Merchants, missionaries, and American policy toward China : the formation of the Open Door Policy : an honors thesis [(HONRS 499)]

This paper explores the impact of two interest groups, merchants and Protestant missionaries, upon American foreign policy toward China in the nineteenth century. Examining their influence upon American policy sheds light upon the supposedly "radical departure" of the Open Door Notes. The paper discusses three distinct eras: American relations with China prior to the establishment of the treaty port system, the effects of the treaty port system on American activities in China from 1860 until 1890, and the immediate backdrop of the 1890s to Secretary of State John Hay's production of the Open Door Notes. The Open Door Policy was consistent with prior statements of American ideology yet was also a product of America's changed power status and altered perception of vital interests. Thus the Open Door was both old and new.