Amur River History

Tungus-Manchurian tribes named the Amur as “Amar” or “Damar” (Big River). The Chinese firstly named it “Kheikhe” (Black River) and later “Heilongjiang” (River of a Black Dragon). And the Mongols named the river as “Amur-Khara-Muren” (Black water). The Amur River was closely associated with Sakhalin, and most names for the island, even in the languages of the indigenous peoples of the region, are derived from the name of the river: "Sakhalin" derives from a Tungusic dialectal form cognate with Manchurian sahaliyan -"black", and sahaliyan ula means "Black River".

For many centuries the Amur Valley was populated by the Tungusic peoples (Evenki, Solons, Duchers, Nanais, Ulchi), Mongolian people (Daurs), and, near its mouth, by the Nivkhs. All local peoples regarded this river to be sacred as far as fishing in the Amur and its tributaries was the main source of their livelihood. Until the 17^th century, these peoples were not known to the Europeans, and little known to the Chinese, who sometimes collectively described them as the Wild Jurchens.

In the 13-14^th centuries the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty ruling in China, established a tenuous military presence on the lower Amur. Ruins of their Yuan-era temple were excavated near the village of Tyr.

In the early 15^th century Manchurian Ming Dynasty established control over the lands in the northeast of the Amur area.

The 17^th century was the period of struggle for control over the Amur River between Russia, which has expanded to Eastern Siberia and Manchuria, whose main forces were concentrated in the south-east of Manchuria. In 1643-1651 Russian Cossacks’ expeditions led by Vasily Poyarkov and Yerofey Khabarov explored the Amur and its tributaries.

Yerofey Khabarov established the town of Albazin on the upper Amur, at the site of the former capital of the Solons.

This event deprived the Manchurian rulers from the tribute of sable fur that the Solons and Daurs of that area supplied them. So they tried to return that territory back and in 1685 during a short military campaign Albazin fell. In 1689 in accordance with the Nerchinsk Treaty the left entire Amur valley, from the confluence of the Rivers Shilka and Argun downstream, became the Manchurian property.

The Amur region remained a backwater of Manchuria for the next century and a half, with Aigun being practically the only major town on the river. Russians re-appeared on the river in the mid 19^th century, forcing Manchuria to yield all lands north of the river to the Russian Empire by the Treaty of Aigun (1858). Lands east of the Ussury and the lower Amur were acquired by Russia as well, by the Treaty of Beijing (1860).