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Pan-Mongolism is an irredentist idea that advocates cultural and political solidarity of Mongols. The proposed territory, called "Greater Mongolia" (, Dayaar Mongol) or "Whole Mongolia" (Хамаг Монгол) usually includes the independent state of Mongolia, the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, and the Russian region of Buryatia. Sometimes the autonomous republic Tuva, the Altai Republic and parts of Xinjiang, Zabaykalsky Krai, Kalmykia and Irkutsk Oblast are included as well. , all areas in Greater Mongolia (or Mongol heartland) except Mongolia have non-Mongol majorities.
The nationalist movement emerged in the 20th century in response to the collapse of the Qing dynasty and the possibility of an independent Mongolian state. After the Red Army helped to establish the Mongolian People's Republic, Mongolian foreign policy prioritised seeking recognition of independence over territorial expansion. After the 1990 Mongolian Revolution ended Communist rule in Mongolia, a number of organizations have emerged that promote pan-Mongolism, but they have little popular support.
At the turn of the 20th century, the Qing, reasoning that the Russians would have a harder time annexing territory settled by many Han people, reduced its many restrictions on Han settlement within Qing territory. This policy spurred an anti-Chinese Greater Mongolia nationalism among a few Mongols.
In 1911, Mongolia declared its independence and founded the Bogd Khaganate.
When the Qing dynasty collapsed with establishment of the new Republic of China (ROC) in 1911, majority of the Inner Mongolian principalities allied themselves with the Outer Mongols rather than with the Mongolian Bogd Khaganate.Tachibana, M. Inner Mongolia in the Mongol history of the 20th century: on the number of khoshuuns recognized Mongolian subjection. In: Mongolyn Tusgaar Togtnol ba Mongolchuud. Ulaanbaatar, 2012, p. 271 (in Mongolian) China's early republican leaders used slogans like Five Races Under One Union, democracy, and meritocracy to try to persuade all of the Mongols to join the new republic. However, they were never really able to hide their condescension towards the frontier peoples. In the summer of 1911, Mongolia's princes had already decided to declare independence and turn towards Russia for support. They gathered with Russian representatives in Ulaanbaatar and persuaded Russia to defend Mongol autonomy within China. The Russians understood this autonomy to apply only in Outer Mongolia, but the princes interpreted it as sanctifying a Greater Mongolia of Outer Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, Eastern Mongolia, and Tannu Uriankhai (Tuva).
The Inner Mongolian prince Gungsangnorbu corresponded with the autonomous government in Ulaanbaatar about the possibility of a Greater Mongolia. They found that they had sharp disagreements about such a state, owing to the Inner Mongols' agricultural lifestyle and orientation towards China, contrasted with the Outer Mongols' nomadic lifestyle and orientation towards Russia.
Mongols have at times advocated for the historical Oirat Dzungar Mongol area of Dzungaria in northern Xinjiang, to be annexed to the Mongolian state in the name of Pan-Mongolism.
Legends grew among the remaining Oirats that Amursana had not died after he fled to Russia, but was alive and would return to his people to liberate them from Manchu Qing rule and restore the Oirat nation. Prophecies had been circulating about the return of Amursana and the revival of the Oirats in the Altai region. Znamenski 2011, pp. 27, 28, 29. Universität Bonn. Ostasiatische Seminar 1982. p. 164. The Oirat Kalmyk Ja Lama claimed to be a grandson of Amursana and then claimed to be a reincarnation of Amursana himself, preaching anti-Manchu propaganda in western Mongolia in the 1890s and calling for the overthrow of the Qing dynasty. Lattimore & Nachukdorji 1955, p. 57. Ja Lama was arrested and deported several times. However, he returned to the Oirat Torghuts in Altay Prefecture (in Dzungaria) in 1910 and in 1912 he helped the Outer Mongolians mount an attack on the last Qing garrison at Kovd, where the Manchu Amban was refusing to leave and fighting the newly declared independent Mongolian state. Croner 2009 , p. 11. Croner 2010 , p. 11. Pegg 2001, p. 268. ed. Sinor 1990, p. 5. Baabar 1999, p. 139. Baabar, Bat-Ėrdėniĭn Baabar 1999, p. 139. The Manchu Qing force was defeated and slaughtered by the Mongols after Khovd fell. Mongolia Society 1970, p. 17. Mongolia Society 1970, p. 17.
Ja Lama told the Oirat remnants in Xinjiang: "I am a mendicant monk from the Russian Tsar's kingdom, but I am born of the great Mongols. My herds are on the Volga river, my water source is the Irtysh. There are many hero warriors with me. I have many riches. Now I have come to meet with you beggars, you remnants of the Oirats, in the time when the war for power begins. Will you support the enemy? My homeland is Altai, Irtysh, Khobuk-sari, Emil, Bortala, Ili, and Alatai. This is the Oirat mother country. By descent, I am the great-grandson of Amursana, the reincarnation of Mahakala, owning the horse Maralbashi. I am he whom they call the hero Dambijantsan. I came to move my pastures back to my own land, to collect my subject households and bondservants, to give favour, and to move freely." Perdue 2009, p. 493. Palmer 2011, p. 59.
