Outer Manchuria

Outer Manchuria, also called Great Northeast Area (Chinese: 外東北 Wài Dōngběi "Outer North-East") or Russian Manchuria, refers to a region in Northeast Asia that is now part of the Russian Far East, but historically formed part of Manchuria until the mid-19th century. While Manchuria now more normatively refers to Northeast China, it originally included areas consisting of Priamurye between the left bank of Amur River and the Stanovoy Range to the north, and Primorskaya which covered the area in the right bank of both the Ussuri River and the lower Amur River to the Pacific Coast. The region was ruled by a series of Chinese dynasties and the Mongol Empire, but control of the area was ceded to the Russian Empire by Qing China during the Amur Annexation in the 1858 Treaty of Aigun and 1860 Treaty of Peking, with the terms "Outer Manchuria" and "Russian Manchuria" arising after the Russian annexation. Prior to its annexation by Russia, Outer Manchuria was predominantly inhabited by various Tungusic peoples who were categorized by the Han Chinese as "Wild Jurchens". The Evenks, who speak a closely related Tungusic language to Manchu, make up a significant part of the indigenous population today. When the region was a part of the Qing Empire, a small population of Han Chinese men migrated to Outer Manchuria and married the local Tungusic women. Their mixed descendants have emerged as a distinct ethnic group known as the Taz people.