Sino-European Relations from the Late Ming to the First Opium War: from Chinese supremacy in Asia to its subordination to the Western world-order.

Abstract

This thesis analyses the evolution of Sino-western relations in the Ming and Qing dynasties through the secondary literature on the subject and the comparative study of primary sources of both western actors and Chinese official documents. Ming China strictly adhered to its tributary framework for managing foreign trade and diplomacy, but as its hold on maritime East Asia weakened, coastal commercial interests led to the formation of semi-official economic and military connections with European powers. The Qing dynasty formalized and legitimized these relations by opening specific ports to all foreign traders and attempting to maintain the sinocentric tributary framework as a principle to manage foreign relations by opening it also to Western countries. It is argued that the European customs in international relations based on formal equality and free trade clashed with the conception of a Qing sinocentric order and restrictive commercial practices, but that on the other hand the Qing were more open to Western interactions and connections than the Ming had been. The rise of the European empires and their commercial interests in China eventually resulted in open conflict between the two worlds, after which China was forcibly included in the Western international order and made to adhere to its rules.