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Human activities in a transborder watershed are complex under the influence of domestic policies, international relations, and global events. Understanding the forces driving human activity change is important for the development of transborder watershed. In this study, we used global historical land cover data, the hemeroby index model, and synthesized major historical events to analyze how human activity intensity changed in the Heilongjiang River (Amur River in Russia) watershed (HLRW). The results showed that there was a strong spatial heterogeneity in the variation of human activity intensity in the HLRW over the past century (1900—2016). On the Chinese side, the human activity intensity change shifted from the plain areas for agricultural reclamation to the mountainous areas for timber extraction. On the Russian side, human activity intensity changes mostly concentrated along the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Baikal-Amur Mainline. Localized variation of human activity intensity tended to respond to regional events while regionalized variation tends to reflect national policy change or broad international events. The similarities and differences between China and Russia in policies and positions in international events resulted in synchronous and asynchronous changes in human activity intensity. Meanwhile, policy shifts were often confined by the natural features of the watershed. These results reveal the historical origins and fundamental connotations of watershed development and contribute to formulating regional management policies that coordinate population, economic, social, and environmental activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]