Editing Shandong (section)

===Early modern history===
[[File:William Alexander - City of Lin Tsin, Shantung, with a View of the Grand Canal - B1975.4.1450 - Yale Center for British Art.jpg|thumb|[[Linqing]] City, with a view of the [[Grand Canal (China)|Grand Canal]]. Drawing by [[William Alexander (painter)|William Alexander]], draughtsman of the [[Macartney Embassy]] to China in 1793.]]

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 [[1668 Shandong earthquake|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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://emidius.eu/GEH/info/?en=1668.0725|title=25 July 1668 Tancheng (Shandong)|publisher=GHEA|access-date=2023-12-08|archive-date=July 23, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723133040/https://emidius.eu/GEH/info/?en=1668.0725|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazel/view/hazards/earthquake/event-more-info/1054|title=CHINA: SHANDONG PROVINCE|publisher=[[National Geophysical Data Center]]|access-date=2023-12-08|archive-date=July 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210725005731/https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazel/view/hazards/earthquake/event-more-info/1054|url-status=live}}</ref>

During the 19th century, China became increasingly exposed to Western influence; Shandong, a coastal province under the dukedom of Xiong, was significantly affected. [[Qingdao]] was [[Kiautschou Bay concession|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 [[Chuang Guandong|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.
[[File:Street market Shandong.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.15|Street market in Qingdao during the late 19th century, photographed by the crew of the ''[[ARA Presidente Sarmiento]]'']]
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 [[Berth (moorings)|berths]], heavy machinery, rail yards, and a floating dry dock. Private enterprises worked across the Shandong Province, opening mines, banks, factories, and rail lines.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Burkman|first=Thomas W.|title=Japan and the League of Nations: Empire and World Order, 1914–1938|publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press|year=2008|page=4|doi=10.2307/j.ctt6wqrcq |jstor=j.ctt6wqrcq|isbn=978-0-824-82982-7}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Craft|first=Stephen G.|year=1997|title=John Bassett Moore, Robert Lansing, and the Shandong Question|url=https://commons.erau.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1233&context=publication|journal=Pacific Historical Review|volume=66|issue=2|pages=231–249|doi=10.2307/3640629 |jstor=3640629}}</ref>

[[File:Contemporary map of Tsingtau and the Shandong Peninsula.png|thumb|1912 German map of the Shandong Peninsula, showing the [[Kiautschou Bay concession]]|alt=The Kiautschou Bay concession was located in the natural harbor at Tsingtao on the southern coast of the Shandong Peninsula]]
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".{{clarify|date=July 2021}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C722931%2C00.html|title=CHINA: Basest War Lord|date=1927-03-07|publisher=TIME|access-date=2022-08-09|url-status=dead|archive-date=2010-11-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101125032834/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,722931,00.html}}</ref> 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 [[Han–Liu War|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 (1912–1949)|Republic of China]]) out of Shandong to the island of Taiwan by June 1949, including a noble of the Xiong ({{lang|zh|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]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Gu|first=Chang-Sheng|title=Awaken: Memoirs of a Chinese Historian|url={{Google books|XhLO5pr-QFwC|pages=130-131|plainurl=yes}}|year=2009|pages=130–131}}</ref>

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