Carte des Isles Kouriles d´apres la Carte Russe. Dreßee et Gravee par Laurent.

Title

Carte des Isles Kouriles d´apres la Carte Russe. Dreßee et Gravee par Laurent.

Description

Map shows the Kurillian islands Kurilien and the north part of Japan with the islands Etorofu.

ca. 1770

Artist

Laurent

Historical Description

When the Dutch captain Maarten Gerritszoon de Vries was the first Western European to reach the Kuril Islands in 1643, about 3,000 to 3,500 Ainu lived from fishing, hunting and trading up to the Aleutian Islands and Kamchatka. In 1697, a Russian expedition under Vladimir Atlassov discovered the northern Kuril Islands from Kamchatka, which were not explored more thoroughly until 1711 by Danila Anzyferov and Ivan Kozyrevsky. In 1721, the Russians reached the island of Kunashir. In 1739, an expedition under Martin Spangberg led the Russians across the Kuril Islands and Hokkaidō to the main Japanese island of Honshū. In 1761, the governor of Siberia P. A. Sojmonov issued an order to make the Ainu of the Kuril Islands, including Hokkaidō, which the Russians still considered one of the Kuril Islands at that time, tributary to Russia. To counter Japan's claims to these two islands, which were already being voiced at the time, the Russians erected stakes there in 1768 with the inscription "Kuril Islands". In 1785-86, the Japanese succeeded in ousting the Russians from Iturup and Kunashir. In 1855, the Treaty of Shimoda (the first ever treaty between Russia and Japan) stipulated that the border between the two states would lie between the islands of Iturup and Urup. The island of Sakhalin (Jap. Karafuto) was designated as an area of interest to both sides. This meant that nationals of both states could settle there, which led to conflicts between Russian and Japanese settlers in the following years.