Enlightenment · East Asia · Politics

1689

Treaty of Nerchinsk

August 27, 1689

Russian and Qing diplomats, meeting on the Amur frontier with Jesuit interpreters, signed a treaty in Latin that settled the border between the two empires for the first time. Russia withdrew from the Amur valley; both sides agreed to regulated trade at Kiakhta. Two massive land empires had met and, amazingly, compromised.