American East India Squadron And Early Sino-American Relations 1835-1844

Early Sino-American commercial relations can be traced back to the visit of ’the Empress of China’to China in 1784. In the following decades, Sino-US trade increased year by year. American government advocate free trade, and didn’t give much support to American merchants who had competed with other colonial states such as Britain in trading with China. America navy gradually entered the Far East area in order to trade protection. In the wake of signing the trade treaties with some countries in Far East area, American government set up the first navy force in Asian-Pacific region——East India Squadron. The East India Squadron cruised around the Chinese coastal areas in the name of convoying.After the breakout of the Opium War, the East India Squadron primarily took inaction and neutral policy toward the conflict between China and Britain, and want to keep interests in China. With the signing of Treaty of Nanjing in 1842, Commodore Kearny appreciated the practice of British that kept the interests in China by the treaty, then he was engaged in the negotiation of obtaining the most-favored-nation treatment actively, which suggested the changes of US-China policy.In 1843, Caleb Cushing was appointed by American government to be commissioner and United States ambassador to China and discussed the issues about treaty with the Qing government. The Sue Aman Case which was resulted by the East India Squadron made a turning point that American had access to consular jurisdiction in China, it’s also the first time that American government had taken the’gunboat policy’ threating the Qing government. The American extraterritoriality in China was confirmed in law by the Treaty of Wanghia, and the China inland opened to American navy and other foreign powers.In general, the actions of East India Squadron in China had important implications for the development of Early Sino-American relations.