Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, Boxer Movement, or Yihetuan Movement (traditional Chinese: 義和團運動; simplified Chinese: 义和团运動), was an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist, and anti-Christian uprising in North China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists. Its members were known as the "Boxers" in English, owing to many of them practicing Chinese martial arts, which at the time were referred to as "Chinese boxing". It was defeated by the Eight-Nation Alliance of foreign powers. Following the First Sino-Japanese War, villagers in North China feared the expansion of foreign spheres of influence and resented Christian missionaries who ignored local customs and used their power to protect their followers in court. In 1898, North China experienced natural disasters, including the Yellow River flooding and droughts, which Boxers blamed on foreign and Christian influence. Beginning in 1899, the movement spread across Shandong and the North China Plain, destroying foreign property such as railroads, and attacking or murdering Chinese Christians and missionaries. The events came to a head in June 1900, when Boxer fighters, convinced they were invulnerable to foreign weapons, converged on Beijing with the slogan "Support the Qing government and exterminate the foreigners". Diplomats, missionaries, soldiers, and some Chinese Christians took refuge in the Legation Quarter, which the Boxers besieged. The Eight-Nation Alliance—comprising American, Austro-Hungarian, British, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Russian troops—invaded China to lift the siege and on 17 June stormed the Dagu Fort at Tianjin. Empress Dowager Cixi, who had initially been hesitant, supported the Boxers and on 21 June issued an imperial decree that was a de facto declaration of war on the invading powers. Chinese officialdom was split between those supporting the Boxers and those favouring conciliation, led by Prince Qing. The supreme commander of the Chinese forces, the Manchu general Ronglu, later claimed he acted to protect the foreigners. Officials in the southern provinces ignored the imperial order to fight against foreigners. The Eight-Nation Alliance, after initially being turned back by the Imperial Chinese military and Boxer militia, brought 20,000 armed troops to China. They defeated the Imperial Army in Tianjin and arrived in Beijing on 14 August, relieving the 55-day Siege of the International Legations. Plunder and looting of the capital and the surrounding countryside ensued, along with summary execution of those suspected of being Boxers in retribution. The Boxer Protocol of 7 September 1901 provided for the execution of government officials who had supported the Boxers, for foreign troops to be stationed in Beijing, and for 450 million taels of silver—more than the government's annual tax revenue—to be paid as indemnity over the course of the next 39 years to the eight invading nations. The Qing dynasty's handling of the Boxer Rebellion further weakened both their credibility and control over China, and led to the Late Qing reforms, and to a greater extent the Xinhai Revolution. BackgroundOrigin of the Boxers The Righteous and Harmonious Fists arose in the inland sections of the northern coastal province of Shandong,[9] a region which had long been plagued by social unrest, religious sects, and martial societies. American Christian missionaries were probably the first people who referred to the well-trained, athletic young men as the "Boxers", because of the martial arts which they practised and the weapons training which they underwent. Their primary practice was a type of spiritual possession which involved the whirling of swords, violent prostrations, and incantations to deities.[10] The opportunities to fight against Western encroachment were especially attractive to unemployed village men, many of whom were teenagers.[11] The tradition of possession and invulnerability went back several hundred years but took on special meaning against the powerful new weapons of the West.[12] The Boxers, armed with rifles and swords, claimed supernatural invulnerability against cannons, rifle shots, and knife attacks. The Boxer groups popularly claimed that millions of soldiers would descend out of heaven to assist them in purifying China of foreign oppression.[13] Members demonstrated their claimed invulnerability to new initiates by firing guns loaded with blank rounds at one another.[14] In 1895, despite ambivalence toward their heterodox practices, Yuxian, a Manchu who was the then prefect of Cao Prefecture and would later become provincial governor, cooperated with the Big Swords Society, whose original purpose was to fight bandits.[15] The German Catholic missionaries of the Society of the Divine Word had built up their presence in the area, partially by taking in a significant portion of converts who were "in need of protection from the law".[15] On one occasion in 1895, a large bandit gang defeated by the Big Swords Society claimed to be Catholics to avoid prosecution. "The line between Christians and bandits became increasingly indistinct", remarks historian Paul Cohen.[15] Some missionaries such as Georg Maria Stenz also used their privileges to intervene in lawsuits. The Big Swords responded by attacking Catholic properties and burning them.[15] As a result of diplomatic pressure in the capital, Yuxian executed several Big Sword leaders but did not punish anyone else. More martial secret societies started emerging after this.