Abstract:

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), shortly known as the American Board, was one of the leading Protestant missionary organizations in the United States in the nineteenth century. This study concentrates on the American Board’s missionary activities in China, which have great importance in terms of China’s history. The study also provides information about the history of missionary work that took place within mainland China and formed a partial basis of the regional policies of the Asia-Pacific region and concentrates on their purpose and results. In this study, to limit the American Board’s activities in China, only its impact on Sun Yat-Sen (1866-1925) has been focused on. Sun Yat-Sen was the first provisional President of the Republic of China and is widely known as the “founding father” of the Republic of China, which ended thousands of years of dynastic rule. He is considered one of the most outstanding leaders of modern China. He attended missionary schools and was baptized by American Board missionaries. Although missionaries influenced him throughout his life, he thought the USA had failed him before he died. This study aims to show how effective the American Board was in China through the example of Sun Yat-Sen. After all, as a Christian and an American citizen with a Western-style education, Sun Yat-Sen is a missionary product and has come to the highest position possible in his country.

Keywords: