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, 09:13, 30 March 2020
*''Born: [[1829]]''
*''Died: [[1899]]''
Charles LeGendre was a French-born American diplomat who served for a time as US ambassador to [[Amoy]], and later as an advisor to both the [[Meiji government]] in Japan and to [[Emperor Gojong]] of [[Korean Empire|Korea]]. He played a key role in the events surrounding the [[Taiwan Incident of 1871]] and [[Taiwan Expedition of 1874]].
In [[1867]], he met with [[Taiwanese aborigines|Taiwanese aboriginal]] leaders and received a promise from some of them that vessels flying the US flag would not be attacked.
After a number of [[Miyako Islands|Miyako Islanders]] were killed by members of the Paiwan people on [[Taiwan]] in [[1871]], LeGendre and [[Charles DeLong]] advised the Japanese government that, according to the standard (Western) international law of the time, since the [[Qing dynasty|Qing Empire]] explicitly stated that it did not exert effective (''de facto'') control over certain sections of Taiwan - those dominated by aborigines - the territory was therefore essentially ''terra nullius''; DeLong and LeGendre advised the Japanese that if Japan were to occupy the territory, Western/modern international law could regard that territory as rightfully becoming Japan's.<ref>Jordan Walker, "Archipelagic Ambiguities: The Demarcation of Modern Japan, 1868-1879," ''Island Studies Journal'' 10:2 (2015), 214.</ref>
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==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Foreigners|LeGendre]]
[[Category:Diplomats|LeGendre]]
[[Category:Meiji Period|LeGendre]]