| The negotiation of Tientsin treaties revision between China and Britain in 1868 was the first time to negotiate and consequently sign a contract named Alcock Convention in peace and on relative equality since the Opium War, whose contents gave a mutual favor to both sides at least in form. But it aroused the wrath of the British merchants at home and abroad, whose wants it did not sufficiently cater to. In the end the merchants won out: Britain bowed to mercantile pressure and refused to ratify the convention in June 1870. This thesis will study the revision-making process and analyze the its influence on the relation of Chinese and British governments, in order to make a better understanding of the complicated background of the diplomatic transformation and the tortuous course of the modernizations in Late Qing.This thesis is divided into five chapters, in addition to introduction . The introduction reviews the research condition about this topic, points out the defect in it, and puts forward the meaning of studying this object, explains the thread of this thesis.Chapter one explores the Sino-British relations after 1860 as the historical backdrop. After the Beijing Treaty was signed, the Qing court's foreign policy had a great change, which was to adopt the treaty system and use the treaty to bridle the foreigns. At the same time, the British government tried to carry out cooperative policy in relation to China, and used tolerance and assistance method to induce the Qing government to carry out the treaty. Such can enlarge the Sino-British trade and extend the British benefits in China. The thesis of Robert Hart and Thomas Wade embodied this British governments policy.Chapter two observes and studies the preparation of Britain for treaty revision. When asked for suggestions for revision, Rutherford Alcock, the British minister of China, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' view was difference from that of the merchants in China, which reflected the interior conflict in the British policy to China. Chapter three views the preparation of Qing court for treaty revision. The extensive discussion of the revision in Qing court was reviewing and looking forward to the relation between China and foreign countries. This reflected the level on which theQing courts' mainstream officials identified modern production mode. The Burlingame Mission was the first formal mission to west, whose function strengthened the determination of Qing court's resisting British requests.Chapter four relates the hard progress of Sino-British negotiation of treaty revision. This chapter will divide the negotiation into four phases, namely thirteen conferences of the negotiation commission, hard advance of the negotiation, the Chinese and British internal discussion on the negotiation and the signature of the Alcock Convention. By analyzing the change of the attitudes and actions of Sino-British governments in the negotiations course, this chapter will point out the confliction of within and between the China and Britain and indicate the complex diplomatic scenes.Chapter Five researches on the reason why the British government vetoed the Alcock Convention at first, then have a general view on the revision-making process, and explain the duality of cooperation and compression in the British foreign policy to China, and finally argues that the Qing court hesitated to move forward due to an inadequate judgment on situation of the modern commerce and the epoch, failure to adapted himself to the ongoing currents while maintaining his rights, and reckless refusal to the modern production mode and international diplomatic institutions. The distrust between the two sides went further because of the dismission of Rutherford Alcock and the refusal of the revision by the British government, which makes the Late Qing's modernization more complex and tortuous. So puts forward to two important reveals that comes from the revision. On one hand, the Alcock Convention will exert positive effects if carried out. On the other hand, the Qing court failed... |
