Boxer Rebellion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Boxer Uprising (Traditional Chinese: 義和團起義; Simplified Chinese: 义和团起义; pinyin: Yìhétuán Qǐyì; Righteous Harmony Society Uprising) was an uprising against Western commercial and political influence in China during the final years of the 19th century, from November 1899 to September 7, 1901[1]. By August 1900 over 230 foreigners, thousands of Chinese Christians, an unknown number of rebels, their sympathizers and other Chinese had been killed in the revolt and its suppression.
Contents |
Anti-Western Movement
The uprising is named for the society known as the Righteous Harmony Society (義和拳) or in contemporary English parlance, "Boxers", a group which initially opposed but later reconciled itself to China's ruling Manchu Qing dynasty.
The Boxer uprising was concentrated in northern China where the European powers had begun to demand territorial, railroad and mining concessions. Imperial Germany responded to the killing of two missionaries in Shandong province (November 1897) by seizing the port of Qingdao. The next month, a Russian squadron took possession of Lushun, in southern Liaoyang. Britain and France followed, taking possession of Weihai and Zhanjiang respectively.
Boxer activity developed in Shandong province in March 1898 in response to both foreign penetration and the failure of the Imperial court's "self-strengthening" strategy of officially-directed development, whose shortcomings had been shown graphically in China's defeat by Japan in 1895.
The early months of the movement's growth coincided with the Hundred Days' Reform (June 11–September 21, 1898), during which the Guangxu Emperor sought to improve the central administration, before the process was reversed at the behest of his powerful aunt, the Empress Dowager Cixi.
After a mauling at the hands of loyal Imperial troops in October 1899, the Boxers dropped their anti-court slogans, turning their attention to foreign missionaries (such as Hudson Taylor) and their converts, whom they saw as agents of foreign colonialist influence. The Dowager Empress Cixi, who actually believed in the Boxers' claim of being magically impervious to both blade and bullet, decided to use the Boxers to remove the foreign powers in China. The court, now under Cixi's firm control, issued edicts in defence of the insurgents, drawing heated complaints from Western diplomats (January 1900).
The conflict came to a head in June 1900, when the rebels, now joined by elements of the Imperial army, boldly attacked foreign compounds within the cities of Tianjin and Peking. The embassies of the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United States, France, Russia, and Japan were all located on the same city block close to the Forbidden City (built there so that Chinese officials could keep an eye on the Ambassadors), and the embassies themselves were strong structures surrounded by walls. The embassies were hurriedly linked into a fortified compound, and became a refuge for Western citizens in Peking. However, the Spanish, Belgian, and German embassies were not on the same compound. Although the Spanish and Belgian embassies were only a few streets away and their staff were able to arrive safely at the compound, the German embassy was on the other side of the city and was stormed before the staff could escape. When the Ambassador for the German Empire, Klemens Freiherr von Ketteler, was kidnapped and killed on June 20, the Western powers declared open war against China. The Chinese court in turn proclaimed hostilities against the powers, who began to prepare military forces to relieve the besieged embassies. In Peking, the fortified embassy compound remained under attack from Boxer forces. Under the command of the British military attaché to China, Claude Maxwell MacDonald, the embassy staff and security personnel defended the compound with one old Austrian Maxim gun and small arms. Wildly exaggerated rumours appeared in the Western media, describing the horrific torture and execution of embassy staff and Western citizens in Peking, and although nearly all of these rumours were completely unfounded, they were effective in drumming up massive anti-Chinese sentiments in Europe, America, and Japan. Despite their efforts, the Boxer rebels were unable to break into the compound, which was relieved by the international army of the Eight-Nation Alliance in July.
Eight nation alliance
The insurgents finally fell to an international force, with British general Gaselee acting as the commanding officer, the Eight-Nation Alliance, eventually numbering 54,000: Japanese (20,840), American (3,420), Austro-Hungarian (75), British (12,020), French (3,520), German (900), Italian (80), Russian (13,150) and anti-Boxer Chinese troops, which captured Tianjin on July 14 and Beijing on August 14. In the United States military, the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion was known as the China Relief Expedition.
Notable exploits during the campaign were the seizure of the Taku Forts commanding the approaches to Tianjin, and the boarding and capture of four Chinese destroyers by Roger Keyes.
In general, the march, about 120 km, from Tientsin to Peking by the allies, on 4 August, was not a particularly harsh one despite approximately 70,000 Imperial troops and anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 Boxers along the way. They only encountered minor resistence and a battle was engaged in Yangtsun, about 30 km outside Tientsin, where the 14th U.S. Infantry and British troops led the assault. The weather, however, sometimes would reach 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) and extremely humid, proving to be a major obstacle.
| Forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance (1900 Boxer Rebellion) |
|||
| Countries | Warships (units) |
Marines (men) |
Army (men) |
| Japan | 18 | 540 | 20,300 |
| Great Britain | 8 | 2,020 | 10,000 |
| Russia | 10 | 750 | 12,400 |
| Germany | 5 | 600 | 300 |
| France | 5 | 390 | 3,130 |
| United States | 2 | 295 | 3,125 |
| Italy | 2 | 80 | |
| Austria | 1 | 75 | |
| Total | 51 | 4,750 | 49,255 |
The United States was able to play a significant role in suppressing the Boxer Rebellion because of the large number of American ships and troops deployed in the Philippines as a result of the U.S. conquest of the islands during the Spanish American War (1898) and subsequent Philippine insurgent activity.
