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History
The city's name, Shenyang, literally means "the Yang side of the Shen River", referring to the fact that the Hun River, formerly called the Shen River, is at the south side of the city. According to Chinese tradition, a river's north bank and a mountain's south slope are considered to be the "sunny" – or "Yang" – side.

Ancient era
Archaeological findings show that humans resided in present-day Shenyang as early as 8,000 years ago. The remains of the Xinle culture, a late neolithic period society over 6,800–7,200 years old, are located in a museum in the north part of Huanggu District. It is complemented by a recreated village on site. A wood-sculptured bird unearthed there is the earliest cultural relic in Shenyang, as well as one of oldest wood sculptures found anywhere in the world.

The city, now known as Shenyang, was first established in about 300 BCE during the Warring States period by Yan general Qin Kai, who conquered the Liaodong region, and was then named Hou City. However, around 350 years later during the reign of Emperor Guangwu of Han, the city was sacked and burnt by the Donghu nomads and subsequently abandoned. It came back to prominence during early Liao dynasty and was known as the Shen Prefecture through to the end of Jin dynasty, and became the Shenyang Circuit  during the Yuan dynasty. During the Ming dynasty, it was designated as a "guard town" (militarized settlements, such as walled/heavily garrisoned cities or towns) named Shenyang Central Guard and gradually became one of the most important strongholds beyond the Shanhai Pass.

Manchu capital
In 1625, the Manchu leader Nurhaci captured Shenyang and decided to relocate his entire administrative infrastructures to the city, or Simiyan hoton as it is called in Manchu language. The official name was changed to Shengjing, or  Mukden , in 1634. The new name derives from the Manchu word, mukdembi, meaning "to rise" as reflected also by its Han Chinese name. Under Nurhaci's orders, the Imperial Palace was constructed in 1626, symbolizing the city's emerging status as the Jurchen political center. The palace featured more than 300 ostentatiously decorated rooms and 20 gardens as a symbol of power and grandeur.

After the fall of the Ming dynasty in 1644 and the routing of the Shun army in the Battle of Shanhai Pass merely a day later, the Manchus successfully entered the Shanhai Pass to establish the Qing dynasty in China proper, with the capital relocated to Beijing. However, Shenyang retained considerable importance as the secondary capital and the spiritual home of the Qing dynasty through the centuries. Treasures of the royal house were kept at its palaces, and the tombs of the early Qing rulers were once among the most famous monuments in China. In 1657, Fengtian Prefecture ( or ) was established in the Shenyang area, and Fengtian was sometimes used synonymously with Shenyang/Mukden.

Russian and Japanese influence
After the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan coerced the annexation of the Liaodong Peninsula with the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, though was forced to give it up due to diplomatic pressure from the Triple Intervention. In the aftermath of the Japanese threat, Qing viceroy Li Hongzhang visited Moscow in 1896 and signed a secret treaty with Russian foreign minister Aleksey Lobanov-Rostovsky, allowing Imperial Russia to build a Russian gauge railway in Manchuria, which opened the door towards further Russian expansionism in the form of another lease convention in 1898, effectively allowing Russia to annex Northeast China in all but name. However, after the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, Russian forces used the anti-foreigner insurgency as a pretext to formally invade and occupied most of Manchuria, and Mukden became a Russian stronghold in the Far East with the building of the South Manchurian Railway.

During the Russo-Japanese War (1904—1905), Mukden was the site of the Battle of Mukden from February 19 to March 10, 1905. Involving more than 600,000 combat participants, it was the largest battle since the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, and also the largest modern-era battle ever fought in Asia before World War II. Following the Japanese victory, Mukden became one of the chief bases of Japanese presence and economic expansion into southern Manchuria. It also became the government seat of Fengtian province in 1910.

Warlord Era and Japanese occupation
In 1914, the city changed back to its old name Shenyang, but continued to be known as Mukden (sometimes spelled Moukden) in some English sources and in Japan through much of the first half of 20th century. The postmark of the Chinese postal administration kept the spelling "MOUKDEN/奉天" for usage on international mails until the late 1920s. After that, a Chinese–Manchurian bilingual type "SHENYANG (MUKDEN)/瀋陽 (奉天)" datestamp was used until 1933.

In the early 20th century, Shenyang began expanding out of its old city walls. The Shenyang Railway Station on the South Manchurian Railway and the Shenyang North Railway Station on the Jingfeng Railway, both west of the old city, became the new commercial centers of Shenyang. In the 1920s, Mukden was the capital of the warlord Zhang Zuolin, who was later assassinated when his train was blown up on June 4, 1928 at a Japanese-guarded railway bridge. At the time, several factories were built by Zhang to manufacture ammunition in the northern and eastern suburbs. These factories laid the foundation for Shenyang's industrial development.

At around 10:20 pm on September 18, 1931, a small quantity of dynamite was detonated close to a railway line near Mukden owned by the Japanese South Manchuria Railway Company by Kwantung Army Lt. Kawamoto Suemori. The Imperial Japanese Army, accusing Chinese dissidents of the act, then use the false flag explosion as pretext to launch a full attack on Mukden, and captured the city the following morning (September 19). After the Mukden Incident, the Japanese further invaded and occupied the rest of Northeast China, and created the puppet state of Manchukuo with the deposed emperor Aisin Gioro Puyi as the figurehead. During the Manchukuo era (1932–1945), the city was again called Fengtian (and Mukden in English), and was developed by the Japanese into a center of heavy industry. Japan was able to exploit resources in Manchuria using the extensive network of railroads. For example, vast expanses of Manchurian forest were chopped down. The development of Shenyang was also unbalanced in this period; municipal facilities were mostly located in Japanese residential areas, while Chinese residential areas had poor living conditions.

Post-World War II
Under Marshal of the Soviet Union Aleksandr Vasilevsky, the Far East Command of Soviet forces entered Manchuria in early August 1945 following the surrender of Japan. On 16 August 1945, Manchurian Emperor Puyi was captured in Shenyang Airport by the Soviet Red Army while he was in an airplane fleeing to Japan. On 20 August, Soviet troops captured Shenyang. British and US reports indicate that the Soviet troops that occupied Northeast China and Eastern Inner Mongolia region looted and terrorized the people of Shenyang, and were not discouraged by Soviet authorities from "three days of rape and pillage". The Soviets were replaced by the Nationalist Chinese, who were flown in on U.S. transport planes. During the Chinese Civil War, Shenyang remained a Kuomintang stronghold from 1946 to 1948, although the Chinese communists controlled the surrounding countryside. It was captured by the communists on October 30, 1948, following a series of offensives known as the Liaoshen Campaign.

Over the past 200 years or so, Shenyang has somehow managed to grow and increase its industrial might, despite consecutive wars with Russia and Japan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Second World War, and China's Civil War (Shenyang became the main battleground between the Communists and Nationalists). The city never came to an economic halt until the 1990s, when its massive factories went bankrupt and left millions jobless, which was well documented in the film Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks.