Protectorate of missions

rdf:langString Protectorate of missions

rdf:langString Protectorate of missions is a term for the right of protection exercised by a Christian power in a Muslim or other non-Christian country with regard to the persons and establishments of the missionaries. The term does not apply to all protection of missions, but only to that permanently exercised in virtue of an acquired right, usually established by a treaty or convention (either explicit or tacit), voluntarily consented to or accepted by the non-Christian power after more or less compulsion. The object of the protectorate may be more or less extensive, as it may embrace only the missionaries who are subjects of the protecting power or apply to the missionaries of all nations or even to the native Christians who are their recent converts. To comprehend fully the nature of the protectorate of missions, it will be necessary to study separately the Protectorate of the Levant and that of the Far East. This article deals with a historical approach to the 'legitimation' of protectorates by the need to facilitate the 'holy' duty of spreading the Christian faith, as invoked by Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant colonial/imperial powers. This comprises the missions of the countries under Ottoman rule, especially Constantinople, the Archipelago, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Barbary, etc. It was French in origin, and was, until near the end of the nineteenth century, the almost exclusive privilege of France.