Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory

The Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory was a German concession on the southern coast of the Shandong Peninsula in China, leased in 1898 and held until 1914. Germany obtained the lease after its navy occupied Jiaozhou Bay in 1897, using the murder of two German missionaries as a pretext, and the territory covered about 552 square kilometres around the bay. Its administrative centre was the new port city of Qingdao, which was developed as a naval base for the East Asia Squadron and as a model colonial town with modern waterworks, roads and schools. The colony was run by the Imperial German Navy rather than the colonial office. When the First World War broke out, Japan joined the Allied side and besieged Qingdao; the German garrison surrendered in November 1914. The lease was formally transferred to Japan at Versailles in 1919, a decision that sparked the May Fourth Movement in China.