1. Trade
   
2. Mission
   
3. Strategic
   

Unbalanced trade - need for China market

Brit. smuggle opium into China

• 1839 = 40000 piculs (1 picul=133 lbs.)
  
• from Turkey, India
  

U.S. competition with Brit.

• Russell & Co. - Robert Forbes 1st opium in 1829
  
• Bryant & Sturges - paid $620/picul in Turkey
  
• T.H. Perkins - boss John P. Cushing
  
• 425 clipper ships 1846-55
  

Coolie trade after 1834

• replaced slave trade to West Indies
  

Credit ticket system after 1850

• 6 Companies in San Francisco
  
• 229000 to U.S. by 1880
  
• Pacific Mail Steamship Co. 1866
  

Opium War 1839-42

• High Commissioner Lin Tse-hsu
  
• destroyed 20000 chests in Canton
  
• all subject to Manchu law - kowtow
  
• Nemesis gunboat enters Pearl R. 1841
  

Treaty of Nanking 1842

• indemnity
  
• fixed tariff of 5%, customs service
  
• treaty ports opened
  
  • Shanghai - home of consulates
    
  • Hong Kong ceded to Brit.
    
• extraterritoriality
  

Treaty of the Bogue 1843

• most-favored-nation added
  

Treaty of Wanghia 1844

• Caleb Cushing
  
• Peter Parker
  

Taipeng Rebellion 1849-64

• Hung Hsiu-chuan converted
  
• supported by missionaries and public opinion
  
• but not by merchants
  

Arrow War 1856-58

• Parker supports Brit.
  
• Canton - consul James Keenan helps
  
• Pearl River - USS San Jacinto helps
  
• Commodore James Armstrong takes 5 forts
  
• Formosa Plan of Parker
  
• but replaced by Wm Reed 1857
  

Treaties of Tientsin 1858

• U.S., Russia join Brit. & France
  
• 10 more treaty ports opened
  
• right of residence in Peking
  
• right to unlimited travel into interior
  
  • esp. Shanghai River
    

Brit. & French troops enter Peking 1859

• U.S. not involved, except Josiah Tatnall
  

Burlingame Treaty 1868

Japan - more active U.S. involvement

• whalers, shipwrecks since 1820s
  
• Edmund Roberts to Siam 1833
  
• C.W. King rescues shipwrecks 1837
  
• James Biddle fails 1846
  
• James Glynn to Nagasaki 1849
  
  • rescues 15 shipwrecks
    
  • Ronald McDonald taught Moriyama
    
• Glynn urges treaty-making
  
  • "if not peaceably, then by force"
    

Matthew C. Perry opens Japan 1853-4

• wrote his own instructions:
  #care for shipwrecks
  #open coaling station port
  #trade
  
• 12 "black ships" for U.S. Navy
  
• landed marines on Okinawa, Bonins
  
• 4 ships to Tokyo July 8, 1853
  
  • gave letter for emperor
    
• returned to Okinawa - Lew Choo Treaty
  
• 7 ships to Tokyo Feb. 12, 1854
  
  • asked for 5 ports open to trade
    
  • but granted only Nagasaki
    
• Treaty signed at Kanagawa 1854
  
  • "wood & water" treaty only
    
  • Shimoda, Hakodate ports
    
  • consulate, most-favored-nation
    
• was Japan's 1st treaty, but vague
  
  • feared by Tokugawa shogunate
    
  • ratified "within" or "after" 18 months
    
  • both nations must agree on consul
    

Townsend Harris

• 1820 - "boy merchant" of New York at age 16
  
• books, languages, free schools, City College
  
• 1849 began travels to Far East, "amateur diplomat"
  
• 1854 manager for Russell Co., consul Ningpo
  
• Pierce picked Harris for new Japan consul
  
• was bachelor and "no women in Shimoda"
  
• 1856 to Siam - signed treaty like Brit.
  
• Aug. 21 - arrives in Shimoda on San Jacinto
  
• with interpreter Henry Heusken
  
• meets with Moriyama from Yedo & 2 Govs
  
• want to deliver letter to emperor, get treaty
  
• Sep. 4 - wins residency; flagpole; science
  
• wins small victories: 3 ichibu=$1 silver
  
• but John Rodgers survey refused at Hakodate
  
• Oct. 30 - visit to Harris house - turning point
  
• 1857 Convention of Shimoda
  
  • Nagasaki open
    
  • residency right
    
  • exchange rate at 6%
    
  • trial by consul
    
  • travel right
    
• Nov. 23 - procession to Yedo by 350
  
• Dec. 12 - meets with Lord Hotta
  
• 1858 Convention signed
  
• 1860 - 1st Japan mission to U.S.
  
• 1861 - Heusken murdered; Harris resigns
  
• 1863 - Shimonoseki bombardment
  
• 1864 Convention requires indemnity
  
• 1868 - Meiji Restoration
  

Resources:

• Barbarian and the Geisha notes for the 1958 John Huston film.
• on the significance of the gunboat, quinine, breechloader and telegraph, see Daniel Headrick, The Tools of Empire, New York: Oxford, 1981.
• on Townsend Harris, see Carl Crow, He Opened the Door of Japan; Townsend Harris and the Story of His Amazing Adventures in Establishing American Relations with the Far East, New York: Harper, 1939.
• on the 1860 mission, see Masao Miyoshi, As We Saw Them; The First Japanese Embassy to the United States, New York: Kodansha, 1979, 1994.
• Bibliography for Manifest Destiny and U.S. Exploring Expeditions in the Pacific
• U.S. Naval Academy Museum