98 HISTORY OF GREECE, ROME, AND ASIA 



Amoor until its junction with the Usuri the boundary between the 

 Russian and Chinese Empires, the territory between the Usuri and 

 the sea remaining in the joint possession of the two Powers, but 

 after the Pe-king Convention (2-14 November, 1860) this land was 

 abandoned to Russia and the Usuri became the boundary. In the 

 mean time, the treaty signed at T'ien-tsin by Admiral Euthymus 

 Putiatin (1-13 June, 1858) secured for Russia all the advantages 

 gained by France and England after the occupation of Canton and 

 the capture of the Taku forts. 



The second Russian move had Central Asia as its aim; it was the 

 result of the foundation of the town of Orenburg, the exploration of 

 the Syr-Daria by Batiakov, the building of Kazalinsk (1848) near 

 the mouth of this river; the unsuccessful effort of General Perovsky 

 (1839) turned the enterprise of the Russians to the Khanate of Kho- 

 kand; the storming of Tashkend by Colonel Chernaiev on the 27th of 

 June, 1865, was the crowning point of the conquest of Turkestan by 

 the Russians. The road to the T'ien-Shan had already been opened 

 to the Russians by the treaty signed at Kulja (July 25 August 8, 

 1851) by Colonel Kovalevsky, which, however, was known only ten 

 years later (28 February 11 March, 1861). 



While Yakub Bey had founded, as already seen, a Mohammedan 

 Empire in the T'ien-Shan Nan Lu, the Russians took possession 

 of the Hi Territory on the 4th of July, 1871. The retrocession of 

 this territory to China after the death of the Attalik Ghazi was the 

 cause of long and difficult negotiations between Russia and China, 

 which ended w r ith the treaties of Livadia (October, 1879) and of 

 St. Petersburg (February 12-24, 1881). Russia restored the lands 

 which she detained illegitimately, keeping, however, a small portion , 

 not the least valuable of the lot. 



The third Russian move was aimed at the countries beyond the 

 Caspian Sea, and was the result of the conquest of the Crimea by 

 Potemkin in the name of the great Catherine, and of the treaty of 

 Kutschuk Quainardji (1774), which gave to the Russians the free 

 navigation of the Black Sea. Under the reign of Nicholas I, 

 Putiatin established a permanent maritime station on the Island of 

 Akurade in the Gulf of Astrabad, and a line of ships on the Caspian 

 Sea, securing from the Persian Government facilities for Russian 

 fishermen and traders on the southern coast of that sea. 



At last, in 1869, Russia took a definite position on the eastern coast 

 of the Caspian Sea in settling at Krasnovodsk. Later on the break-up 

 of the Turkish barrier of Geok-tepe by Skobelev, the occupation of 

 the Oasis of Merv by Alikhanov, the capture of Samarkand, made 

 of the Transcaspian country a Russian possession, rendered Russian 

 influence paramount in the north of Persia, and threatened Herat and 

 the route of India. The railway which the ingenuity and tenacity of 