Troops from all nations engaged in plunder, looting and rape. German troops in particular were criticized for their enthusiasm in carrying out Kaiser Wilhelm II's July 27 order to "make the name German remembered in China for a thousand years so that no Chinaman will ever again dare to even squint at a German". This speech, in which Wilhelm invoked the memory of the 5th-century Huns, gave rise to the British derogatory name "Hun" for their German enemy during World War I.
On September 7, 1901, the Qing court was compelled to sign the "Boxer Protocol", also known as Peace Agreement between the Eight-Nation Alliance and China, undertaking to execute ten officials linked to the outbreak and to pay war reparations of $333 million. So great was the sum that much of the money was later earmarked by Britain and the U.S. for overseas education of Chinese students, forming the basis of Tsinghua University. The British signatory of the Protocol was Sir Ernest Satow.
The court's humiliating failure to defend China against the foreign powers contributed to the growth of republican feeling, which was to culminate a decade later in the dynasty's overthrow and the establishment of the Republic of China.
The foreign privileges which had angered Chinese opinion were largely cancelled in the 1930s and 1940s.
Russia had meanwhile been busy (October 1900) with occupying much of the north-eastern province of Manchuria, a move which threatened Anglo-American hopes of maintaining what remained of China's territorial integrity and openness to commerce (the "Open Door Policy") to all comers, but paid the concept only lip service. This behavior led ultimately to a disastrous Russian defeat (conflict) at the hands of an increasingly confident Japan (1904-1905), as they maintained garrisons and improved fortifications between Port Arthur and Harbin along the southern spur line of the Manchurian Railway constructed on their leased lands.
Results
The effect on China was a weakening of the dynasty, although it was temporarily sustained by the Europeans who were under the impression that the Boxer Rebellion was anti-Qing. China's defenses were weakened, and the aunt of the reigning Guangxu Emperor, who was the actual person in command of the country at that time, realized that in order to survive, China would have to reform, despite her previous opposition. Among the Imperial powers, Japan gained prestige due to its military aid in suppressing the Boxer Rebellion and was first seen as a power. Its clash with Russia over the Liaodong and other provinces in eastern Manchurian, long considered by the Japanese as part of their Sphere of influence led to the Russo-Japanese war when two years of negotiations broke down in February of 1904. Germany, as mentioned above, earned itself the nickname "Hun". The Russian Lease of the Liaodong (1898) was confirmed. The American U.S. 9th Infantry Regiment earned the nickname "Manchus" for actions during this campaign. Current members of the regiment (stationed in Camp Casey, South Korea) still do a commemorative 25 mile footmarch every quarter in remembrance of the brutal fighting. Soldiers who complete this march are authorized to wear a special belt buckle that features a Chinese imperial dragon on their uniforms.
In fiction
The events were made into the 1963 film 55 Days at Peking. The film, which was shot in Spain, needed thousands of Chinese extras, and the company sent scouts throughout Spain to hire as many as they could find. The result was that many Chinese restaurants in Spain closed for the duration of the filming because the restaurant staff - often the restaurant's owners - were hired away by the film company. The company hired so many that for several months there was scarcely a Chinese restaurant to be found open in the entire country.[2]
In 1975, Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers studio made a movie titled Pa kuo lien chun of the events, giving director Chang Cheh one of the highest budgets up to that time to tell a sweeping story of disillusionment and revenge. [3] It depicts followers of the Boxer clan being duped into believing they were impervious to attacks by firearms. The fight sequences were choreographed by Liu Chia-Liang (Lau Kar Leung) and it starred Alexander Fu Sheng as well as Wang Lung-Wei.
In the 1995 postcyberpunk novel The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, the Boxer Rebellion is vaguely retold in a 2100s Shanghai setting.
In the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer it was during the Boxer rebellion that the vampire Spike killed his first slayer - a young Chinese woman named Xin Rong.
The popular film series Once Upon a Time in China, starring Jet Li as the legendary martial artist/Chinese doctor Wong Fei Hung, conveys the ambiance and tumult of this time period with many historic events woven into the plotlines.
In the movie Shanghai Knights, the Boxers, led by Wu Chow and backed by British Lord Nelson Rathbone, killed Chon Wang and Chon Lin's father, attempt to assassinate Queen Victoria, unite the Emperor's enemies and storm the Forbidden City in order for their leaders to become King of the United Kingdom and Emperor of China, but they fail.
