The Kwantung Leased Territory was a territory in the southern part of the Liaodong Peninsula in Inner Manchuria (northeast China) that existed from 1898 to 1945. It was one of the numerous territorial concessions that the Empire of China was compelled to award to foreign countries at the end of the 19th century. The territory included the militarily and economically significant ports of Lüshunkou (Port Arthur, or Ryojun) and Dalian (Dal'niy, or Dairen).
The name Kwantung, or Guāndōng (關東) in pinyin, means "east of Shanhai Pass", a reference to part of Qinhuangdao in today's Hebei province, at the eastern end of the Great Wall of China. The name originally referred to all of Manchuria but later came to be used more narrowly for the area of the leased territory.
Read more about Kwantung Leased Territory: History, Administration, Economy, Demographics, Governors-General of Kwantung Leased Territory
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“Size is not grandeur, and territory does not make a nation.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)