Study On The Western Powers' Policy Of Cooperation In The 60s And 70s Of 19～(th) Century In China

The policy of cooperation was a policy towards China adopted by theWestern powers in the 1860s and ended in late 1870s. The policy wascharacterized by cooperation among western powers and cooperation betweenwestern powers and the Qing government. Since the contemporary history,the capital expansion throughout the world has become an irreversibletrend. The capital expansion can be divided into forcible and aggressiveexpansion and peaceful and mutual-benefit expansion, which werealternatively taken use of by the powers. After the gate of China wasforced open by the Gun-boat Policy, the powers needed a relatively stableand secure social environment and a rule of game which suited to thecapital expansion at the same time. It was under the circumstances thatthe policy of cooperation was put forward by American Minister in ChinaAnson Burlingame. While after the two opium wars and Peaceful HeavenMovement, the Qing Dynasty was also in need of the support and cooperationwith the powers to stabilize its crumbling rule. Therefore, the researchon the Policy of Cooperation is academically significant in understandingthe relations between the Western powers and Qing Dynasty and the lateQing Dynasty as well as how China became open from a self-enclosed country.Given to the fact that achievements have been made in the studiesconcerning the policy of cooperation and yet there is still much todiscover, this paper focuses on the following points,1.The reasons which bred the policy. The policy was to meet the needsof the capital expansion of western powers and to mitigate thecontradictions among them. After the two opium wars and Peaceful HeavenMovement, the Qing Dynasty deepened its understanding of the powers andat the same time, the power alteration in the central government made theapplication of the policy possible.2.This paper explains how the policy came out and also summarizes itsinitial application.3.The paper elaborates on the First Chinese Mission to Foreign Powerspeaked the policy;The signing of Burlingame Treaty and acquirement ofguarantee from the UK government peaked the policy.4.The Policy of Cooperation ended in the late 1970s, but it took manya year before the policy came to an end. The new treaty made in 1869 betweenChina and the UK sparked a crisis while the accident happened in Tianjinin 1870 and Margary Case expedited the failure of the policy.5.There were many reasons which led to its failure. For the westernpowers, the capitalist countries were in a transformation to imperialistcountries and therefore political development and economic developmentwas not balanced. At the same time, the foreign merchants in China hadbeen complaining about their governments' stance towards China andopposed the policy. While those foreign ministers in China who had beensupporting the policy stepped out office successively one by one and leftno one to implement the policy.6.The last part of the paper analyzes the impact upon China's foreignrelations and the late Qing Dynasty of the policy of cooperation.