What Is a Sphere of Influence? - 0 views
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In international relations (and history), a sphere of influence is a region within one country over which another country claims certain exclusive rights.
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The degree of control exerted by the foreign power depends on the amount of military force involved in the two countries' interactions, generally.
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Famous examples of spheres of influence in Asian history include the spheres established by the British and Russians in Persia (Iran) in the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907
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spheres within Qing China that were taken by eight different foreign nations late in the nineteenth century.
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Great Britain, France, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany, Italy, Russia, the United States, and Japan each had exclusive special trading rights, including low tariffs and free trade, within Chinese territory.
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They laid siege to the foreign legations in Peking, but a joint Eight Power naval invasion force rescued the legation staff after almost two months of fighting.
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Many ordinary Chinese did not approve of these arrangements, and in 1900 the Boxer Rebellion broke out. The Boxers aimed to rid Chinese soil of all foreign devils. At first, their targets included the ethnic-Manchu Qing rulers, but the Boxers and the Qing soon joined forces against the agents of the foreign powers.
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In addition, each of the foreign powers had the right to establish a legation in Peking (now Beijing), and the citizens of these powers had extraterritorial rights while on Chinese soil.
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To keep the peace between themselves, the British and Russians agreed that Britain would have a sphere of influence including most of eastern Persia, while Russia would have a sphere of influence over northern Persia.
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Today, the phrase "sphere of influence" has lost some of its punch. Real estate agents and retail malls use the term to designate the neighborhoods from which they draw most of their customers or in which they do most of their business.