Ja Lama built an Oirat fiefdom centered around Kovd, Dupree & Naby 1994, p. 55. he and fellow Oirats from Altai wanted to emulate the Dzungar Khanate and build another grand united Oirat nation from the nomads of western China and Mongolia, Znamenski 2011, p. 40. but was arrested by Russian Cossacks and deported in 1914 on the request of the Mongolian government after the local Mongols complained of his excesses, and out of fear that he would create an Oirat separatist state and divide them from the Khalkha Mongols. Znamenski 2011, p. 41. Ja Lama returned in 1918 to Mongolia and resumed his activities and supported himself by extorting passing caravans, Andreyev 2003, p. 139. Andreyev 2014, p. 285, Znamenski 2011, p. 138. but was assassinated in 1922 on the orders of the new Communist Mongolian authorities under Damdin Sükhbaatar. Znamenski 2011, p. 141. Sanders 2010, p. 188. Morozova 2009, p. 39.
The part Buryat Mongol Baikal Cossacks Ataman Grigory Semyonov declared a "Great Mongol State" in 1918 and had designs to unify the Oirat Mongol lands, portions of Xinjiang, Transbaikal, Inner Mongolia, Outer Mongolia, Tannu Uriankhai, Khovd, Hu-lun-pei-erh and Tibet into one Mongolian state. Paine 1996, pp. 316-7.
From 1919 to 1921, a Chinese army led by Xu Shuzheng occupied Outer Mongolia. This period ended when White Russian General Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg protected independence of Mongolia, who deported the Chinese occupation army from Outer MongoliaKuzmin, S.L. Baron Ungerny Tuukh: Uneniig Dakhin Sergeesen Turshilt History. Ulaanbaatar: Mongol Ulsyn ShUA-iin Tuukhiin Khureelen – OKhU-yn ShUA-iin Dorno Dakhin Sudlalyn Khureelen Publ., 2013, p.208-459 (in Mongolian) The Han percentage of the industrial labor force dropped from 63 percent to 10 percent in 1932.
In 1943, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office predicted that the Soviet Union would promote the idea of a Greater Mongolia to detach China's Inner Mongolia and East Mongolia from Chinese influence. A year later, the then-Soviet satellite Tuvan People's Republic was annexed by into the Russian SFSR. During the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in August 1945, Outer Mongolian troops occupied both Inner and Eastern Mongolia, and Japanese collaboratist leaders like De Wang were kidnapped to Outer Mongolia to be inculcated with pan-Mongolist ideals. Perceiving an imminent threat to China's territorial integrity, Chiang Kai-shek signed an agreement with the Soviets during the Mongolian occupation which gave Chinese recognition of Outer Mongolian independence. In return for the fulfillment of this longtime Soviet foreign policy goal, the agreement stated that Mongolian independence would only be effective "within Outer existing frontiers". The Outer Mongolian troops subsequently withdrew from China. In 1947, Chiang renewed his claim on Outer Mongolia in response to alleged Mongolian incursions into Chinese Xinjiang during the Pei-ta-shan Incident.
China designed the entire Xinjiang, including former Oirat Mongol Dzungar territory in Dzungaria as "Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region" on October 1, 1955. During the early 1950s, Mongolian leader Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal once visited China to ask for aid in grants and labor. China and the Soviet Union also collaborated to host pan-Mongolian festivals between Inner Mongolia and the Mongolian People's Republic. However, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union forbade celebrations of Genghis Khan because of negative Russian attitudes towards the Mongol conquests. The Sino-Soviet split from 1960 led Mongolia to align with the power they perceived as less threatening, i.e. the USSR, and to publish provocative pan-Mongol pieces in the Mongolian state press. During the 1980s, China-Mongolia relations improved with the exchange of Mongolian wrestling teams and Mikhail Gorbachev's pledge to withdraw Soviet troops from Mongolia.
In 1994, China and Mongolia signed a treaty wherein both promised to respect each other's territorial integrity. In the same year, the Inner Mongolia branch of the Chinese Communist Party explicitly repudiated and condemned the idea of a Greater Mongolia, citing the threat to China's unity and the likely dominance of Mongolia in such a union. Because of the existence of an independent Mongolian state, Inner Mongols have generally not aspired to an independent state of their own, and what little separatist sentiment in Inner Mongolia aspires to union with independent Mongolia. The feelings are not reciprocated, as the history and geography of China are not taught in Mongolian schools, and knowledge of the Inner Mongols in Mongolia is low. Similarly to the Inner Mongolian government, high-ranking Buryat officials have reacted to the Greater Mongolia idea by rejecting that Buryats are Mongols at all. Since the normalization of Sino-Mongolian relations in 1994, the Mongolian government does not support Greater Mongolian nationalism, but it tolerates organizations in Mongolia which do, such as the Mongolian newspaper Il Tovchuu. Various small organizations in Mongolia advocate a Greater Mongolia.
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