Diplomatic history facts for kids

Diplomatic history is all about understanding how countries have talked to each other and worked things out over time. It's like looking back at the friendships, arguments, and agreements between different nations.

While "international relations" often focuses on what's happening now and how countries interact today, diplomatic history dives deep into the past. It explores how diplomacy – the art of managing relationships between countries – has changed throughout history.

History of Diplomacy

How Diplomacy Started in Europe

Being able to talk and negotiate with other groups is a key part of what makes a country a country. Diplomacy has been around for thousands of years, ever since the first city-states (like small independent countries) were formed.

For a long time, diplomats were only sent out for special talks. They would go, finish their job, and then come right back home. These diplomats were usually important people, often related to the ruling family, to make sure they were taken seriously.

There was one interesting exception: the relationship between the Pope (the leader of the Catholic Church) and the Byzantine Emperor in Constantinople. The Pope had special agents called apocrisiarii who lived there all the time. But after the 700s, disagreements caused these close ties to break.

Modern diplomacy, as we know it, really started in the small states of Northern Italy during the early Renaissance (around the 13th century). This is when the first permanent embassies were set up. Milan was a leader in this, especially under Francesco Sforza. He created permanent embassies to other Italian city-states. Many of the customs of modern diplomacy, like presenting an ambassador's official papers to the head of state, began in Italy.

From Italy, this new way of doing diplomacy spread across Europe. Milan sent a representative to France in 1455. However, Milan was careful and didn't want French representatives in their city. They worried about spying and interference in their own affairs. But as powerful countries like France and Spain got more involved in Italian politics, it became clear that accepting foreign representatives was necessary.

Soon, major European powers were regularly exchanging diplomats. Spain was the first to send a permanent ambassador to England in 1487. By the late 1500s, having permanent diplomatic missions became a normal thing. The Holy Roman Emperor, though, didn't usually send permanent diplomats because they couldn't represent all the different German princes.

During this time, the rules for modern diplomacy continued to grow. The highest-ranking diplomat was an ambassador. An ambassador was usually a nobleman, and their rank depended on how important the country they were sent to was. Ambassadors had to live in large homes, host fancy parties, and be a big part of the host country's court life. In Rome, which was a very important place for Catholic ambassadors, the French and Spanish representatives might have had a team of up to a hundred people! Even in smaller places, ambassadors were very expensive. Smaller countries would send envoys, who were a step below ambassadors. There was also a position called "minister plenipotentiary," which was somewhere in between.

Diplomacy was very complicated back then, even more so than today. Ambassadors from different countries were ranked by a complex system of importance, which often led to arguments. Countries were usually ranked by the title of their ruler. For Catholic nations, the diplomat from the Vatican was the most important. Then came those from kingdoms, followed by those from duchies and principalities. Representatives from republics were considered the least important. Deciding who was more important between two kingdoms depended on many things that often changed, causing constant disagreements.

French diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord is seen as one of the most skilled diplomats ever.

Ambassadors were nobles who often didn't have much experience with foreign countries. They also didn't expect to have a long career in diplomacy. Because of this, they needed a large staff at the embassy to help them. These professional staff members would stay for longer periods and knew much more about the host country than the high-ranking officials. Embassy staff included many different types of employees, some even focused on espionage (spying). The need for skilled people to work in embassies led to more people studying international law, modern languages, and history at universities across Europe.

At the same time, permanent foreign ministries began to be set up in almost all European countries. These ministries helped coordinate the embassies and their staff. They were still quite different from today's ministries and often had other jobs too. For example, Britain had two departments that often had similar responsibilities until 1782. They were also much smaller than they are now. France, which had the largest foreign affairs department, only had about 70 full-time employees in the 1780s.

Modern diplomacy slowly reached Eastern Europe and Russia by the early 1700s. However, everything changed dramatically with the French Revolution and the wars that followed. During the revolution, ordinary people, not just nobles, took over diplomacy for France and the countries its armies conquered. The old ranking system for diplomats was removed. Napoleon even ignored diplomatic immunity, putting some British diplomats in prison because he thought they were plotting against France.

