Clash of Diplomatic Cultures between Europe and China around 1800: A Rereading of the Macartney Mission

Abstract

Abstract This essay revisits some familiar diplomatic encounters between European nations and China in the decades around 1800. It proceeds from a theoretical distinction between diplomacy within an international society and diplomacy between international societies. The set of ideas, principles, and institutions of diplomatic interaction within an international society may be summarily termed its diplomatic culture. Diplomacy between international societies lacks a shared diplomatic culture, involving instead negotiations between different diplomatic cultures. The European embassies to China around 1800 epitomize diplomacy between international societies. The essay examines in some detail the attempts on both sides to make sense of the diplomatic exchange, in which they were engaged: translating documents, documenting actions, and interpreting the events by poetic means. All these attempts turned out to entrench differences rather than induce agreements. This predicament was to be resolved only by violence.