Mongolia Area

The Mongolia Area (Chinese: 蒙古地方; pinyin: Ménggǔ Dìfāng) was a province-level administrative division of the Republic of China in the 20th century. It was de jure created in 1928. After the Northern Expedition, the Mongolia Area and the Tibet Area were both special administrative divisions of the Republic of China equivalent to provincial-level administrative regions. The Executive Yuan also established a Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission as its direct counterpart. In addition, the Mongolian League and Banner administrative organs, which were comparable to provincial governments, were the Mongolian Local Autonomous Political Affairs Commissions located in the four northern provinces.

The Mongolia Area was established in accordance with the Outer Mongolian administrative division of the Beiyang government, but the Nationalist government never actually controlled the region. The region covers an area of approximately 1.73 million square kilometers. In terms of area, the Mongolia Area was the second largest administrative division of the Republic of China, second only to Xinjiang Province. It had 4 departments, 2 regions, and 116 banners, 4 pastures, and 36 zuoling, among other sub-districts. However, due to its topography and the prohibition of Han Chinese immigration under the Treaty of Kyakhta, the population within the Mongolia Area was not large, with approximately 616,000 people in 1936.