[15] The early years saw a variety of village activities, not a broad movement with a united purpose. Martial folk-religious societies such as the Baguadao ('Eight Trigrams') prepared the way for the Boxers. Like the Red Boxing school or the Plum Flower tradition, the Boxers of Shandong were more concerned with traditional social and moral values, such as filial piety, than with foreign influences. One leader, Zhu Hongdeng (Red Lantern Zhu), started as a wandering healer, specialising in skin ulcers, and gained wide respect by refusing payment for his treatments.[16] Zhu claimed descent from Ming dynasty emperors, since his surname was the surname of the Ming imperial family. He announced that his goal was to "Revive the Qing and destroy the foreigners" (扶清滅洋 fu Qing mie yang).[17] The enemy was seen as foreign influence. They decided the "primary devils" were the Christian missionaries while the "secondary devils" were the Chinese converts to Christianity, which both had either to repent, be driven out or killed.[18][19] Causes The movement had multiple causes, both domestic and international. Escalating tensions caused Chinese to turn against "foreign devils" who engaged in the Scramble for China in the late 19th century.[20][page needed] The Western success at controlling China, growing anti-imperialist sentiment, and extreme weather conditions sparked the movement. A drought followed by floods in Shandong province in 1897–98 forced farmers to flee to cities and seek food.[21] A major source of discontent in northern China was missionary activity. The Boxers opposed German missionaries in Shandong and in the German concession in Qingdao.[9] The Treaty of Tientsin and the Convention of Peking, signed in 1860 after the Second Opium War, had granted foreign missionaries the freedom to preach anywhere in China and to buy land on which to build churches.[22] There was strong public indignation over the dispossession of Chinese temples that were replaced by Catholic churches which were viewed as deliberately anti-feng shui.[23] A further cause of discontent among Chinese people were the destruction of Chinese burial sites to make way for German railroads and telegraph lines.[23] In response to Chinese protests against German railroads, Germans shot the protestors.[24] Economic conditions in Shandong also contributed to rebellion.[25] Northern Shandong's economy focused significantly on cotton production and was hampered by the importation of foreign cotton.[25] Traffic along the Grand Canal was also decreasing, further eroding the economy.[25] The area had also experienced periods of drought and flood.[25] A major precipitating incident was anger at the German Catholic Priest Georg Stenz, who had allegedly serially raped Chinese women in Juye County, Shandong.[23] In an attack known as the Juye Incident, Chinese rebels attempted to kill Stenz in his missionary quarters,[23] but failed to find him and killed two other missionaries. The German Navy's East Asia Squadron dispatched to occupy Jiaozhou Bay on the southern coast of the Shandong peninsula.[26] In December 1897, Wilhelm declared his intent to seize territory in China, which triggered a "scramble for concessions" by which Britain, France, Russia and Japan also secured their own sphere of influence in China.[27] Germany gained exclusive control of developmental loans, mining, and railway ownership in Shandong province. Russia gained influence of all territory north of the Great Wall,[28] plus the previous tax exemption for trade in Mongolia and Xinjiang,[29] economic powers similar to Germany's over Fengtian, Jilin and Heilongjiang. France gained influence of Yunnan, most of Guangxi and Guangdong, Japan over Fujian. Britain gained influence of the whole Yangtze valley[30] (defined as all provinces adjoining the Yangtze, as well as Henan and Zhejiang[28]), parts of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces and part of Tibet.[31][non-primary source needed] Only Italy's request for Zhejiang was declined by the Chinese government.[30] These do not include the lease and concession territories where the foreign powers had full authority. The Russian government militarily occupied their zone, imposed their law and schools, seized mining and logging privileges, settled their citizens, and even established their municipal administration on several cities.[32] In October 1898, a group of Boxers attacked the Christian community of Liyuantun village where a temple to the Jade Emperor had been converted into a Catholic church. Disputes had surrounded the church since 1869, when the temple had been granted to the Christian residents of the village. This incident marked the first time the Boxers used the slogan "Support the Qing, destroy the foreigners" (扶清滅洋; fu Qing mie yang) that later characterised them.[33] The Boxers called themselves the "Militia United in Righteousness" for the first time in October 1899, at the Battle of Senluo Temple, a clash between Boxers and Qing government troops.[34] By using the word "Militia" rather than "Boxers", they distanced themselves from forbidden martial arts sects and tried to give their movement the legitimacy of a group that defended orthodoxy.[35] Violence toward missionaries and Christians drew sharp responses from diplomats protecting their nationals, including Western seizure of harbors and forts and the moving in of troops in preparation for all-out war, as well as taking control of more land by force or by coerced long-term leases from the Qing.