Russia at the turn of the 19th centuryPolitics and state
Rezanov’s embassy to Japan
The first Russian embassy to Japan, led by Nikolai Rezanov, arrived in Nagasaki aboard the sloop Nadezhda, but after six months of waiting the shogunate refused it both trade and diplomatic relations.
- Date
- 26 September (8 October) 1804 – April 1805start: exact date; end: month known · duration: ≈ 7 monthsJulian calendar (Old Style); the Gregorian date (New Style) is in brackets
- Place
- Nagasakitoday: Nagasaki, Japan · East Asia
- Participants
- Russian Empire, Tokugawa shogunate, Nikolai Rezanov, Adam Johann von Krusenstern
- Threads
- Russia at the turn of the 19th century
The envoy carried gifts and was bringing home Japanese sailors who had been shipwrecked off the Aleutian Islands in 1794. Rezanov was given a house on the shore but kept in isolation; only on 4–5 April 1805 (New Style) did the governors of Nagasaki and a commissioner from Edo receive him and announce the refusal, and in April the Nadezhda left for Kamchatka. The failure pushed Rezanov toward the use of force on Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, which sharply worsened Russo-Japanese relations.
Connections
Causes and preconditions
- Adam Laxman’s embassy to Japan13 (24) September 1792 – 8 (19) September 1793 · East AsiaRezanov brought to Nagasaki the permit issued to Laxman in 1793
Part of
- First Russian circumnavigation26 July (7 August) 1803 – 7 (19) August 1806 · Eastern Europe
Related events
- Portuguese on Tanegashima — the first Europeans in Japan1543 · East AsiaThe Portuguese were the first Europeans in Japan; after 1639 the country was closed to all Europeans except the Dutch, and Rezanov’s embassy was turned away
- Founding of Fort RossMarch – 30 August (11 September) 1812 · North Americaafter his failure in Japan, Rezanov visited San Francisco in 1806 and proposed founding a Russian settlement in California
Same participants
- Assassination of Paul I12 (24) March 1801 · Eastern Europevia Russian Empire
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Coronation of Napoleon2 December 1804
- Premiere of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony7 April 1805
- Battle of Trafalgar21 October 1805
- Napoleonic Code (French Civil Code)21 March 1804
- Battle of Austerlitz20 November (2 December) 1805
Eastern Europe
- First Russian circumnavigation26 July (7 August) 1803 – 7 (19) August 1806
Balkans and Anatolia
- First Serbian Uprising14 February 1804 – 7 October 1813
Middle East and Egypt
Africa
- Battle of Blaauwberg and the capture of the Cape Colony8–18 January 1806
- Jihad of Usman dan Fodio21 February 1804 – 1808
North America
- Lewis and Clark Expedition14 May 1804 – 23 September 1806
- Louisiana Purchase30 April – 20 December 1803
Latin America
- Balmis Expedition30 November 1803 – 14 August 1806
- Haitian Declaration of Independence1 January 1804
- Haitian Revolutionbetween 21 August and 22 August 1791 – 1 January 1804