Baron Adolphe Marie Maurice Joostens (23 September 1862 – 21 July 1910), was a Belgian diplomat. As a signatory of the Boxer Protocol, the final act at the Algeciras Conference and the Colonial Charter in which the Congo Free State was ceded to Belgium, Joostens was an important Belgian diplomat in the age of New Imperialism. Throughout his career, Joostens was able to gain the absolute confidence of king Leopold II of Belgium and eventually he became one of the monarch's favourite diplomats.
Background Maurice Joostens was born in one of the richest and most prominent families of the Belgian city of Antwerp. The wealth and influence of the Joostens family had, according to the legend, their origins in a lucky investment that Mathias Joostens had made during the age of Napoleon Bonaparte. He accidentally put an extra '0' on an order and bought 5,000 instead of 500 bales of coffee. Because of inflation during the Continental Blockade he suddenly had a fortune in his hands and was no longer a modest merchant. This story even inspired Hendrik Conscience to fictionalize this anecdote and write the book Eene 0 te veel. The family was subsequently able to rise among the ranks of the Antwerp bourgeoisie and Maurice Joostens his grandfather Constantin Joostens became a senator for the Belgian Liberal Party. Besides from the influence and capital of his family Joostens had also other assets to become a diplomat. His trip to Egypt with his influential uncle Arthur Van Den Nest in 1882 and Joostens orientalist report Du Caire au Tropique are for example prime examples of his fascination for foreign countries. In the meantime Joostens had completed his studies at the University of Paris, the University of Leuven and the Université libre de Bruxelles and he obtained his degree in arts. Before he pursued a career in the diplomacy, Joostens shortly followed in the footsteps of his father being active in the Antwerp banking scene where he had a job at the Handelsbank.
Diplomatic career
Early career
On 7 December 1885, Joostens filed his request at the Belgian ministry for foreign affairs to become a so-called attaché de légation and this was the start of his diplomatic career. First, he was, from April 1886 until January 1889, the second-class secretary at the legation in Madrid, then headed by Edouard Anspach, the brother of Jules Anspach. In 1889, Joostens made promotion to the legation in Cairo, where he served the Belgian imperial interests of, for example, Édouard Empain and the Tramways d'Alexandrie. Shortly after his displacement to Egypt, Joostens was again promoted. This time he became first-class secretary in the highly ranked legation in London. There he could further develop his diplomatic skills both on the European and the imperial diplomatic theatre.
Washington D.C.
As a result of an internal reorganisation in the Belgian diplomatic corps, Joostens was able to further develop his career. The new minister for foreign affairs Paul de Favereau promoted him in 1896 to Washington D.C. where he would be the new conseiller de la légation or advisor of the legation. Under the auspices of Gontran de Lichtervelde Joostens showed remarkable diplomatic skill. In 1898 the then prince Albert of Belgium made a visit to the United States together with his physician L. Melis and Harry Jungbluth. For this occasion Joostens was named the diplomatic attaché to this group. This was because of the commercial and imperialist agenda of this voyage, not only was Albert's visit a way for the future king to learn the country better, his uncle Leopold II of Belgium saw in this trip a great opportunity to tighten the Belgian-American relations on the imperialistic scene. By order of Leopold II, Joostens used the allure of the royal visit to attract investors for a Belgian-American cooperation to build the Beijing–Hankou Railway. It was in this context that Joostens had several contacts with the American senator Calvin S. Brice who to Joosten's regret died during the American-Belgian negotiations. Although he didn't succeed to forge a cooperation between the American China Development Company and the Belgian investments backed by Leopold II, Joostens was able to show his feel for the diplomatic game in this episode and obtain the appreciation of the king. Next to the royal visit of prince Albert and the Beijing-Hankou Railway, the remarkable plan to make the Philippines a Belgian protectorate after the Spanish–American War was a third case in which Joostens was active.
The Hague
During his holidays in Belgium recovering from an uninterrupted three years stay in the United States, Joostens was named secretary for the Belgian delegation for the Hague Peace Conference of 1899. This conference was an initiative of the Russian Tsar Nicolas II and is one of the prime examples of pacifism in the eve of the First World War. During this conference Joostens could gain more experience in the field of international relations under the guidance of delegation leader and well-known disarmament advocate Auguste Beernaert. The latter would even win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1909 for his presence at The Hague Conventions.
Beijing
Arrival
Only fourteen years after his first application to the Belgian ministry of foreign affairs, Joostens was promoted in the winter of 1899 to the rank of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at the court of the Chinese emperor and the king of Siam. When Joostens arrived in Beijing to replace baron Carl de Vinck de Deux-Orp, he ended up in the Legation Quarter where all the foreign legations were situated and in which there was a very distinctive diplomatic culture with its own practices and rules. In this context, Joostens could rely on a competent team of Belgian lower-ranking diplomats and officials. The most remarkable members of the Belgian legation in this time were, for example, Alphonse Splingaerd, son of the Belgian Mandarin Paul Splingaerd, Leopold Merghelynck, Adrien de Mélotte de Lavaux, who would become director of the Sino-Belgian Bank in Shanghai, and Emile de Cartier de Marchienne, who would become the Belgian ambassador to both China.
Boxer Rebellion and the Siege of the International Legations
Shortly after Joostens' arrival, the Boxer Rebellion, of which the first features showed in the winter of 1899, would reach its peak. This rebellion had anti-foreign, anti-Christian and mystical features and had among other things its origins in a crop failure in 1899, decades of frustrations about the Western presence in China and the chaos and internal struggles at the Chinese court following the failed Hundred Days' Reform. The wrath of the rebels was first aimed at Chinese Christians but later faced towards the foreign presence in China. Since the Belgians were not unlike the other foreign investments deemed unwanted elements in the Chinese society, the Beijing-Hankou Railway was also attacked and several Belgian engineers, missionaries and officials were killed. During the first quarrels in the streets of the Legation Quarters Joostens was accused of having killed several rebels, but since the Austro-Hungarian government offered to protect the Belgian legation, it is more likely that these soldiers have fired these shots. After the assassination of the German envoy Klemens von Ketteler near the Belgian legation and the refusal of the foreign diplomats to leave the Legation Quarter after Empress Dowager Cixi ordered them to do so, the rebellion reached a turning point. From now on, the Chinese Empire was at war with the foreign countries, and in this context, Joostens had to defend from 13 June until 16 June 1900, together with the other Belgians and the Austro-Hungarian marines, the Belgian legation. Despite their efforts, they were not able to repel the rebels and had to retreat to first the French and later the British legation. In the meantime, the Belgian legation, which was located in an isolated corner in the Legation Quarter, was plundered and set on fire. On 20 June 1901, the rebels sieged, in collaboration with Imperial Chinese Army, the Legation Quarter and with this act the so-called Siege of the International Legations was put in place. Shortly after the rebels sieged the Legation Quarter, the foreign powers gathered their forces and formed the Eight-Nation Alliance to crush the rebellion . Leopold II had also been very keen to participate and even privately funded a Belgian Expeditionary Corps but Kaiser Wilhelm II strongly opposed this idea and the king had to give up this plan.
Conference of Peking
When Beijing (Peking) was relieved on 14 August 1901 by the Eight-Nation Alliance, the Boxer Rebellion came to an end, but this meant by no means the end of instability in China. Nevertheless, both the foreign powers ( France, Germany, Japan, United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands and Spain) and the pro-foreign officials at the Chinese court such as Li Hongzhang and Yikuang (Prince Qing) wanted to reach a settlement over the Chinese responsibility in the rebellion. The negotiations that took place in this context, between 26 October 1900 and 7 September 1901, are known as the Conference of Peking and they would among other things focus on the indemnities on the one hand and the punishment of the leaders of the rebellion on the other hand. Although Ernest Mason Satow and Alfons Mumm von Schwarzenstein, respectively the British and German envoy, preferred from the start on that only the members of the Eight-Nation Alliance settled these matters, Joostens succeeded to conquer his place at the negotiation table. He was able to do so thanks to his active role since the first meeting on 26 October 1900 and the support of French envoy Stephen Pichon.
From then on, Joostens nevertheless was not able to have strong voice. This was a result of the small state position of Belgium because of the lack of military input in the Eight-Nation Alliance, a reflection of the quite unimportant status of Belgium in Europe and the omnipresent influence of his minister for foreign affairs Paul de Favereau. Although Joostens was not seen as one of the most important envoys present, the lack of cooperation between the different nations offered the possibility to have a certain influence. The Belgian envoy was for example the chairman of the Committee on the Indemnities and inspired by the losses of the Societé d’Étude de chemins de fer en Chine, the Belgian company behind the Beijing-Hankou Railway, he proposed to include also indirect losses of companies and societies in the indemnity claims. Next to that, Joostens also persuaded his colleagues to lower the proposed embargo on the trade and production of arms to a span of only two years and by doing so, he favoured the interests of FN Herstal and the Belgian arms factories in general. The most important contribution of Joostens from a Belgian perspective was his role in the compilation of the Belgian indemnities. Cooperating very closely with Paul de Favereau Joostens was active in almost every aspect of this task. He verified the indemnity claims, he communicated and negotiated with the French envoys and Stephen Pichon about the indemnities of Beijing-Hankou Railway and questioned the claims of other countries in order to safeguard the payment of the Belgian claims.