Germany exercised its Imperial powers after the founding of the 1871 German Empire. Germany established colonies both in Africa and the south Pacific during the 1880s. The existence of the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong (from 1841-1997) on the southern coast of China caused Germany to look for a good Chinese harbor for its own commercial and military interests. Germany looked northward on the China coast.
       China had been defeated by Japan in 1895 (Sino-Japanese War). The European powers viewed China as terminally weak. The European powers moved on China, their policy was called, “carving up the Chinese melon.” The British received the New Territories around Hong Kong and the Russians received Port Arthur.
       The Germans had identified a suitable territory for their needs, the Bay of Chiao-chou (Kiautschou) in Shantung (now  Shandong). On 1 November 1897 in a small fishing village then called Chingtao (now Qingdao) (Tsingtao in German), two German missionaries were murdered there. This gave Germany a pretext of seizing the area.
       These murders were fortuitous for the Germans (but certainly not for the missionaries) since Germany was handed an excuse to seize the Kiaochou peninsula. In response to the murders, and since there was a strong Imperial German naval presence in the bay, Admiral von Diedrichs was able use his naval contingents to occupy most of the Kiaochou Bay area. The German ships present were the Cruiser SMS Cormoran, Cruiser SMS Kaiser and Cruiser SMS Prinzess Wilhelm.
       In 1898, the Germans forced a capital of the concession from China and received a ninety-nine year leasehold in Shantung and additional extensive concessions in Shantung Province.
       The colony was under the authority of the German Imperial Navy, not under the jurisdiction of the Reichs-Kolonial-Amt. The German authotity wanted to develop the protectorate into a “model colony” and to further commercial growth. Although there were considerable efforts to develop commerce, communications, finance, industry, and an educational system for Chinese and Europeans, the colony never realized total success.
       The German administration implemented modern land-use laws and so was able to prevent land speculation on the Bay of Kiautschow. This permitted the organized planning and construction of Tsingtao, the German colonial city. Tsingtao, both a trading and a naval post, was divided into various zones: business, educational, health care, and residential. Even today the beautiful Germany city remains on the China coast.
       The Ch’ing (a.k.a., Qing, Ching, or Manchu Dynasty) Empress Dowager, Tzu’u Hzi, was bent on the expulsion of “foreign devils” from her lands and used the I Ho Ch‘uan (the Boxers), or ”The Righteous and Harmonious Fists,” a religious society, for her purposes. The so called Boxer Rebellion was concentrated primarily in Beijing (formerly  Peking), far from Tsingtao. The Boxers were defeated by the foreign powers and on September 7, 1901, the Peking Protocol was signed. In the terms of agreement which was forced on China’s ruling government, the foreign nations received very favorable commercial treaties, foreign troops would be permanently stationed in Peking, and China would be forced to pay an equivalent of $333 million dollars as penalty for the rebellion. Still, Chinese nationalism continued to grow.
       China’s regional Governors Generals ignored the Empress Dowager’s instructions against the foreigners and attempted to prevent disorder or any harm coming to their “guests.”
       In 1911, an uprising began in the western province of Szechwan. That uprising expanded into a full blown national revolution which ended imperial rule in China. In 1913, Dr. Sun Yat-sen and his party, the Kuomintang, won the national election. To preserve national unity, Sun relinquished the presidency on April 1, 1912, to the military strongman, Yuan Shih-k’ai, who declared himself emperor in 1915. China was still in turmoil.
       It was against this backdrop of internal disorder that the German authorities needed to function. The ultimate failure of Kiautschow was not however caused by the internal problems of China. It was caused by Germany’s participation in World War I. Tsingtao came under Japanese and British siege in August, 1914. After a siege lasting over ten weeks, Tsingtao fell on 7 November 1914. In a practical sense, German colonial rule in China ended with the transport of German soldiers to Japan as prisoners of war. Officially, it was the Treaty of Versailles that ended the protectorate on paper; (Art. 128 “Germany renounces in favor of China all benefits and privileges resulting from the provisions of the final Protocol signed at Peking in 1901”). Tsingtao lived under Japan’s colonial rule until 1922.

Maps
          Location of Tsingtao, 73k
          Roadmap of Tsingtao, 1912, 200k

Outside Links
          Tsingtao [the German Colonial City]
          Tsingtao - A Chapter of German Colonial History in China
                   Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin