3. In January 1891, several foreigners were attacked near Haikou.
  • 4. In March 1891, a missionary was attacked near Dongfang in a local village.
  • 5.In January 1892, several converts to Christianity were attacked.
  • 6. In April 1892, Several Converts were killed near Qionghai.
  • 7.In October 1892, a french official was killed in Haikou.

While these are only several incidents, these are only the ones well documented or at least better documented than most. You'll notice that the incidents increase as time goes on. If one were to continue, you can notice that the violence increases, particularly against Christian converts.

There are many reasons for the rise in nationalism, but perhaps one of the reasons for this was the fact that many missionaries were exempt from chinese laws. The missionaries also were able to exempt converts from chinese laws as well, this caused many chinese criminals to convert. This increased the perception of Christians as criminals and further alienated the chinese public.[2] One can note the large amount of incidents mentioned above that involved Christians, many of these incidents, after much investigation have been shown to occured because of unfair rulings by the local courts that favoured the Christians.

Some say that Chinese nationalism was a product of xenophobia by the chinese, perhaps this is true, but there were many times in Hainan as in China where foreigners were treated better by the law. Of course, the fact that they were ruled by foreigners certainly fanned nationalism. No peoples actually like to be under the rule of others.

The Japanese occupation of Hainan in World War II will be a catalyst for the manifestation of this nationalism not the catalyst for the nationalism itself like what most perceive. However, if we note Hainan's history clearly, we can see manifestations of this nationalism in several larger incidents with the French later during the early 20th century, particularly the infamous Haikou incident, the most well-known attack on the Foreigners of the time.









[1] This was true in OTL, Vietnam had lots of fighting and outbursts of nationalism.
[2] This is all true and one of the causes of the boxer rebellion with missionaries being exempt from chinese laws.
 
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Faeelin

Banned
Hainan is a protectorate, the French left kings in charge though as figureheads in Annam and Tonkin, in Hainan, they decided to leave the local chinese bureaucracy in charge of most things with the top officials appointed by them.

There were kings?

I didn't realize they were still around this late.

Hmm. Can Hainan produce anything of value for Vietnam?

Sugar? Rubber? Nah.
 
There were kings?

Yep, the French left the kings and emperors in charge as figureheads. The Nguyễn Dynasty was still there until 1945. The declaration of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was when it finally endded.


Hmm. Can Hainan produce anything of value for Vietnam?

Sugar? Rubber? Nah.

I can't think of anything right now except for a good vacation spot and hot chinese girls in the usual tropical attire.
 

Hendryk

Banned
A map from 1938 that could easily be adapted for the purpose of this TL:

Hainan Map.jpg
 
What!?:eek::mad:, those Hong Kongers don't have a single good beach compared to ours and their girls aren't that great compared to ours.:p:D

That wasn't what I meant - I was meaning something like a financial hub, since around here in OTL Hong Kong is known to be a financial centre.
 

Hendryk

Banned
That wasn't what I meant - I was meaning something like a financial hub, since around here in OTL Hong Kong is known to be a financial centre.
France already had something like Hong Kong in OTL, the enclave of Guangzhouwan, but it didn't do much with it. Hainan should be more accurately compared with Taiwan, since the two islands are roughly the same size, give or take a few square kilometers (and since Hainan is more or less flat while two-thirds of Taiwan are covered with mountains, in terms of real estate potential Hainan is the better place of the two).
 
That wasn't what I meant - I was meaning something like a financial hub, since around here in OTL Hong Kong is known to be a financial centre.

Oh, you were replying to my post regarding those subjects so I thought that's what you meant.
 
1894-1895

The Sino-Japanese war occurs and results in Chinese defeat.

1899-1901

Boxer Rebellion occurs and ends after being put down by a international force.

1911-1912
Chinese Revolution occurs with the Republic of China being established.

1916
Warlord era begins






OOC:Basically it occurs just like OTL.

OOC:I'm going to try and fast-forward as much as possible and get detailed when the Republic of Hainan is formed.
 
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Hainan daily(2002)

hainan_island_map.gif
Location of the incident is marked in the red X.

Haikou- It has been 100 years since the Wenchang incident, the little known incident is, like its name suggests, a incident that occurred near Wenchang. The unfortunate incident claimed the lives of dozens of Chinese peasants and a few Chinese Christians. Today, a small monument is being built in Wenchang to remember the victims.

The incident occurred on June 1902, a dispute between Chinese Christians and hundreds of chinese peasants over a building resulted in a riot. The building was a chinese temple for chinese peasants that several Christian missionaries wanted to convert to a Church. Years later, a full-scale investigation will tell us that the Christian missionaries were had a weak claim to the territory, but the local court had unfairly sided with the Christians and ordered the temple be turned to a Church.

Fighting broke out between the Chinese peasants and the Christians the next day when one of the temple statues were destroyed by a Christian. Though the fighting was in a small village, soldiers were called in because of the fear of a repeat of the Boxer Rebellion. The soldiers shot and killed many innocent peasants.

Today, we remember the incident.

(OOC: I modeled some of the events after the Boxer Rebellion, it's just a outburst of mainly anti-foreign feelings)

hainan_island_map.gif
 
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