Extraterritoriality as a paradigm of nineteenth-century international relations: US-Japan case (1854–1894)

Even if President Fillmore emphasized that in congress their goal was not to have a colony, United States' growing interests to Eastern Asia with increasing fishery and transportation activities in the Pacific from the beginning of the 1850s turned Japan into a semi-colony country, and this situation constitutes the subject of this thesis. United States' extraterritorial rights that caused Japan to become a semi-colony country together with the treaties, and how these rights are applied by the United States will be subjected to a comprehensive review and evaluation within this context. Imperialism dominating international relations, and imperialist policies implemented by countries led to competition and conflict of interest by the beginning of 19th century. Extraterritoriality and extraterritorial rights obtained by treaties - with roots dating back to ancient times - provided legal judgements to states, to apply their own law in economics, and a protection guarantee to their citizens in that competitive environment, legally. On the other hand, although the concept of sovereignty in the post-Westphalia period continued to be questioned it can be interpreted as the violation of the sovereignty of the states considering with extraterritoriality. According to United States, China, Japan, the Ottoman State, Korea, Iran and Thailand (Siam) constitute the examples of these semi-colonization practices. With the proposed thesis study, the concept of extraterritoriality that used by United States as a semi-colonization practice is aimed to be investigated in the light of United States law. It can be seen in the literature, there are very few studies about extraterritoriality concept in Japan perspective that clarifies the US-Japan relations. For this reason, by using first-hand archive sources it is desired to make a contribution to this subject.