[36] In 1899, the French minister in Beijing helped the missionaries to obtain an edict granting official status to every order in the Roman Catholic hierarchy, enabling local priests to support their people in legal or family disputes and bypass the local officials. After the German government took over Shandong, many Chinese feared that the foreign missionaries and possibly all Christian activities were imperialist attempts at "carving the melon", i.e., to colonise China piece by piece.[37] A Chinese official expressed the animosity towards foreigners succinctly, "Take away your missionaries and your opium and you will be welcome."[38] In 1899, the Boxer Rebellion developed into a mass movement.[9] The previous year, the Hundred Days' Reform, in which progressive Chinese reformers persuaded the Guangxu Emperor to engage in modernizing efforts, was suppressed by Empress Dowager Cixi and Yuan Shikai.[39] The Qing political elite struggled with the question of how to retain its power.[40] The Qing government came to view the Boxers as a means to help oppose foreign powers.[40] The national crisis was widely perceived as caused by "foreign aggression" inside,[41] even though afterwards a majority of Chinese were grateful for the actions of the alliance.[42][page needed] The Qing government was corrupt, common people often faced extortions from government officials and the government offered no protection from the violent actions of the Boxers.[42] Qing forcesThe military of the Qing dynasty had been dealt a severe blow by the First Sino-Japanese War and this had prompted military reform that was still in its early stages when the Boxer rebellion occurred and they were expected to fight. The bulk of the fighting was conducted by the forces already around Zhili with troops from other provinces only arriving after the main fighting had ended.[43]
The failure of the Qing forces to withstand the Allied forces was not surprising given the limited time for reform and the fact that the best troops of China were not committed to the fight, remaining instead in Huguang and Shandong. The officer corps was particularly deficient; many lacked basic knowledge of strategy and tactics, and even those with training had not actively commanded troops in the field. In addition, the regular soldiers were noted for their poor marksmanship and inaccuracy, while cavalry was ill-organised and was not used to its full extent. Tactically, the Chinese still retained their belief in the superiority of defence, often withdrawing as soon as they were flanked, a tendency attributable to their lack of combat experience and training as well as a lack of initiative from commanders who would rather retreat than counterattack. However, accusations of cowardice were minimal; this was a marked improvement from the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, as Chinese troops did not flee en masse as before. If led by courageous officers, the troops would often fight to the death as occurred under Nie Shicheng and Ma Yukun.[44] On the other hand, Chinese artillery was well-regarded, and caused far more casualties than the infantry at Tientsin, proving themselves superior to Allied artillery in counter-battery fire. The infantry, for their part, were commended for their good usage of cover and concealment in addition to their tenacity in resistance.[44] The Boxers also targeted Jewish groups in the region destroying their reputation and leading to Britain temporarily vacating their civilian workers from the front lines. [citation needed] Boxer WarIntensifying crisis In January 1900, with a majority of conservatives in the imperial court, Cixi changed her position on the Boxers and issued edicts in their defence, causing protests from foreign powers. Cixi urged provincial authorities to support the Boxers, although few did so.[45] In the spring of 1900, the Boxer movement spread rapidly north from Shandong into the countryside near Beijing. Boxers burned Christian churches, killed Chinese Christians and intimidated Chinese officials who stood in their way. American Minister Edwin H. Conger cabled Washington, "the whole country is swarming with hungry, discontented, hopeless idlers".[46] On 30 May the diplomats, led by British Minister Claude Maxwell MacDonald, requested that foreign soldiers come to Beijing to defend the legations. The Chinese government reluctantly acquiesced, and the next day a multinational force of 435 navy troops from eight countries debarked from warships and travelled by train from the Taku Forts to Beijing. They set up defensive perimeters around their respective missions.[46] On 5 June 1900, the railway line to Tianjin was cut by Boxers in the countryside, and Beijing was isolated. On 11 June, at Yongdingmen, the secretary of the Japanese legation, Sugiyama Akira, was attacked and killed by the forces of General Dong Fuxiang, who were guarding the southern part of the Beijing walled city.[47] Armed with Mauser rifles but wearing traditional uniforms,[48] Dong's troops had threatened the foreign legations in the fall of 1898 soon after arriving in Beijing,[49] so much that United States Marines had been called to Beijing to guard the legations.[50] Wilhelm was so alarmed by the Chinese Muslim troops that he requested Ottoman caliph Abdul Hamid II to find a way to stop the Muslim troops from fighting.[ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
