Harris Treaty
The Harris Treaty (English Treaty of Amity and Commerce , Japanese 日 米 修好 通商 条約 ; Nichibei Shūkō Tsūshō Jōyaku ; literally Japanese-American friendship and trade treaty) is an international treaty between the United States and Japan , which was signed on 29 July 1858 in Ryōsen-ji in Shimoda , Japan. The contract follows the four years earlier at the second coming of Matthew C. Perry closed Treaty of Kanagawa . Five ports were opened to American trade, including Edo , and American citizens were granted extraterritoriality in Japan . This makes it one of the unequal contracts .
The contract
In the Treaty of Kanagawa in 1854, American ships were not only granted the right to refill coal in Japan, an American consul was also installed in Shimoda, on the southern tip of the Izu Peninsula around 100 kilometers southwest of Edo. Commercial rights were not approved in this contract. American ships were allowed to call at ports, but in the context of the closure of Japan , trade was still only allowed to the Dutch on the island of Dejima in Nagasaki . To change this was the main task of Townsend Harris , who was sent to Japan in 1856 as the first American consul. It took Harris two years in remote Shimoda to gain the trust of the Japanese and to work out a contract with Hotta Masayoshi on the Japanese side.
The key points were:
- Exchange of diplomats
- Opening of the ports of Edo , Kobe , Nagasaki , Niigata and Yokohama to American merchant ships
- Right for American citizens to live and trade in these ports
- Extra-territoriality for American citizens, so they were subject to the jurisdiction of their consulates and not the Japanese
- fixed, low import and export tariffs subject to international control
The Kanagawa Treaty, negotiated by Perry, was the first step in building American influence in Japan, backed by the demonstration of military strength. The other great powers of the time were also anxious to end Japanese isolation and to conclude treaties, such as the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Friendship in 1854, the Treaty of Shimoda with Russia in 1855 before the Harris Treaty, and the Japanese-French Friendship and Trade Treaty 1858, shortly after the Harris Treaty was signed. These treaties not only restricted Japanese sovereignty, they also showed Japan's weakness compared to the industrialized western countries. The question of a possible colonization of Japan hung in the room.
The "Perry Crisis" in Japan
As early as the 1840s, news of the Opium War made educated Japanese aware of the threat posed by the colonial powers. Attempts by foreign ships to land in Japan, such as the Morrison incident , increased. It became clear that Japan, after more than 200 years of isolation, needed deep internal reforms in order to be able to negotiate on an equal footing with the modern great powers.
But the question of how this could be achieved caused an internal conflict: The supporters of Sonnō jōi wanted to throw the foreigners out of the country to give Japan time to build a strong, modern military, while the other side opened Japan ( kaikoku ) and wanted to learn as much as possible from the West through trade, including the abolition of Tokugawa-Bakufu ( tōbaku ) and the creation of a modern state.
Both sides agreed that Japanese should go overseas before foreigners come to Japan. The Kanagawa Treaty was signed in the face of American warships in Edo Bay , and many shogunate officials agreed only to avert an impending war with the United States. As a result, the political differences within the daimyo and the shogunate intensified.
Townsend Harris's demands went beyond Perry's. According to him, Japanese laws were "very specific" and it would be unfair to foreigners if they had to abide by them. Article III of the agreement allowed foreigners to settle in Edo and Osaka free from government influence, and consular jurisdiction was established for foreigners in the open ports. This was seen as a threat even by the Japanese who advocated opening up the country.
In addition, free trade in gold and silver was contractually agreed. This should have serious consequences for the Japanese financial situation, because in Japan gold was traditionally exchanged 1: 5 for silver due to the rich gold deposits, but 1:20 on the world market at that time. Whole shiploads of South American silver were therefore exchanged for gold after the opening in Japanese ports, and a large part of the Japanese gold was removed from the country within a short time.
Eventually, Harris was able to obtain an audience with Shogun Tokugawa Iesada and the signing of the contract. He benefited from his two years of persistent perseverance, the sympathy he had gained through his demeanor, but also threatening references to the fate of China and the pressing interests of England and France.
For the negotiators on the Japanese side, however, the treaty was fatal: Hotta Masayoshi tried to overcome resistance within the shogunate by asking the Kōmei- Tenno at the court in Kyoto for support. However, he failed completely. He and his greatest supporter, Abe Masahiro , were then forced to resign by Ii Naosuke .
But for Ii Naosuke and the Komei-Tenno, too, the treaty ultimately had serious consequences, as both were murdered by supporters of the reform movement.
American interests in Japan
For the American side, Perry and Harris' missions were an expression of the Destiny Manifesto , according to which the US had the “God-given” right to spread its state ideas and its commercial influence across the North American continent (and beyond). Japan was particularly interesting as a gateway to Asia on the way from the west coast to China. In the words of the American Secretary of State Daniel Webster , it was for the benefit of the human family ("for the good of the family of mankind") when American steamers stopped in Japan.
The role that the USA planned for Japan, that of a commercial stopover, can be read from the articles of the treaty. The treaties did not provide for a military role, nor were any special conditions created for missionaries.
ratification
The treaty was ratified with the first Japanese diplomatic mission to the USA in 1860.
Remarks
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literature
- David L. Anderson: Matthew C. Perry. In: American National Biography. Volume 17: Park - Pushmataha. Oxford University Press, New York NY 1999, ISBN 0-19-512796-X , pp. 367-369.
- William Elliott Griffis: Townsend Harris. First American Envoy in Japan. Houghton, Mifflin and Co., Boston et al. 1895.
- William Heine : With Perry to Japan. A memoir. Translated with an introduction and annotations by Frederic Trautmann. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu HI 1990, ISBN 0-8248-1258-1 .
- Walter LaFeber: The Clash. A History of US - Japan Relations. Norton & Co., New York NY et al. 1997, ISBN 0-393-03950-1 .
- John McMaster: Alcock and Harris, Foreign Diplomacy in Bakumatsu Japan. In: Monumenta Nipponica. Vol. 22, No. 3-4, 1967, ISSN 0027-0741 , pp. 305-367.
- DY Miyauchi: Yokoi Shonan's Response to the Foreign Intervention in Late Tokugawa Japan, 1853–1862. In: Modern Asian Studies. Vol. 4, No. 3, 1970, ISSN 0026-749X , pp. 269-290.
- Shinya Murase: The Most-Favored-Nation Treatment in Japan's Treaty Practice during the Period 1854-1905. In: American Journal of International Law. Vol. 70, No. April 2, 1976, ISSN 0002-9300 , pp. 273-297.
- Conrad Totman: From Sakoku to Kaikoku. The Transformation of Foreign-Policy Attitudes, 1853-1868. In: Monumenta Nipponica. Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 1-19.
- Conrad Totman: The Collapse of the Tokugawa Bakufu. 1862-1868. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu HI 1980, ISBN 0-8248-0614-X .
- John H. Schroeder: Matthew Calbraith Perry. Antebellum Sailor and Diplomat. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD 2001, ISBN 1-55750-812-7 .
Web links
- The United States-Japan Treaty of Amity and Commerce, 1858 (partial text) ( Memento of May 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive )