British Imperialism, French charity and the changing behaviour of Italian Franciscan missionaries in Shanxi Province, 1800–1850

Abstract

Prior to the Opium War the Italian missionaries in Shanxi were dependent on the local Chinese population both for their safety and their funding. This meant that only missionaries who were willing to conform to Chinese customs could succeed and thus it was impossible to implement the rulings against various Chinese customs made by the papacy in the eighteenth century. The treaties that followed the war greatly reduced the penalties on missionaries discovered in the interior and made it possible for French charitable funding to reach them. Once the missionaries were no longer dependent on the Chinese but on sponsors in Europe those with much more hostile attitudes to Chinese customs were able to enforce them, leading to a century of alienation and hostility between them and the Chinese Catholics.