312 A Positive Century (1815–1914)In 1877, the question of the applicability of Eu ro pe an international law to
the oriental states was placed on the agenda of the Institute of International
Law, with the British admiralty lawyer Travers Twiss appointed as rapporteur
for a study on the subject. Nothing very defi nite came of this eff ort, however.
In 1879, Twiss recommended dropping the issue from consideration, although
he did remark that a distinction should be made between, on the one hand,
the more advanced and centralized states such as Turkey, China, Japan, and
Persia and, on the other hand, “pagan and semi- savage populations.”
Th ere was only one clear example of formal transfer of status from the
category of barbarous to civilized: that of the Ottoman Empire. In the Treaty
of Paris of 1856, at the conclusion of the Crimean War, Turkey (which had
been allied to Britain and France during the confl ict) was formally invited
to “participate in the advantages of the public law and concert of Eu rope.”
To the present day, Turkey stands universally acknowledged to be a Eu ro-
pe an state.
Exporting International Law to the Far East
Th e principal fi gure in China’s introduction to the international legal ways
of its overseas strangers was an American medical missionary (and future
ambassador to China) named Peter Parker. He founded China’s fi rst hos-
pital in Canton in 1835 and later introduced the practice of anesthesia. In
addition, he introduced a mild tonic for the body politic of the country, in
the form of a translation into Chinese (rather loosely) of three passages from
Vattel’s treatise. Th is occurred in 1839, at the request of the Chinese gover-
nor general of the provinces of Hunan and Hupeh, in the context of a dis-
pute over China’s right to prohibit the importing of opium, in which British
traders were then doing a worryingly lively business. One of the passages
asserted the right of states to prohibit imports of foreign goods, as an exer-
cise of state sovereignty. Another concerned the right to wage war in vindi-
cation of rights that had been violated. Th e Chinese government promptly
moved to make use of this exotic intellectual import. It enacted an offi cial
prohibition against the importing of opium, rendering the valuable trade il-
legal at a stroke.
Th at was not, however, the end of the story. Th e enforcement mea sures
that China took against opium smugglers caused off ense in Western quar-