The Foreign Negotiation Of Guangdong Province In Late Qing Dynasty

After the Opium War, the Qing government has tried to gradually change the old "Tribute diplomacy" system. From passively to initiatively the government established a new diplomatic system which was charged by a central institution such as Prime Yamen or Foreign Ministry with the assistance of Five Trade Ports Minister and Nanyang Minister and local governors. In this process of forming the diplomatic system, the Qing government has long pursued "diplomatic outside" policy and many foreign affairs were given to the provinces and were solved by them as possible as the government can. Guangdong Province is located in the southern part of China and it was away from the power center and became the first harbor in history. Guangdong Province met the policy of province diplomacy justly because of the conditions above. In modern times, the evolution of foreign negotiated agencies and the contents of foreign affairs in Guangdong Province became a microcosm of the foreign negotiation in Qing Dynasty in Modern China.This paper described took the settings and changes of central agencies in Qing government and the time crosses seventy years in the late Qing (1840-1911). Firstly recall the basic conditions of external representations in Guangdong in early Qing Dynasty. Then discuss in detail the evolution of diplomatic system in Guangdong in late Qing marking the event as a dividing line, and divide the contents into four phases as Before the establishment of Prime Yamen, After the establishment of the Prime Yamen, After the establishment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and The late Qing bureaucracy reforms. And then discuss the settings and the changes of the diplomatic institutions with the adjustment of four Central diplomatic agencies in the four periods in Guangdong. A further analysis on reasons of the changes in the competence will be given in three aspects of the Qing government and the foreign country and the individual of local governors through the contents of the competences of the local authority in Guangdong. Finally, there are the overall analyses on the foreign negotiation of local authority of Guangdong and the track on foreign negotiation of the Qing Dynasty in past 100 years can be viewed.