Maritime and land expansion (April-June, 1871).
Russian Arctic Expedition]
It was in May that huge news of the Russian Arctic expedition broke out among the public and the government. Of both groups, both routes had obtained certain results, some more promising than others.
The eastern group found an archipelago in northern Siberia, some of the islands were already described before by Russian traders but the more central and eastern sections were never fully studied and annexed by the Russian state.
The islands are obviously uninhabited, some have exceptionally flat terrain. The largest of the islands received the name of New Siberia (Novaya Sibir), which coincides with the name of the archipelago: Novosibirsk.
Naturally with no other nearby country or native inhabitants able to claim the islands, Russia put up a flag and declared the territory as its own. The sponsored investigations began from St. Petersburg.
The northern group for their part first found Medvezhiy Island (Bear Island, as they called it after a bear swimming nearby), it was previously discovered by Barents but he called it Vogel Eylandt (Bird Island).
Archaeological investigations revealed that in the 18th century there was a Russian settlement in the area, although of course there was human activity in the area in the past, it was never continuously populated for too long.
With Medvezhiy with a detachment, part of the northern expedition continued on their planned journey, finding there the archipelago they called Kholadya.
According to research, there was walrus hunting activity between the late 17th century and the early 1800s (the 1820s at the most). For example, there was Russian activity in hunting local fauna (foxes and polar bears).
The Russian Empire formed a fishing base (fish only) in Medvezhiy and Kholadya very shortly after the announcement of its discovery (although whaling and local wildlife were banned while the ecosystem was studied). Minister Alexander Gorchakov, on the orders of Emperor Alexander III, declared the Russian annexation of the islands.
At that time, the international situation viewed the Russian expansion of the Arctic as little-worrisome or not very important, due to the serious technological limitations of the time, geographical distance, and other reasons.
In general France was occupied, the United Kingdom was indifferent, and Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy and the Ottoman Empire had no interest in the area.
The closest to important discussions regarding the islands of Medvezhiy and Kholadya (which are actually part of the same archipelago) were certain treaties with Sweden-Norway, delimiting fishing zones.
The Russian zone started quite close to Medvezhiy and moved north towards Kholadya.
(OOC: It's basically the fisheries protected zone of Svalbard.)
In the beginning, the islands only served, essentially, as scientific bases until later in 1872, when other economic activities began to be carried out in the region.
*******
[Navy Development Commission: The Black Sea]
Russia already had notable cities and ports on the Black Sea, now with Paris restrictions lifted, it initiated an investment in the economic and military capabilities of the area.
Ports, shipyards, railways, forts and guard posts, military academies, schools, hospitals, etc. But most important to the Black Sea Fleet (in its resurgence) was perhaps the Navy Development Commission, led by Lieutenant Stepan Osipovich Makarov.
Makarov in early April met with the Emperor Alexander III himself and part of the admiralty to discuss the commission's projects in the Black Sea (an area to which the commission's scope was extended).
"Now that your commission's budget has been expanded, we want to discuss further what should be prioritized in the Black Sea." Tsar Alexander III sentenced, to which Makarov readily agreed.
"I have some ideas regarding the use of ships as a platform and unsinkability, some ideas about torpedoes as well. Recently the Arctic expedition has given me some ideas but that can wait." Lieutenant Makarov responds, reviewing expenses, studies, sketches, etc.
Eventually the commission drew up the starting points for its first investigations in the Black Sea.
Stepan Makarov's commission reviewed the offensives of ships regarding the use of torpedoes, laying of sea mines and other strategic uses.
But in offensive capabilities, the most notable perhaps, is that Russia began to invest in the creation of Makarov shells, or armor-piercing projectiles.
The rebuilding of the Black Sea fleet meant that in the long run, there was going to be another Russo-Turkish war, although no one knew exactly how long.
Politically at the time the UK was "pro-Ottoman", if only to contain Russia in the Black Sea. The Ottoman Empire, for its part, said it could make a successful defense, or at least a defense stable enough until foreign reinforcements could help.
*******
[Central Asia: Ili]
The region of the Ili Sultanate (region also called Kuldzhin by the Russians), at that time between Russia and China, occupied a little more than 200,000 square kilometers (280,292.52 to be more exact). Occupying from the eastern regions of Lake Balkash, to the Ili Valley, tributaries of the Ili such as the Tekes River and tributary rivers of the Balkash (the Ili itself, Karatal, Aksu, Lepsi, etc).
In this region also lived just over 200,000 people, divided between Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Dungans (one form to call the Hui people), Kyrgyz, Oirats, Mongols, Manchues and even more peoples.
Led by the rebel Alakhan Sultan.
At that time, Xinjiang, owned by the Qing dynasty, was in rebellion, de-facto independent, led by Yaqub Beg, who founded the state of Yettishar. The Chinese in the early 1870s did not have the military capabilities to defeat Yaqub Beg.
