The Boxer Rebellion occurred during the height of America's "imperialist" conquests, involving the annexation of Hawaii, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam. The end of the 19th century saw an international attempt to control China. This involved numerous countries all vying for China's resources, including America, Russia, Britain, France, Japan, Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Italy.
However, the Chinese were not supportive of the imperialist conquest, and this gave birth to a secret society named the Yihequan, or Right and Harmonious Fists. This secret society was quickly named "The Boxers" because they were fit and trained young men who performed martial arts exercises that they believed could stop bullets. Many of these boxers came from the impoverished Shandong province, that had been struck by natural disaster. Starting in the early 1890s, this secret society carried out attacks against western traders, missionaries, and Chinese Christians, all in an effort to push back against western influence. The movement began gaining massive support after the boxers besieged Peking in June 1900. This siege was backed by the Empress of China, who declared war on all imperialist nations in China.
The boxer rebellion mobilized a massive 350,000 Chinese in support of driving away the foreign invaders. Of course, the imperialist nations did not take kindly to this. The seven nations listed early formed a joint alliance ironically called the China relief expedition, and rapidly brought in over twenty thousand troops to reclaim control over China and its abundant natural resources. The siege of Peking was finally lifted two months after it began, and it is interesting to note that the liberating army consisted mostly of Rajputs from India, which was another British Colony.
The end of the war came quickly, and all officials supporting the rebellion were executed. China was forced to pay $10 billion in current day silver prices, and tens of thousands of Chinese rebels were killed. This massive war reparation lead to another uprising that marked the end of the 300 year long Qing dynasty. Although America has never really been thought of as an "imperialist nation" like Britain, it certainly did its fair share of colonizing and crushing the colonies' natives.
https://www.history.com/topics/boxer-rebellion
https://www.britannica.com/event/Boxer-Rebellion
https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1999/winter/boxer-rebellion-1.html
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/boxer.htm
Thank you for the excellent post Alan! I found some more information about the impact the rebellion had on China's reputation and how others perceived China. The writer Arthur Ward created the evil (and racist caricature) of Dr Fu Manchu in 1913 after fear of Chinese dominance in Europe spread. This fear of a "yellow peril" spread across the continent and was a manifestation of not just fear of a Western influence in Asia, but the fear of an Asian influence in the West. Additionally, I also found it interesting that China to this day is trying to label the Boxer Rebellion. It both represented Chinese culture/tradition and nationalism, while also representing more negative characteristics of racism and refusal to hear new ideas.
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Great post Alan. It's interesting to see how almost hypocritical Americans were. America was founded out of rebellion against foreign influence and control, yet we would not recognize the rights of the Chinese to be in control of their own nation. It's always ironic to see these contradictions in our ideals throughout American history: the subjugation of the Native Americans, slavery, occupation of the Philippines, etc. I also found it interesting that only around 20,000 troops were able to overwhelm the 350,000 rebels.
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