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”