to vassal states, and even invaded Sri Lanka. However, the fleet was later dismantled and the Ming emperors thereafter fostered Haijin isolationist policies that limited international trade and foreign contacts to a handful of seaports and other locations. These policies saw a gradual reversal after the arrival of European explorers such as Jorge Álvares (the first foreigner to travel to China by sea) and Rafael Perestrello and, although a war was initially fought against the Portuguese Empire, the Portuguese were granted a colonial settlement at Macau in the 16th century. Catholic Jesuit missions in China were also introduced, with Matteo Ricci being the first European allowed to enter the Forbidden City of the Ming emperors in Beijing. During the subsequent Qing dynasty Jesuits from Europe such as Giuseppe Castiglione gained favor at court until the Chinese Rites controversy and most missionaries were expelled in 1706. The dissolution of the Mongol empire in the fourteenth century made Central Asian trade routes dangerous and forced Western European powers to explore ocean routes. Following the Portuguese and Spanish Empire, Protestant powers such as the Dutch Empire and the British Empire began trading with China in the early 17th century. The Kingdom of Great Britain granted a monopoly of trade with China to the British East India Company in 1600, and Qing court moved to control this burgeoning trade with the West by creating the Canton System in 1756, granting a monopoly of trade to the merchants of the Thirteen Factories and restricted it to Canton (as Guangzhou was then known) in the south. The British Macartney Embassy of 1793 failed to convince the Qianlong Emperor to open northern Chinese ports for foreign trade or establish direct relations. The growing British importation of goods such as tea was offset by the illicit British sale of opium to smugglers. However, the Qing unilateral banning of the sale of opium led to the Opium Wars and Chinese defeat. The 1842 Treaty of Nanking replaced the Canton system with a series of treaty ports, ending the tributary system as well. Background In premodern times, the theory of foreign relations of China held that the Chinese Empire was the Celestial Dynasty, the center of world civilization, with the Emperor of China being the leader of the civilized world. This view saw China as equivalent to "all under heaven". All other states were considered to be tributaries, under the