Origins of the French Protectorate over Catholic Missions in China

Abstract

One of the most distinct features of European imperialism in its nineteenth century form was the peculiar alliance between missionary activity in backward areas and the political exploitation of the same for reasons of prestige, strategy or economics. No better example of this alignment can be found than in the French protectorate exercised over Roman Catholic missionary activity in China. Here the establishment of a definite political protectorate in the nineteenth century has a long historical background in which one may trace the transition from what G. L. Beer called “The Old Colonial System” to imperialism in its modern form. The question of “origins” here follows a sequence from Portuguese conquests and the Patronage (Padroado) in the Far East through the period of French expansion under Louis XIV to the final acceptance by the European world of the French protectorate over all Catholic missions in China.