The Relationship Between American Missionaries And Sino-American Diplomacy In The 19th Century (1830-1899)

American Protestant missionaries had stepped into the China Empire successively since 1830. They played a leading role in the Sino-American relations in the whole 19th century for proficiency in Chinese spoken and written language, in Chinese society and culture, and, in particular, marked the footsteps at the beginning, development and maturation of the relationship between American missionaries and Sino-American diplomacy. Some of them eventually became diplomats on behalf of America, playing various diplomatic roles, such as signing unequal treaties, starting military and economic aggressions and inaugurating the diplomatic policies. By provoking diplomatic affairs, touching off religious crisis and interfering in all kinds of political movements, they influenced the development of the relationship between American missionaries and Sino-American diplomacy in the 19th century. Therefore, it seems to be meaningful and valuable to do researches on the relationship between American missionaries and Sino-America diplomacy in the 19th century.The introduction of this thesis is about the meaning of the chosen-topic, the limitation of the key-conceptions, the status quo of the research on American missionaries in China by the scholars both at home and abroad, the main ideas, emphasis and difficulties of the chosen-topic.Chapter One probes into American missionaries and the early American diplomatic policies to China, emphasizes on some issues such as American missionaries' claim on America's expansion into China, American missionaries' influences on America's diplomatic policies to China, American missionaries and America's policies on opium trade to China, American missionaries' direct participation in the negotiations with China, and so on..The second chapter introduces American missionaries and the signing of Sino-American diplomatic treaties, mainly analyzed the function of American missionaries on the signing of the Sino-American Wangxia Treaty and Tianjin Treaty, and the concrete process of Peter Parker's treaty revision to China in 1856.The third chapter inspects the relationship between American missionaries and U.S.'s Taiwan policy in mid-19th century, researches exhaustively the historical process of American missionaries' knowing Taiwan, paying more attention to Taiwan, encroaching on Taiwan, claiming to occupying Taiwan and the miscarrying of the plot to invade Taiwan.The fourth chapter explains American missionaries and the American policies to China in the period of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, researches thoroughly on the contact of American missionaries to the leaders of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the understanding of the religion of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the American missionaries' balance of political power of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the late Qing dynasty government, analyzes the American missionaries' influence on the American policies to China during that period.The fifth chapter selects a certain number of missionary cases occurred by American missionaries in China in the 19th century, analyzes the diplomatic means dealing with the cases by China and U.S. governments, reveals reasons and characteristics of the Sino-U.S. missionary cases, summarizes diplomatic experiences which might supply to use for reference.By looking closely and reasonably at the Protestant spirit and the essence of the United States, the Protestant faith and ideological diplomacy, the Protestant ideas and the U.S.'s diplomatic policies towards china and so on, attempts to provide a theoretical basis for the great influence of American missionaries in China in the 19th century on Sino-American diplomacy.This thesis concentrates on American missionaries' preaching and political activities in the 19th century. Through sorting and clarifying the materials, the paper attempts to analyze the profound social causes and historical influence and trace their important effects on Sino-American diplomacy in the 19th century to its original source.The main view and innovation of the thesis is to regard American missionaries in China in the 19th century as the leading roles in the early Sino-American diplomacy. Not only were they planners and participants in establishing diplomatic relations between two countries, they also were promoters and operators of the diplomatic relations between two countries; not only did they dominate the American diplomatic policy on China, they also influenced the Chinese diplomatic policy on America.All touchable Chinese and English documents, newspapers and periodicals published by American missionaries in China at that time, letters, diaries, memoirs, biographies, massive related English articles and books will be used in this research. In addition there are some materials now available, which will be helpful to do a more complete, systematic and detailed research on the relationship between American missionaries and Sino-American diplomacy in the 19th century.