Religion Beyond the Empire

Nineteenth-Century Britain was known for its political and military power - the British Empire - but also for its religious fervor. This religious spirit was prominent in England and throughout the British Empire, through the creation of the Protestant mission organizations that sent missionaries throughout the world. China presented a unique mission field for early British missionaries, as it was not a formal part of the British Empire and it had such a large population of people who had never been exposed to Protestant Christianity. The years 1842 to 1866 were the formative period of the British Protestant mission in China. It was during this time that these missionaries first began the task of building the foundation for a Christian mission among the Chinese people. Examining the interactions between the Protestant missionaries and Catholic missionaries - who had been in China since the sixteenth century; interactions between Protestant missionaries themselves; and between the Protestant missionaries and the Chinese people provides an important insight into the difficulties faced by this early Protestant Christian mission.