Raasløff was born at
Altona in the
Duchy of Holstein. He spent his school years at
Sorø and in 1832 he was admitted to the Royal Military College (
Kgl. Militære Højskole), from which he graduated in 1838 as second lieutenant in the artillery. Instead of serving in Denmark, he applied for service abroad and in 1840–41 he served in the
French Army in
Algeria. He later summarized his experiences in Algeria in a book, which was translated into several languages. In 1849–50, he served as captain in the Danish army in the
First War of Schleswig, however, in 1851, he left the military in order to go to America and become an engineer. In 1857, he was appointed Denmark's
Minister Resident in Washington, DC. On behalf of King
Christian IX, he concluded the first
commercial treaty between Denmark and the
Qing Empire on 13 July 1863, a treaty which was modeled on the
Treaties of Tianjin and governed the relationship between the two countries for several decades. Between 1 October 1866 and 19 April 1870, he served as the
War Minister of Denmark. He died during 1883 in Paris. ==References==