After Napoleon's defeat, the Congress of Vienna in 1815 created a worldwide system for diplomatic ranks. Arguments about which country's diplomats were more important continued for over a hundred years, until after World War II. After that, having an ambassador became the normal practice for most countries. In between these times, people like German Chancellor Otto von Bismark became famous for their international diplomacy skills.

Diplomacy in Asia

Diplomatic traditions outside of Europe were often very different. For diplomacy to work well, you usually need several countries that are somewhat equal in power. This was true in Italy during the Renaissance and in Europe for much of modern history.

However, in Asia and the Middle East, countries like China and the Ottoman Empire were often unwilling to practice diplomacy as equals. They saw themselves as much more powerful than their neighbors. Because of this, they often treated smaller nations as tributaries (countries that paid them tribute) or vassals (countries under their control). For example, the Ottoman Turks didn't send diplomats to other countries. Instead, they expected representatives to come to their capital, Istanbul. It wasn't until the 1800s that the Ottoman Empire set up permanent embassies in other capitals.

Similarly, the Koreans and Japanese during China's Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD) saw the Chinese capital of Chang'an as the center of civilization. They copied China's government system. The Japanese often sent embassies to China during this time. However, they stopped these trips in 894 when the Tang Dynasty was about to collapse. Still, there were times in Chinese history when China was weaker and needed clever international diplomacy.

One of the earliest thinkers about how countries interact was the 6th-century BC military expert Sun Tzu. He wrote The Art of War. He lived during the Warring States Period (403 BC-221 BC) in China. During this time, rival states fought for power and total control. But even then, a lot of diplomacy was needed to make allies, trade land, and sign peace treaties.

After a terrible rebellion called the An Shi Rebellion (755 to 763), the Tang Dynasty was too weak to take back control of Central Asia and the Tarim Basin. After many fights with the Tibetan Empire, the Tang finally made a truce and signed a peace treaty with them in 841.

Portraits of Periodical Offering is a 6th-century Chinese painting. It shows different diplomats, including those from Hephthalites, Persia, Langkasuka, Baekje, Qiuci, and Wo (Japan).

In the 11th century, during the Song Dynasty (960–1279), there were clever diplomats like Shen Kuo and Su Song. They had great success in talks with the Liao Dynasty, a often unfriendly neighbor to the north. Both diplomats used their knowledge of cartography (map-making) and old government records to protect the Song Dynasty's rightful borders. There was also a mix of fighting and diplomacy between these two states and the Tangut Western Xia Dynasty to the northwest of Song China.

Long before the Tang and Song dynasties, the Chinese had sent special envoys into Central Asia, India, and Persia. This started with Zhang Qian in the 2nd century BC. Another important event in Chinese diplomacy was the mission of Zhou Daguan to the Khmer Empire in Cambodia in the 13th century. Chinese diplomacy was very important during the period of Chinese exploration.

Since the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), the Chinese also became very active in sending diplomats on maritime (sea) missions. They traveled into the Indian Ocean, to India, Persia, Arabia, East Africa, and Egypt. Chinese sea travel grew a lot during the commercial period of the Song Dynasty. This was thanks to new sailing technologies, more private ship owners, and more people investing in overseas adventures.

During the Mongol Empire (1206-1294), the Mongols created something like today's diplomatic passport, called a "paiza." There were three types of paiza (gold, silver, and copper), depending on how important the diplomat was. With a paiza, the diplomat had the authority to ask for food, transport, and a place to stay from any city, village, or group within the empire without any problems.

Starting in the 17th century, the Qing Dynasty of China and Czarist Russia signed a series of treaties. The first was the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689. This was followed by the Aigun Treaty and the Convention of Peking in the mid-1800s.

As European power spread around the world in the 1700s and 1800s, Asian countries also began to adopt Europe's diplomatic model and system.

See also

In Spanish: Historia de la diplomacia para niños