Mongolia’s Road to Independence: The Power Bargains Between China and Russia

Abstract

Since 1691, when the Qing Empire of China merged with Mongolia, the Chinese government always considered Mongolia an integral part of China. However, after the Qing Dynasty collapsed, Mongolia started to seek its independence, and finally be recognized as an independent regime from China in 1946. This article examines the question of how Mongolia achieved independence through the perspective of power bargains between great powers, China and Russia, in a historical context. Initially, this article analyzes how the Russian Empire expanded its sphere of influence in Mongolia after the mid-19th century and provoked the conflicts between Mongolians and the Qing Empire. In the meanwhile, the Qing empire’s reformation in the late 19th century put sizable economic pressures on Mongolians, which exacerbated the relationship between the two sides further. Between 1911 to 1945, immediately after the Qing Empire collapsed, Mongolia claimed its sovereignty with the support of Russia, but the new Chinese government had never recognized Mongolia as an independent country during this period. It was not until the Yalta Conference, however, since the United States eagerly needed the Soviet Union to dispatch its troops against Japan, that Roosevelt pressured the Chinese Government to accept Stalin’s requirement of recognition of Mongolia’s sovereignty.