AMERICAN DIPLOMACY IN THE ORIENT I EARLY EUROPEAN RELATIONS THE people of the United States of America, as soon as they had achieved their independence in 1783, manifested a notable spirit of commercial and maritime adventure. Within two years after peace was secured the flag of the new nation had been carried by American ships into all the waters of the globe. When they reached the Pacific Ocean in quest of avenues of trade, they found almost all the ports of the countries of Asia closed against them. Within the brief lifetime of this young nation a great transformation has been wrought in that region of the globe, which is vitally affecting the political and commercial relations of many nations. In this transformation the United States has borne a conspicuous and an honorable part. A narrative of its participation in the events which have brought about this change in the affairs of the world will be the subject of this volume. For two hundred years before the beginning of the nineteenth century and for a considerable time after that date, the free access of foreigners to most of the countries of Asia was prohibited, and commerce was carried on under very burdensome and restricted conditions. This state of affairs may be attributed mainly to two causes: first, the gross ignorance of those countries respecting the rest of the world; and, second, the violent and aggressive conduct of the Europeans who visited them soon after the maritime discoveries of the fifteenth century. A review of these conditions will enable us the better to understand the difficulties encountered by the Americans in their early relations with the countries of the Orient, and the important part taken by the government of the United States in bringing them out of their seclusion and opening them up to commercial and political intercourse with the outside world. An examination of the history of the Asiatic nations shows that the restrictive policy was of comparatively modern origin. The earliest records of Japan give accounts of embassies and intercourse with Korea and China dating from two thousand years ago to recent times. Japanese mariners had sailed their ships to all the regions of Asia, and from the time the first Europeans came into the Pacific, throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Japanese vessels carried on commerce with India, Siam, Malacca, the Philippines, China, and Korea, and had even reached the coast of America. Chinese records contain reference to intercourse with the people of the West as early as the Greek invasion of Asia under Alexander; and the classic writings, both Chinese and Latin, show that there were some trade relations with Rome in the time of the early emperors. During the period of the Byzantine empire quite an overland traffic was maintained, and we find accounts of frequent embassies to and from Arabia and India from the beginning of the Christian era onward through the mediæval period. But the most authentic and detailed narratives are those of Arab travelers and merchants in and after the ninth century, showing an extensive trade by sea from the ports of Arabia and the Persian Gulf; and even at that date Chinese junks were making voyages to India, Ceylon, and still farther west. As indicating the state of intercourse during the Mohammedan ascendancy, it may be noted that in 1420 a Chinese embassy was commissioned to go to all the nations of the Western Ocean extending as far as Arabia Felix, and the record is that it was well received by them.1 When European vessels began to visit China foreign 1 1 Cathay and the Way Thither, translated by Colonel Yule, London, printed for the Hakluyt Society, 1866, preliminary essay, sections i.-v.; 1 The Chinese, by Sir John F. Davis, New York, 1837, chap. i.; 2 History of China, by Charles Gutzlaff, New York, 1834, chap. xx.; Arabs and Chinese, by Dr. E. Bretschneider, London, 1871; Ancient Account of India and China, by two Mohammedan travelers, by E. Renaudot (translation), London, 1733. See review of same in 1 Chinese Repository, Canton, 1833, p. 6. The Chinese Repository, one of the most valuable publications extant concerning Chinese matters, was founded in 1832 by Rev. E. C. Bridgman, the first American missionary sent to China, a gentleman of decided literary merit, who was enabled to render useful diplomatic service to his own country and devoted his life to the elevation of the Chinese. With him was associated in the publication of the Repository Dr. S. Wells Williams, to whom frequent reference will be made in this volume. The publication continued through twenty years. |