1913 War Office Map of China and is Railroads, Telegraphs, and Treaty Ports

An impressive 1913 British War Office map of China and its railroads, telegraphs, and treaty ports. It was published soon after China's transition from an imperial dynasty to a republic, when the future direction of the country was highly uncertain and hotly contested.

A Closer Look

A system of red lines traces the Chinese railroad network. Solid red lines mark rail lines open to traffic, dashed red and white lines highlight lines currently under construction, and dashed red lines illustrate projected lines. Solid black lines follow telegraph lines. Blue lines in the Yellow Sea, Eastern Sea, and Southern Sea mark undersea cables connecting Chinese ports to other coastal Chinese cities and foreign nations.

China's river system is also illustrated and labeled, and many cities along these rivers had been opened to foreign trade, a detail indicated by whether or not the city is underlined. An inset in the lower right details Peking, including the divisions of the Chinese City, Tartar City, and Imperial City, as well as the city's rail connections, including lines running east and west from Chien men (Qianmen). A second inset in the upper left corner illustrates railway connections in Manchuria that connect with Vladivostok and the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Early Railroads in China

The first railway to be built in China was a 600-meter narrow-gauge demonstration line that a British merchant assembled in Beijing in 1864 in hopes of securing a national contract from the Qing. The Emperor was unimpressed and ordered the railroad disassembled. The next effort, again by the British, was built in 1876, without Qing approval, between Shanghai and Wusong (Baoshan, Shanghai). Following the First Sino-Japanese War (1894 - 1895), the Qing began to recognize the advantage of railroads, and modern technology in general, and began granting construction contracts to companies financed and operated by foreigners.

In 1905, the first indigenously financed railway company was established to build a line through Sichuan to Hankou (Wuhan), seen here as the dashed line between Cheng-tu (Chengdu) and Kuang-shui (Guangshui), hardly the easiest terrain to traverse. The company attracted prodigious capital and became a patriotic symbol, as well as symbol of Sichuanese regional pride, and inspired other locally funded projects. However, the board of the railway descended into squabbles and construction was delayed by corruption and mismanagement. In 1911, the Qing government grew impatient with the slow progress of locally funded railways and attempted to nationalize all of them. In response, local elites organized the 'Railway Protection Movement,' which galvanized opposition to the Qing and was a catalyst for the Xinhai Revolution.

The Early Phase of the Chinese Republic

Beginning with a mutiny in Hankou on October 10, 1911, uprisings against the Qing Dynasty occurred in cities throughout China in the following months, collectively known as the Xinhai Revolution. By early 1912, the dynasty was doomed, and a provisional government was established in Nanjing in March, led by Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang (Guomindang), or Nationalist Party, which had been the driving force for revolution for years. However, former Qing generals still commanded armies throughout the country, with the most powerful being Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army, which had compelled the Qing to surrender Beijing and established Yuan as Provisional President of a new republic. An uneasy alliance between the Nationalists and Yuan became an open rivalry following the National Assembly Elections in December 1912. The Nationalist candidate for Premier, Song Jiaoren, was assassinated before the new assembly could convene, likely on Yuan's orders, and the Kuomintang launched a 'Second Revolution' against Yuan's government in Beijing. This failed but highlighted the fractured state of the county. While Yuan retained a limited degree of authority over most regional warlords, his failed bid to create a new dynasty in 1915, followed shortly afterwards by his death, left the county effectively broken up until it was partially reunified in 1927 by troops affiliated with the Kuomintang.

Publication History and Census

This map was created by the British Ordnance Survey Office in Southampton for the British War Office and published in November 1913. The OCLC catalogs over a dozen in institutional collections worldwide, including the collections at the Library of Congress, Yale University, Princeton University, the National Library of Scotland, the University of Cambridge, The British Library, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. It is nonetheless extremely scarce on the market.