Townsend Harris

Townsend Harris was the first United States Consul General to Japan, arriving at Shimoda in 1856. Through persistent negotiation and strategic leverage of Western military threats in China, he secured the Shimoda Convention of 1857 and the milestone Treaty of Amity and Commerce in 1858. This agreement opened key ports including Yokohama and Kobe, established extraterritoriality for American citizens, and set commercial tariffs. The Harris Treaty served as a model for subsequent agreements between Japan and European powers, fundamentally altering Japanese foreign relations and accelerating the internal collapse of the Tokugawa regime.

Timeline

Category
Element

Year	Townsend Harris
1804	Birth of Townsend Harris (Period: October 4, 1804 (some sources state October 3), Location: Hudson Falls, New York, United States. Known at the time as Sandy Hill.)
1820	Commercial activities in New York (Age: 15 years old, Period: 1820s – 1840s, Location: New York City, United States.)
1846	Participation in the New York City Board of Education (Townsend Harris, Age: 41 years old, Period: 1846 – 1848, Location: New York City, United States.)
1847	Establishment of the Free Academy (Age: 42 years old, Period: 1847, Location: New York City, United States.)
1849	Trading journey to Asia (Townsend Harris, Age: 44 years old, Period: 1849 – early 1850s, Location: China, Hong Kong and Shanghai, Southeast Asia, etc.)
1854	Appointment as Consul to Ningbo (Age: 49 years old, Period: 1854, Location: Ningbo, China.)
1855	Commercial treaty negotiations with Siam (Age: 50 years old, Period: 1855 – 1856, Location: Siam Kingdom (current Thailand), Bangkok.) Appointment as First US Consul General to Japan (Age: 50 years old, Period: August 4, 1855, Location: Washington, D.C., United States.)
1856	Second Opium War (Age: 51 years old, Period: 1856–1860, Location: Guangzhou, Tianjin, Dagu, Beijing, etc.) Commercial negotiations after the Treaty of Kanagawa (Age: 51 years old, Period: 1856 – 1858, Location: Shimoda, Edo, Japan.) Arrival in Shimoda and establishment of the consulate at Gyokusen-ji (Age: 51 years old, Period: August 21 – September 1856, Location: Shimoda, Izu Province (current Shimoda City, Shizuoka Prefecture), Japan.)
1857	Death (Age: 52 years old, Period: November 26, 1911, Location: Hayama, Kanagawa Prefecture) Conclusion of the Treaty of Shimoda (Age: 52 years old, Period: June 17, 1857, Location: Shimoda, Japan.) Audience with Shogun Tokugawa Iesada (Age: 53 years old, Period: December 7, 1857, Location: Edo Castle (current Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo), Japan.) Audience with the Shogun at Edo Castle (Age: 53 years old, Period: December 7, 1857, Location: Edo Castle, Japan.)
1859	Promotion to First US Minister Resident to Japan (Age: 54 years old, Period: 1859, Location: Edo (current Tokyo), Japan.)
1861	Assassination of interpreter Henry Heusken (Age: 56 years old, Period: January 15, 1861, Location: Near Akabane, Edo (around current Minato-ku, Tokyo), Japan.)
1862	Return from Japan (Townsend Harris, Age: 57 years old, Period: 1862, Location: From Edo, Japan to the United States.)
1878	Death of Townsend Harris (Age: 73 years old, Period: Died on February 25, 1878, in New York City, United States. Buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.)
Unknown	Marriage (Townsend Harris, None, Period: Said to have been unmarried throughout life., Location: None.)

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Category
Element

Asia World

Group	List
The Qing Dynasty Court	Qianlong Emperor Jiaqing Emperor Daoguang Emperor Xianfeng Emperor Tongzhi Emperor Guangxu Emperor Xuantong Emperor Puyi Empress Dowager Cixi Prince Gong Prince Chun Zaifeng
First Sino-Japanese War	Yamagata Aritomo Oyama Iwao Togo Heihachiro Nogi Maresuke Kodama Gentaro Ito Sukeyuki Kabayama Sukenori Komura Jutaro Katsura Taro Terauchi Masatake Emperor Meiji
East Asian expansion	William Amherst George Macartney Charles Elliot Henry Pottinger Matthew Perry Townsend Harris James Bruce Charles Gordon Robert Hart William Howard Russell

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Townsend Harris

Townsend Harris

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