important port, Qingdao was administered by the Imperial Department of the Navy (Reichsmarineamt) rather than the Imperial Colonial Office (Reichskolonialamt). The growing Imperial German Navy based their Far East Squadron there, allowing the warships to conduct operations throughout the western Pacific. Beginning in January 1898, the marines of III. Seebataillon were based at Tsingtao. Construction of the Jiaoji Railway began on 23 September 1899, and was completed in 1904. Before the outbreak of World War I (1914–1918), ships of the German naval forces under Admiral Count von Spee were located at central Pacific colonies on routine missions. The fleet then rendezvoused in the Marianas Islands to plan a transit back to Germany rather than be trapped in the Pacific by more powerful and numerous Allied fleets (British and Japanese). After a minor British naval attack on the German concession in Shandong (Kiautschou Bay concession) in 1914, Japanese Empire troops occupied the city and the surrounding province during the Siege of Tsingtao after Japan's declaration of war on Germany in accordance with the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. China protested against Japan's violation of her neutrality but was not able to interfere in the military operations. The decision of the Paris Peace Conference and the Versailles Treaty negotiations not to restore Chinese rule over the previous foreign concessions in Qingdao after the Great War triggered the May Fourth Movement (4 May 1919) of anti-imperialism, nationalism and cultural identity in China. The city came under Chinese rule in December 1922, under control of the Republic of China (R.O.C.) established in 1912 after the Chinese Revolution the year before. However, Japan maintained its economic dominance of the railway and the province as a whole. The city became a direct-controlled municipality of the ROC Government in July 1929. Japan re-occupied Qingdao in 1938, a year after it expanded the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), (a precursor to World War II, 1939–1945) with its plans of territorial expansion into China's coast. Nationalist (Kuomintang) ROC forces returned after the Japanese surrender in September 1945. On 2 June 1949, during the Chinese Civil War and shortly before the founding of the communist People’s Republic of China on 1 October 1949 the city was taken by Chairman Mao Zedong and his troops. Qingdao city planning and development 1898–1914 The development of the Tsingtao urban space during the German occupation (1898–1914) originated from the port. Mass urban construction began in 1898 with the