Prior to the nineteenth century, much of what was known as the Far East remained closed to all but the most determined missionaries, traders, and sea captains. But in the nineteenth century the countries of these regions were confronted head-on by Western nations and forced into an expanding level of contactan opening that was fraught with domestic social unrest and foreign conflict, especially in China. Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Asia and the West illustrates the interaction between Asia and the West through a variety of rich source material, predominantly including US State Department consular and diplomatic records, British Foreign Office political correspondence, missionary correspondence and journals, and socio-economic journals.
Asia and the West: Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange