Everything about Andreas Everardus Van Braam Houckgeest totally explained
Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest (born 1 November 1739 in
Werkhoven, died 8 July 1801 in
Amsterdam)
Dutch-American merchant who is mostly known for his participation in the last
Dutch embassy to
China under the
tributary system.
Early career
In 1757, van Braam joined the
Dutch Navy as a midshipman, but soon left the navy for China in order to work for the
Dutch East India Company (VOC). In 1758, van Braam arrived in China, and for the remaining eight years he was engage in trade in
Guangzhou and
Macau. During his sojourn in China, he left for Europe twice and married Catharina Cornelia Geertruida van Reede van Oudthoorn on his last visit.
In 1773, van Braam left China and the following year, he settled in a county-seat near
Zutphen in the province of
Gelderland. Inspired by the
American Revolution, he decided to immigrate to the
United States and settled in
Charleston to work as a merchant and rice planter in 1783. He became a US citizen the following year. As a consequence of a family tragedy, van Braam decided to leave the US and take up a position as chief of the Dutch factory in Guangzhou. After a long journey, with stops in the Netherlands,
Malacca and
Batavia, he arrived in Guangzhou in 1790.
Embassy to China
Having learned about the British
Macartney Embassy to the
Qing court in 1793, he requested that the commissioners-general in
Batavia send a VOC embassy to the court of the
Qianlong Emperor for the celebration of his sixtieth year on the throne. Batavia accepted the suggestion, but appointed the chief of the Dutch trading mission in
Dejima,
Isaac Titsingh (1745-1812) as head of the Dutch embassy instead of van Braam.
In November 1794, the embassy, which included van Braam and
Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes (son of
Joseph de Guignes) left Guangzhou and it arrived in
Beijing in January 1795, just in time for Chinese new year.
In Bejing, the embassy was received together with representatives of other tributary countries and the members of the embassy performed the
kowtow in front of the emperor according to Chinese custom. Unlike British diplomats, the members of the Dutch embassy didn't refuse to perform the kowtow.
Van Braam had retained his US citizenship and thus became the first American to meet a Chinese emperor.
The embassy was lavishly entertained for the remainder of their stay and they were allowed to have additional audiences with the Qianlong emperor at his palace outside Beijing.
The members of the Titsingh mission, including van Bram, were the last European diplomats to savour the mid-winter splendor of the vast Summer Palace (the
Yuangmingyuan) before it was recklessly and efficiently looted and destroyed by the Lord Elgin's troops during the punative Second Opium War in 1860.
Later life
Upon the embassy's return to Guangzhou in March 1795, van Braam was unable to find a ship bound for the Netherlands and chose to board a ship to
Philadelphia, where he arrived in 1796. Van Braam's arrival in the city attracted a lot of attention and he published an account of his journey, which he dedicated to
George Washington. Van Braam decided to stay in the area and settled in
Bristol outside the city. In 1798, he decided to leave the United States for unknown reasons, and after short stays in
Germany and
England, he bought a small property in Amsterdam, where he died in July 1801.
Works
- van Braam Houckgeest, A.E. (1797). Voyage de l'ambassade de la Compagnie des Indes Orientales hollandaises vers l'empereur de la Chine, dans les années 1794 et 1795. Philadelphia: M.L.E. Moreau de Saint-Méry.
-
. (1798). An authentic account of the embassy of the Dutch East-India company to the court of the emperor of China in the years 1794 and 1795. London: R. Phillips.
Further Information
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