The Boxer Rebellion

1. The Boxer Rebellion • On which group did the Boxers focus their attention?

2. Aim: How did the Chinese attempt to end foreign imperialism in their country?

3. The Boxer’s Rebellion • Questions to be addressed: • China before the Boxers • Origins • Nature/purposes • Composition • Expansion • Violence as a result of the Boxers • Settlement • Reassessment

4. What was the Boxer Rebellion? Nationalist movement (late 19th century) Boxer war (1900-1901) Contact with Western countries The Boxer Rebellion Img source: http://www.sacu.org/boxers.html

5. Sun YatSen’s Nationalist Movement • Main goals: • To make China a modern state. • Create national unity in China • Create a more democratic China • Get foreign powers out of China

6. What started it? • Christian missionaries - entered China in the early 19th century • Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism - favoured religions • ‘The Society of Righteous Fists’, or ‘Boxers’ • Pressure from foreign powers • Opium trading

7. 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

8. Boxer War: • Confrontation b/w 'Eight Nation Alliance' (Russia, Japan, USA, Britain, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy) and the Boxers. • 21st of June 1900 - The Qing government declared war on all Christians and allied foreigners • The 'Siege of Peking' Img source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/china-postcard/4510532354/sizes/o/in/photostream/

10. Before the Boxers: China Crucified • During 1898 and 1899, foreign powers intensified their pressures and outrages on China • The Germans occupied Qingdao • The 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

11. 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)

12. The Boxer Rebellion • Many Chinese resented the western influence in China which led to the Boxer Rebellion to, “drive out the foreign devils”. • The Boxers attacked foreigners across China. • They were defeated by the European powers, the U.S. and Japan.

13. Boxers in Tianjin

14. Early phase of the Boxers—Restore the Han and Destroy the Manchus

15. The Boxer Uprising (1898-1901) • “The Boxers United in Righteousness” (Yihequan) appeared as an expression of nationalism • Emerged in northwest Shandong in 1898 Yellow Dragon Triangular Banner

16. 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

17. 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

18. Foreigners, alarmed by the Boxers killing, demanded that the Qing suppress the Boxers and their supporters Boxers’ Banner

19. 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

21. Foreigners killed Chinese during the Boxer Rebellion Empress Dowager Cixi

22. 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

23. Qing Declaration of War • Western 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 citizens • German 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 areas • Praising the Boxers as a loyal militia, the empress dowager Cixi issued a “declaration of war” against the foreign powers

24. Boxers’ Propaganda

25. 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

26. Allies Army entered the Gate of the Qing

27. The US Army, March 1912, after the Boxer Rebellion

29. Allies Artillery

30. Foreign soldiers slaughtered boxers in Beijing, summer 1900

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

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

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

34. “The Invaders” in front of German Embassy

35. Ruined churches, Beijing

36. Defensive work in front of and insider the British embassy

37. Arrested Boxers suspects

38. Outer City of Beijing, destroyed by British army

39. Foreign Missionaries in Beijing

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

41. Imprisoned Chinese churchmen and missionaries

42. Empress Dowager, Cixi, returned to Beijing

43. German soldiers in Yihe Yuan

44. German army forced Chinese to slave

45. Chinese slaved by German soldiers Japanese artillery in front of the Desheng Gate