Exchange Database
January 1, 1839
After spending 12 years in the China trade, Philadelphia merchant Nathan Dunn returned from China with an enormous collection of art, artifacts, botanical samples, and other items. In 1839 he put them on display in his native city in a “Chinese Museum” that was designed to present the items in as natural a manner as possible, so as to give visitors a picture of life in China.
July 3, 1844
In 1843, Secretary of State Daniel Webster sent Caleb Cushing to China as Minister Plenipotentiary to negotiate a treaty with the Qing. Cushing hoped to journey to Beijing to conduct these negotiations, but the Qing refused to grant an imperial audience, which delayed the negotiations. He thus spent several months waiting in Macao for permission to travel to Beijing before finally giving up on that hope. Once he did so, the Qing negotiator, Qi Ying, quickly agreed to all the American terms (which were mostly the same as the British) and the two countries signed a treaty.
January 1, 1858
Under the threat of an attack on Beijing from British and French forces, the Qing court agreed to sign new treaties with several foreign powers, including the United States.
January 1, 1862
For two decades the chief U.S. representative in China had resided in either Guangzhou or Shanghai (along with all of the other foreign ministers), but after the implementation of the Treaties of Tianjin foreign legations were finally set up in the capital.
January 28, 1867
In 1867 the Qing decided to send China’s first diplomatic mission to the Western nations in order to renegotiate its treaties, and asked U.S. envoy Anson Burlingame to head the mission. With permission from the U.S. Government, Burlingame resigned his post and led two Qing officials to the United States and Europe.
January 1, 1872
Yung Wing (Rong Hong), a naturalized U.S. citizen who received a degree from Yale University in 1854, formed the Chinese Education Mission (CEM) in 1870 with approval and support from the Government of China. The program hoped to train Chinese to work as diplomats and technical advisors to the government. He brought a group of 30 students, all teenaged males, from China to the United States for a comprehensive American education and to live with American families.
Before the program ended, about 120 students took part, and some chose not to return to China.
January 1, 1878
China finally established a diplomatic mission in Washington, D.C., with Chen Lanping appointed as the chief of mission. Chen had been appointed in 1875, but did not establish the post until 1878.
January 1, 1888
Early in 1888, the United States and China signed the Bayard-Zhang Treaty, by which the Qing agreed to prohibit all new Chinese migration for 20 years and limited the classes of Chinese who could return to the United States after a trip home. The agreement did not violate the Burlingame Treaty of 1868 because the United States did not institute the prohibitions, but it drew opposition from the Chinese populace. However, before the treaty was ratified, Congress passed the Scott Act, which canceled the right of return for Chinese residents who left the United States for any reason.
January 1, 1892
This Act extended the Chinese Exclusion Act’s prohibition on Chinese immigration for another ten years (until 1902),
August 1, 1899
In the late 19th century, anti-foreign sentiments merged with rural unrest and mystical cults to give rise to the Boxer movement. Practicing martial arts and espousing a slogan of “support the Qing, destroy the foreign,” the “Boxers United in Righteousness” targeted all foreigners and Chinese Christian converts, who suffered violent attacks. The Uprising reached a peak in the spring and summer of 1900 when Boxer forces marched on Beijing, with the support of the Qing court.