Why did the embassies of Lord McCartney in 1793 and Lord Amherst in 1816 fail?

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 McCartney’s mission, followed by Amherst’s mission, could be considered as one of the primitive contact held between Britain and China. Despite their effort, McCartney and Amherst’s missions both failed and caused an enormous effect on British-Chinese relationship for a long period of time. Why did the embassies of Lord McCartney in 1793 and Lord Amherst in 1816 fail?

 It is mostly due to the persistent view that the Chinese government was not disinclined toward foreign intercourse. British wished to achieve several objectives which were mainly about the trade and the diplomatic representation. So McCartney had visited China and tried to open discussion with Ho-shen. But China regarded McCartney’s visit to Peking as a celebration of the emperor’s birthday. Even though the mission was warmly welcomed by the governor-general, a flag bearing the characters of “Tributary Envoy from England” was placed on their boat. The Ch’ing court considered diplomatic negotiations completely out of order. In both Jehol and Peking, Ho-shen was unresponsive, parrying all attempts at negotiation. At the end, China had told McCartney’s mission to leave Peking as they had been well treated, they should be satisfied to return home with gratitude. After McCartney’s return, two edicts were issued to King George . It mentioned that China was not able to grant British’s wishes because it was contrary to the established practice of China as Emperor Ch’ien-lung says, “Europe consists of many other nations besides your own: if each and all demanded to be represented at our court, how could we possibly consent? The thing is utterly impracticable. How can our dynasty alter its whole procedure and system of etiquette, established for more than a century, in order to meet your individual view?” To make the matter worse, Emperor Chia-ch’ing, the son of Emperor Ch’ien-lung, was reserved and did not even receive foreign envoys unlike his father. He responded to the demands of the new British embassy with unenthusiastic comment which goes “All in all, I am not glad of this event.” The Emperor also told Amherst that as long as he will not agree to kowtow, he should be given a local reception at Tientsin only, and told that the Emperor had gone on a hunting trip and would not return for several months. All of these facts are telling that China had no interest in outside world and Britain was not an exception. As China called British “outer barbarians”, it shows that China feels itself superior to other countries; they had everything they need in domestic area. They rather thought the opening of the trade would bring profit only to the partner. They also knew that building up a relation with Britain would only collapse the established practice of China. So China accepted McCartney with the utmost politeness, treated with utmost hospitality, watched with utmost vigilance and dismissed with the utmost civility but never let them speak a word about the diplomatic issues. Both McCartney and Amherst had done their best but failed.

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 However, we cannot miss the fact that there was a lack of understanding of the Chinese culture in Britain. This also has contributed to the British failure. Kowtow was one of the most significant cultures they had to face. Kowtow is to kneel three times and lie down nine times before the Emperor to show him respect. Both McCartney and Amherst did not mind doing so, but they considered this action as an insult to King George  and would only reinforce the low opinion the Chinese court had of Europeans. They decided to resist the Chinese ritual and tried to ...

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