Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 March 2011
It is not customary to associate Japan with the Crimean War yet there is a very real connection. When the Russo-Turkish conflict expanded into a general European struggle it made out of the North Pacific and the seas around Japan a new arena of friction. Until March of 1854 the fighting had been confined to the Black Sea and the Near East, but with the entrance of Great Britain and France into the war on the side of Turkey the Asiatic colonies and commercial settlements of Russia were brought within the scope of hostilities. Europe, however, continued to remain the major sphere of battle, which fact tended to eclipse the significance of events that were taking place in and around Japan. Historical treatment of the period of the Crimean War has naturally dealt with these more important phases, ignoring almost entirely the Far East.
1 For a documentary account of Lindenberg's expedition to Japan see Eckel, Paul E., “Report of Captain Lindenberg of the Russian-American Company's ship Prince Menchikoff, to the Commander of the colony of Sitka,” translated from the Petersburg, St.Sewernaïa Ptschela, September 7, 1853Google Scholar and reprinted in the Pacific northwest quarterly, vol. 34 (April 1943), pp. 159–67.
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9 Senate executive document, 33rd Congress, 2nd session (1854–1855), No. 34 (serial number 751), 17–18.
10 Ibid., 82.
11 The New-York weekly tribune, August 12, 1854. French and English fleets were allied in Asia as they were in the Black Sea.
12 The New-York weekly tribune, August 12, 1854.
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16 Ibid.
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19 Editorial, “Russian Diplomacy,” The New-York weekly tribune, May 6, 1854.
20 London Times, January 25, 1855.
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25 Ibid., 3–8.
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33 Ibid.; For a complete text of the treaty between Great Britain and Japan see British and Foreign State Papers, XLIV (1853–1854), 62–66.
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48 London Times, October 2, 1855.
49 Official certificates of registration and identification which all British merchant ships must carry and present to port officials upon entering Japanese harbors.
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51 Commander Elliot here mentioned only the governors of the three open ports to treaty nations.
52 Letter dated May, 18SS, from a correspondent on board the Sybille, The Illustrated London news, October 20, 1855.