从商业扩张到领土扩张:英国的划界主张与中缅中段边界的划分

The Commercial and Territorial Expansion:British Empire's Delimitation Claims and Its Practice in Delimiting Central Section of China-Myanmar Border

19世纪后期,英国划分中缅边界的政策,由重在谋求商业利益转向为英属印度建立安全屏障,导致英国的划界主张前后存在很大差异。1886年英国吞并缅甸之前,英国试图将云南土司地区划入缅甸,以便利用与缅甸签订的商约,实现英国商业势力向中国西南地区的扩张。英国吞并缅甸之初,仍从商业扩张的角度考虑划界问题,同意中国在伊洛瓦底江建立港口,并以伊洛瓦底江与中国划界,换取英国商业势力进入中国西南地区的便利。1890年以后,英国对上缅甸的统治已经稳固,对边界划分的思考从商业扩张转向领土扩张,构建符合英国利益的自然边界。在侵占中国领土的基础上,形成以山脉和河流划界的“霍布德线”,并抢先占据边界上的战略要地,造成既成事实;最后利用外交讹诈,逼迫清政府对“霍布德线”进行局部修改,划定新的自然边界,获得这条自然边界上的战略要地,控制中缅交通线,达到为英属印度建立安全屏障的目的。

The present paper, revealing how the British empire became territorially aggressive rather than commercially avaricious in the 1890s, when it consolidated its rule over the upper Myanmar and attempted to seize China's territory, points out that the London regime, first, invented the Hobday Line and then forced the Qing government to revise partially the Line by means of the blackmail diplomacy so as to achieve the goal of controlling the Sino-Myanmar traffic line and securing the British India.