Independence
On learning of the Mongolian mission to Russia, the Qing government instructed Sando to investigate. Sando immediately summoned the head of the Khutukhtu’s ecclesiastical administration (Ikh shav’), the Erdene Shanzav, and demanded an explanation. The Erdene Shanzav, pleading that he had not been involved, revealed the entire plot. Sando then demanded that the Khutuktu withdraw his request for Russian troops. The Khutuktu agreed, provided that Sando dismantle the New Administration. Sando cabled to Beijing for instructions, and was told that parts of the New Administration could be delayed.
The moment was ripe for conciliation. Sando chose to bully instead. He ordered the princes in Urga to sign a statement that only a few individuals had been responsible for the appeal to Russia. The princes did give such a declaration, but only orally. Sando then ordered the Mongolians to have no further contact with the Russian consulate, threatening in case of disobedience to bring an additional 500 troops to Urga and to arm the Chinese population in the city. He posted sentries around the Khutuktu’s palace with orders to bar Russian visitors. And he sent a contingent of troops to the Russian-Mongolian border to intercept the Mongolian delegation to Russia on its return.
Events of seismic proportions were then taking place in China proper. On October 10 there was an uprising in Wuchang and a revolution against the minority ruling class had begun. One province after another declared its independence from the Qing authority. Believing that his position was untenable, Sando wired the Beijing government asking for permission to resign, but his request was denied. In the meantime, the Mongolian delegation to Russia secretly returned, and reported the results of its trip to a group of princes and lamas. They composed a joint memorial to the Khutukhtu asking what Mongolia should do in lieu of the provincial uprisings. He advised that Mongolians form a state of their own.
Buoyed by the Khutuktu’s support and by the impending collapse of the Qing Dynasty, the Provisional Government of Khalkha was formed, headed by some prominent Khalkha nobles. On November 28, the government ordered all four provinces (aimag) of Khalkha to mobilize a thousand soldiers each. Almost immediately 500 men from the neighboring khoshuuns had gathered in Urga. Two days later, Sando received a letter, signed in the name of the nobles and lamas of Khalkha, stating that they had heard of a secessionist movement in China, and that Chinese troops of the “revolutionary party” were preparing to march on Urga from Inner Mongolia. The letter went on to state that, in view of the benefit obtained by the Khalkhas from the Qing in the past, the Khutuktu had ordered the mobilization of 4000 troops to advance on Beijing to defend the Emperor. Sando was asked to provide these men with provisions and arms. He was given three hours to reply. No reply came. Abandoning this thin deception, a delegation of nobles and lamas visited the amban’s office, and informed him of their decision to declare independence and to install the Khutuktu as emperor. Sando pleaded with the delegation. He admitted that what had come to pass was the result of his own folly, and he promised to recommend full autonomy for Mongolia, but not independence. The delegation curtly replied that it had come simply to deliver a message, not to debate it. Sando was ordered to leave the country within 24 hours.
There was little Sando could do. He had only 150 troops, who in any event were in a refractory mood because of arrears in back pay. On the following day, his soldiers were disarmed by Mongolian militiamen, as well as Russian Cossacks of the consular convoy under command of Grigory Semyonov, future Ataman. Sando and his staff moved into the compound of the Russian consulate for their own safety. On December 5, Sando left Mongolia with Russian escort. Chinese authority in the rest of the country collapsed quickly after that. Later that month or in January 1912 (sources differ) the Military Governor of Uliastai in western Mongolia, his staff and military guards, peacefully departed under the protection of Cossack troops. The Deputy Military Governor of Khovd, however, decided to resist, hoping for reinforcements from Xinjiang. The troops came too late: the town was surrounded by Mongolian troops, reinforcement detachment was crushed. In August 1912, his stronghold was overcome by Mongolian troops, and he and his staff were escorted out of the country by Cossacks.
On December 1, the Provisional Government of Khalkha issued a general proclamation announcing the end of Qing rule and the establishment of a theocracy under the Jebtsundamba Khutuktu. At the end of the month, on December 29, the Khutuktu was formally installed as the Bodg Khaan ("Great Khan", or "Emperor") of the new Mongolian state. This ushered in Bogd Khaan era, 1911-1919.
The Mongolian revolution was for the most part an orderly transference of power. Its relatively peaceful character was due to the realism of Qing authorities in Mongolia, and in no small part to the presence of Russian troops, who provided protection for these authorities and Chinese troops.
Read more about this topic: Outer Mongolian Revolution Of 1911
Famous quotes containing the word independence:
“The subject of the novel is reality liberated from soul. The reader in complete independence presented with a structured process: let him evaluate it, not the author. The façade of the novel cannot be other than stone or steel, flashing electrically or dark, but silent.”
—Alfred Döblin (1878–1957)
“The independence of all political and other bother is a happiness.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“We commonly say that the rich man can speak the truth, can afford honesty, can afford independence of opinion and action;—and that is the theory of nobility. But it is the rich man in a true sense, that is to say, not the man of large income and large expenditure, but solely the man whose outlay is less than his income and is steadily kept so.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)