The Boxer’s Rebellion

The Boxer’s RebellionQuestions to be addressed:– China before the Boxers– Origins – Nature/purposes– Composition – Expansion– Violence as a result of the

Boxers– Settlement– Reassessment

Qing China Confronted the West Western powers

proved to be a formidable threat to Qing government China began to

suffer from another wave of foreign invasion, this time from Europe

Allies soldiers slaughtered boxers

The Opium War (1839-1842) Cause, burning of opium, Lin Zexu Qing’s defeat by British humiliated Qing

government and the Chinese “Treaty of Nanjing” stipulated China’s war

compensation in twelve articlesone says, “The island of Hong Kong to be possessed in

perpetuity” by Victoria and her successors, and ruled as they “shall see fit”

British merchants and soldiers entered Canton as a result of its opening as a treaty port were with anti-British attacks by rural militias and urban mobs

Violent attackers were met by British reprisals and reciprocal atrocities

More Western Presence

Many Chinese began to realize that British army and navy are superior to China’s

More foreign presence/aggression in China coincided with waves of domestic turbulence, such as the Taiping and Nian

The advance of foreign intrusion“Second Opium War,” or “Arrow

War” (1856-1860)British moved jointly with the

Americans and French to press for treaty revision

Qing search of British ship, “Arrow,” a smuggler’s ship furnished British pretext for a new series of military action

Results of the Violent War Violent war took

place in 1859 before the forts of Dagu, where Qing army was defeated

Twenty thousand British and French troops entered into Bejing, sacked and burnt the Summer Palace, the famous Yuan-ming-yuan, to the ground Yuanming yuan ruins

China Encircled

In the end of 1850’s, Qing China was encircled by foreign powersRussia in the

northwest—invaded Xinjiang

Japan in the east—occupied the Ryukyu Islands

France in the southeast Asia and southeast China—took Vietnam, laid seige to Ningpo, occupied the Penghu Islands (Pescadores) British soldiers slaughtered

boxers

War with Japan Japan’s

sweeping economic and institutional reforms of the Meiji Restoration, which began in 1868, made Japan a strong power Captivated

Boxers

Japan’s military expansion Resulted in:

the annexation of Ryukyus (1879)

seizing Korean palace during its domestic rebellion (1894)

seizing Chinese harbor at Lüshun

Defeating Chinese Northern Fleet (2 battleships, 10 cruisers, 2 torpedo boats (1895)

Treaty of Shimonoseki ceded Taiwan to Japan “in perpetuity” Allies soldiers whoring

Late Qing’s Modernization Effort

Both the Taipings and foreign powers pushed the Qing to strengthen itself through modernization:The Taipings:

Competent governors learned experience from their wars with the Taipings

Foreign powers:Superiority of western weaponry The humiliating defeat by Japan in Sino-

Japanese war in 1895

• French and British invasion in 1860 forced the Qing to adopt a conciliatory policy toward foreign powers• Leader of more

open-minded reformers: Yi Xin and Wen Xiang

• The Conservatives in the Qing court blocked the reform• The Empress

Dowager Cixi, Yi Huan, Wo Ren

Cixi ordered the Boxers to fight allies’ armies

Before the Boxers: China Crucified

During 1898 and 1899, foreign powers intensified their pressures and outrages on ChinaThe Germans occupied QingdaoThe British took over Weihaiwei

Also forced the Qing to lease a large area of fertile farmland on the Kowloon peninsula north of Hong Kong for 99 years, which the British called “The New Territories”

The Russians occupied Lüshun

The French claimed special rights in China’s southwesten provinces and on the island of Hainan

The Japanese, already masters of Taiwan, intensified their economic penetration of central China

The US wanted China to declare an “open door” policy, under the terms of which all countries agree not to deny others’ access to their spheres of influences

The Chinese began to fear that their country was about to be “carved up like a melon” (guafen)

Boxers in Tianjin

• Early phase of the Boxers—Restore the Han and Destroy the Manchus

The Boxer Uprising (1898-1901)

“The Boxers United in Righteousness” (Yihequan) appeared as an expression of nationalismEmerged in

northwest Shandong in 1898

Yellow Dragon Triangular Banner

• A collective force of a variety of secret-society and self-defense units that had spread in southern Shandong previously in response to the provocations of Western missionaries and their Chinese converts

• Desperate local farmers and workers plagued by flood and drought joined the force to call for the ending of special privileges enjoyed by Christian converts and Christian missionaries

• By 1898, they had destroyed/stolen a good deal of property from Chinese Christians and had killed several converts in the Shandong-Hebei border area

• Foreigners, alarmed by the Boxers killing, demanded that the Qing suppress the Boxers and their supporters

Boxers’ Banner

• The Boxers responded with a slogan, “Revive the Qing, destroy the foreign”

• Many boxers believed they were invulnerable to swords and bullets in combat

• “when at last the Foreign Devils/Are expelled to the very last man/The Great Qing, united, together/Will bring peace to this our land” –one catchy jingle

Empress Dowager Cixi Foreigners killed Chinese during the Boxer Rebellion

The Expansion of the Boxers The Boxers expanded

dramatically 70 percent were poor peasants,

male and young The rest were mixture of

itinerants and artisans Peddlers, rickshaw men, sedan-

chair carriers, canal boatmen, leather workers, knife sharpeners, barbers, dismissed soldiers, salt smugglers

Joined by female Boxer groups, such as the Red Lanterns Shining (Hongdeng zhao)

They harassed or killed foreigners and Chinese converts, and sometimes even those possessed foreign objects

The Qing court wavered between punishing the Boxers who killed foreigners and condoning their show of anti-foreign “loyalty”

Qing Declaration of WarWestern forces seized the forts at Dagu to provide

cover for a troop landing, should full-scale war broke out

News of battle at the Dagu ports arrived Beijing, which agitated Qing court and Beijing citizensGerman minister was shot dead in the street as he went to

an interview with the Zhongli Yamen, which was in charge of foreign affairs

The Boxers force laid siege to the foreign-legation areasPraising the Boxers as a loyal militia, the empress

dowager Cixi issued a “declaration of war” against the foreign powers

Boxers’ Propaganda

Full-Scale War With the government behind them, the Boxers launched a

series attacks on mission compounds and on foreigners In August 1900, the colonial troops of the Allied nations,

about 20,000, fought they way through Beijing Soldiers of eight nations sacked the city and burnt imperial palace,

the Forbidden City, and used it as the headquarters for the foreign expeditionary force

Boxer resistance quickly crumbled, hundreds of thousand were killed

More than two hundred foreigners were killed Empress Dowager and Emperor Guangxu fled to the West,

establishing a temporary capital in the city of Xi’an

Allies Army entered the Gate of the Qing

The US Army, March 1912, after the Boxer Rebellion

Allies Artillery

Foreign soldiers slaughtered boxers in Beijing, summer 1900

Allies taking picture in front of Dehong Lou, Nanhai ; (standing in the center) German Field Marshal Alfred von Waldersee

The Northern Gate of the Forbidden City, Allies’ Victory Parade

Allies holding “occupation ceremony” in front of Golden Water Bridge at Tiananmen, after occupied Beijing in August 15, 1900

“The Invaders” in front of German Embassy

Ruined churches, Beijing

Defensive work in front of and insider the British embassy

Arrested Boxers suspects

Outer City of Beijing, destroyed by British army

Foreign Missionaries in Beijing

Missionaries before the Boxers, often regarded as precursors of European imperialism

Imprisoned Chinese churchmen and missionaries

Empress Dowager, Cixi, returned to Beijing

German soldiers in Yihe Yuan

German army forced Chinese to slave

Chinese slaved by German soldiers

Japanese artillery in front of the Desheng Gate

RevolutionQing’s being “carved up like a melon”

was a national disgrace, which Han Chinese could not tolerate

Revolutionaries wanted to overthrow the Manchu state “to avenge the national disgrace”, and “to restore the Chinese”