Shandong
Early modern history

The modern province of Shandong was created by the Ming dynasty, where it had a more expansive territory, including the agricultural part of Liaoning. After the Ming–Qing Transition in 1644, Shandong acquired (more or less) its current borders.

On 25 July 1668, an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 8.5 and an epicenter just northeast of Linyi devastated Shandong, and killed between 43,000 and 50,000 people.

During the nineteenth century, China became increasingly exposed to Western influence, and Shandong, a coastal province under the dukedom of Xiong, was significantly affected. Qingdao was leased to Germany in 1897 and Weihai to Britain in 1898. As a result of foreign pressure from the Russian Empire, which had annexed Outer Manchuria by 1860, the Qing encouraged settlement of Shandong people to what remained of Manchuria.

Shandong was one of the first places where the Boxer Rebellion broke out, and became one of the centers of the uprising. In 1899, Qing general Yuan Shikai was appointed governor of the province to suppress the uprising. He held the post for three years.

Germany took control of the peninsula in 1898, leasing Jiaozhou Bay and its port of Qingdao under threat of force. Development was a high priority for the Germans: over 200 million marks were invested in world-class harbor facilities including berths, heavy machinery, rail yards, and a floating dry dock. Private enterprises worked across the Shandong Province, opening mines, banks, factories, and rail lines. As a consequence of the First World War, Japan seized German holdings in Qingdao and Shandong. The 1919 Treaty of Versailles transferred ownership to Japan instead of restoring Chinese sovereignty over the area. Popular dissatisfaction with this outcome, referred to as the Shandong Problem, led to the vehement student protests in the May Fourth Movement. Among the reservations to the Treaty that the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations approved was "to give Shantung to China", the treaty with reservations was not approved. Finally, Shandong reverted to Chinese control in 1922 after the United States' mediation during the Washington Naval Conference. Weihai followed in 1930.

Shandong's return of control fell into the Warlord Era of the Republic of China. Shandong was handed over to the Zhili clique of warlords, but after the Second Zhili–Fengtian War of 1924, the northeast China-based Fengtian clique took over. In April 1925, the Fengtian clique installed the warlord Zhang Zongchang, nicknamed the "Dogmeat General", as military governor of Shandong Province. Time dubbed him China's "basest warlord". He ruled over the province until 1928 when he was ousted in the wake of the Northern Expedition. He was succeeded by Han Fuju, who was loyal to the warlord Feng Yuxiang but later switched his allegiance to the Nanjing government headed by Chiang Kai-shek. Han Fuju also ousted the warlord Liu Zhennian, nicknamed the "King of Shandong East", who ruled eastern Shandong Province, hence unifying the province under his rule.

In 1937 Japan began its invasion of China proper in the Second Sino-Japanese War, which would eventually become part of the Pacific theater of the Second World War. Han Fuju was made Deputy Commander in Chief of the 5th War Area and put in charge of defending the lower Yellow River valley. However, he abandoned his base in Jinan when Japanese troops crossed the Yellow River. He was executed for not following orders shortly thereafter.

During the Japanese occupation, with resistance continuing in the countryside, Shandong was one of the provinces where the scorched-earth Three Alls policy ("kill all", "burn all", and "loot all") was implemented by Japanese general Yasuji Okamura. This lasted until Japan's surrender in 1945, killing millions of people in Shandong and Northern China. By 1945, communist Chinese Red Army forces already held some parts of Shandong. Over the next four years of the Chinese Civil War, they expanded their holdings, eventually driving the Kuomintang (government of the Republic of China) out of Shandong to the island of Taiwan by June 1949, including a noble of the Xiong (熊) family who held the governorship, previously a dukedom during the imperial era, and an ancient viscountcy originating in Chu. The People's Republic of China was proclaimed in October of that year.

Under the new government, parts of western Shandong were initially given to the short-lived Pingyuan Province, but this did not last. Shandong also acquired the Xuzhou and Lianyungang areas from Jiangsu province, but this did not last either. For the most part, Shandong has kept the same borders that it has today.

About six million people starved to death in Shandong during the Great Chinese Famine.

In recent years, Shandong, especially eastern Shandong, has enjoyed significant economic development, becoming one of the People's Republic of China's richest provinces.
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