Page 52 - History of War - Issue 10-14

THEBOXER

REBELLION

WORDS TOM FORD
In 1900 a pro-nationalist uprising laid siege

to Beijing, seeking to expel all foreigners. This
national crisis would define China’s future, but

had its roots decades before…

upport the Qing, exterminate the (1856-60)erupted,thistimewiththeFrench
foreigners.” It’s a mantra that would fighting alongside the British, with support from
“Scome to characterise the Society of Russia and the US.
Righteous and Harmonious Fists – the secret After more humiliating defeats, the Emperor
Chinese organisation Westerners came to Xianfeng fled from the war in 1860 and left his
know as Boxers. Over a hundred years later, brother Yixin, the Prince Of Gong, to effectively
the group’s philosophy and practices seem end the conflict by negotiating the Treaty Of
primitive. They performed possession rituals, Tianjin. This wasn’t completed before Anglo-
complete with chanting and swordplay, which French troops looted and burned the sacred
they believed rendered them impervious to Summer Palaces in Beijing’s Forbidden City.
Western weaponry and made them capable of With the signing of the treaty, more ports
flight. But in 1900, their numbers were enough were opened to Western trade, permanent
to lay siege to Beijing in the pivotal moment diplomatic presence of foreigners was
of the Boxer Rebellion, an uprising against granted, and they were allowed unprecedented
the increasingly controlling foreign powers in right of way in the country. Also, Christians
China. Like many other rebel groups throughout were given full civil rights, including the right
history, the Boxers grew out of significant social to own property and evangelise, which
and economic unrest, at a time and place naturally led to the building of many Christian
where conflict was inevitable. churches. This invasive religious influence
Tensions between Chinese natives and would become a major factor in the Boxers’
foreign influence had been growing for decades revolt 40 years later.
and there were several outbreaks of war. 60 Another conflict that weakened China’s
years earlier, China had fought Britain in the positioning against foreign powers was the First
First Opium War (1839-42), a conflict that Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), in which China
derived from disputes over Chinese-European fought Japan over control of Korea. Once again,
trade, most notably China’s abolishment of the Chinese military was outmatched, since it
British opium imports and seizure of over 1,200 was in desperate need of modernisation. Since
tons of opium without compensation. the beginning of the First Opium War, it had
Despite the greater numbers of Chinese, suffered millions of casualties. Now, for the first
the British army easily defeated them and time ever, Japan became East Asia’s biggest
consequently the power of the Qing dynasty, power – a fact that dealt another blow to the
which had ruled China for almost 200 years reputation and legitimacy of the Qing dynasty,
by this point, was weakened. The Treaty of and enabled Japan to join Western powers in
Nanking strengthened British power and began their efforts to dominate, divide and ultimately
what historians would later call the ‘Century Of profit from the control of China.
Humiliation’ that endured within China. During By now, European powers held so much
this time the imperialist powers of Japan and economic and social control that opposition
the Western world wielded major influence over to foreign imperialism was becoming rife.
the country. The Westerners drove foreign and domestic
In the mid-1850s, Britain demanded the policy; the commonly held belief was that the
renegotiation of the treaty to further strengthen foreign powers had not only humiliated China
its trading power. When the Qing authorities with defeats in previous wars, but the control
– which had attempted to shirk the original they had gained in the aftermath was largely
terms of the treaty wherever possible – rejected responsible for China’s defeat to Japan. Due
Britain’s new demands, the Second Opium War to “unequal treaties” that had been imposed

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