A native of the Khanate of Kokand who was in fact a temporary prisoner of Russians, before escaping from Central Asia in 1864 (when he started the rebellion of Muslim peoples in the Qing dynasty).
The situation in Qing-Xinjiang left the rebellious Ili region quite free. Unfortunately during this time, in April 1871, the natives attacked some Kazakh settlements of Russian citizenship, forcing the Russian Empire to act decisively.
The relations between Russia and Ili, of neutrality until that moment, deteriorated drastically.
The Russian general Gerasim Alekseevich Kolpakovsky carried out an idea for a new Russian campaign in the region, a campaign that was accepted by the military governor of Turkestan, Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufmann, and the emperor Alexander III.
Kolpakovsky came up with the idea in April, and he used May to prepare a force of 1000 men to take the Ili region.
In mid-June, Kolpakovsky invaded the Ili Sultanate, quickly defeating the opponents on the border and marching on the capital of the so-called Ili Sultanate. There those who did not surrender were defeated by the Russian army, Kolpakovsky on the part of him captured Alakhan Sultan himself.
Effectively ending the independent state of Ili.
"Inhabitants of the Ili region! Our military forces will be used solely to destroy enemy troops and military assets. All peaceful people who come to our troops with humility and friendship can live in peace. No one will offend you or deprive you of your livestock or property. Russian troops will act only against enemies, but not against civilians: may the entire population of the country of Kuldzhin, regardless of tribe or creed, understand that our troops are their true friends and will not use all their irresistible forces against the civilian population, but against the ruler Taranchin, not who heeded the friendship proposals and decided madly to provoke with his insignificant forces a war with the powerful Russian state. "
-The communiqué of General Gerasim Alekseevich Kolpakovsky in the capital of Ili to the population.
*******
Politically speaking, the Russian Empire said it was simply temporarily occupying the region until the Qing dynasty re-established military-administrative control over the Xinjiang area, that is, until they defeat Yaqub Beg.
The Qing dynasty accepted this, as they would attempt a military expedition against the rebel leader in 1872.
For its part in the Russian Empire, two political factions were formed, one by the civil-diplomatic service that thought of the quasi-immediate return of the region to the Qing dynasty (once Yaqub Beg was liquidated) and another formed mainly by the military and the Russian Turkestan, who were thinking about the annexation of the entire territory (among its members were Kaufmann, Kolpakovsky, the young Aleksey Brusilov and other members of the Russian army of the time).
Popularly speaking, in the Ili region, people mostly did not want to return to the state of the Qing dynasty.
Tsar Alexander III delimited a border around the Ili Valley and the Tekes River. There an investment was made for the construction of infrastructure that will connect the region with the Russian Kazakh steppe (west of Lake Balkash) and southern developing Siberia.
The construction of roads, farms, hospitals, schools, barracks and fortifications, among some other important buildings, began.
The Russian army of the region led by Gerasim Alekseevich Kolpakovsky was put in charge by Governor Kaufmann and the Tsar for the establishment of law, order and defense of the territory.
An offer was made to the natives of the extinct Sultanate of Ili, by the same Russian government.
If the natives of Ili went to the region demarcated by the tsar, apart from the fact that there would be no physical punishment for participation in the Dungan revolt or attacks on the possessions and life of the individual, they (the natives) would get Russian citizenship.
Many Dungans, Uyghurs and the other peoples of the Ili region (mainly believers in the Islamic faith) began to move there, where they began to work on construction projects and Russian farms.
An irrigation system (basic in its beginnings) was built to better support agriculture and livestock. The delimited region began to produce mainly lavender and some products derived from it.
Due to communication and geography limitations, the Qing dynasty had not been aware of Russian construction and investment in the region, and how former Ili citizens were working there.
Mainly farmers and livestock keepers, but also some joined the Russian society in a greater way (local administrators and military).
*******
[International]
According to some historians, the "red scare" begins in the European world. A total of 147 strikers in Paris, angered by the harsh economic and working conditions imposed after the Franco-Prussian war, were killed by the French army, sent to stop the strike.
An even more divisive fact among the French community, the harsh actions of the army were defended by the right wing, while the workers and socialists had obtained new martyrs against capitalism.
While France did this, however, in the UK unions became legal. With its limitations for the time, but it was an important step for labor laws.
In the United Kingdom they also initiate two legal cases, the murder of Jane Clouson and the Tichborne case. Nothing too important outside of curiosities.
On June 1, Koreans from the Joseon dynasty attack two US ships, which motivates that on June 10, with the intention of "opening Korea to trade", Captain McLane Tilton led 109 members of the Marine Corps in a punitive expedition.
Similar to the French punitive expedition, they even attacked Ganghwa, but sadly the Americans were less prepared than the French.
In an attack led by McLane Tilton on a Korean citadel, he was killed by a Korean gunshot, other members of the chain of command were also killed, forcing the Americans to retreat promptly.