The Boxer Rebellion in China

1394 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Boxer rebellion cause

The Boxer Rebellion in China

“China never wanted foreigners any more than foreigners wanted China men, and on this question I am with the Boxers every time. The Boxer is a patriot. He loves his country better than he does the countries of other people. I wish him success. The Boxer believes in driving us out of his country. I am a Boxer too, for I believe in driving him out of our country” – Mark Twain, Berkeley Lyceum, New York, Nov 23, 1900.

The Boxer Rebellion soul purpose was to liberate China from foreign influence. Foreign capitalists dictated corrupt government officials and controlled leading industrial parts of Northern China. Chinese overseers were upset over this issue and contemplated for a solution. A revolt was the key and the outcome of the Boxer Rebellion was disastrous for China and its dynasty. Countless officials were executed, extensive payments had to be made and in addition, foreign troops were stationed in China as the dynasty lost its control. To this extent, the Boxer Rebellion was a failure in its aftermath, although successful in its unification.

During the 1890’s, the Chinese people felt that foreigners not only had brought commercial and territorial demands but also had corroded the Chinese culture. Educated Chinese felt that foreigners humiliated China and they resented even the lowliest European clerk. China then was bombarded with European religion, science, and art from the Jesuit missionaries. As time passed, the power of China grew weaker because successive emperors failed to bring China into the modern world.

The Boxer Uprising of 1899-1900 was a turning point in China's history. Economic hardship, anti-foreign feeling, widespread belief in superstition by the uneducated lower class fueled this peasant rebellion. The Empress Dowager publicly opposed the Boxers, but her ministers convinced her to join forces in order to drive foreigners from China. In the early months of 1900, thousands of Boxers roamed the countryside, attacking Christians. When an international force of 2,100 soldiers attempted to land in China, the Empress Dowager ordered her imperial army to stop the foreign troops.

The "Boxer Rebellion" was the name the European and American newspapers gave to a religious, anti-foreign uprising in China in 1900. The Boxers were consisted mainly of martial artists that targeted Christian missionaries in Chi...

... middle of paper ...

...st like the two opium wars before, the consequences were drastic. The failure of the Boxer Rebellion brought increased foreign influence into China. This was an excuse for the powerful countries of Europe, American and Japan to interfere with and take partial control over China. The Qing dynasty was humiliated and lost its control. The mandate was slowly slipping away as European influence increased in regions of Canton and Kiakhta.

Throughout the nineteenth century, foreigners took control of China and forced the people to make humiliating concessions. Italy, Japan, and Russia all claimed exclusive trading rights to certain parts of China. They divided the nation into "spheres of influence" where they had exclusive trading rights. The Americans proposed an "Open Door Policy" where all nations would share China. Today, China is it is own country is a power in it is own right, with a huge say in world affairs. No doubt its experience in the Boxer rebellion as well as the two opium wars kindled its nationalistic feelings and sent it on it's long road to independence and power.

http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Pool/6208/title_page.htm

http://www.mrdowling.com/613-boxer.html

Show More
Related

  • The Boxer Rebellion and The Great Game in China by David J. Silbey

    623 Words  | 2 Pages

    As written in the book The Boxer Rebellion and the Great Game in China by David J. Silbey, the author gives an account of the Boxer Rebellion. David J. Silbey, the author gives an account using allied soldier and diplomat’s letters and diaries of the Boxer Rebellion. The Boxer Rebellion is an anti-foreigner movement in China during 1900. The conclusion of this rebellion lead to China having signed the Boxer Protocol in September 1901(Page 225). This treaty entailed the Chinese paying reparations to the United States, Russia, Britain, Germany, France, Japan, Italy, and Austria-Hungary.

    Read More

  • Genghis Khan and the making of the Modern World

    1542 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...ed Chinese culture then and still does now. The Mongol Global Awakening caused new technological advancement, such as carpenters using general adze less and adapted more specialized tools. There were new crops developed as well (235). The Mongol preeminence was destroyed as a result of the Black Plague.

    Read More

  • The Boxer Rebellion

    879 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the nineteenth century China’s emperors watched as foreign powers began to encroach closer and closer upon their land. Time after time, China was forced to make embarrassing concessions. Foreign militaries more modernly armed would constantly defeat the imperial armies. As the dawn of a new century was about to begin, Empress Tsu Hsi of the Ch’ing Dynasty searched for a way of ridding her empire of the foreign invaders.

    Read More

  • The Motivations of the 19th Century American Anti-chinese Movement

    1379 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the late 19th century, a national wide anti-Chinese movement took place in the United States of America. The Chinese immigrants were excluded by the Native Americans. Their stores were stolen; their houses were burned down and even worse, many of them were killed. However, if we refer back the history of America, we will find that the early Chinese immigrants were accepted by Americans and were not the immediate targets of hostility or violence. In addition, the prosperity of America, especially the southern part of it own a lot to the efforts Chinese men had made. Then why was there so significant a change of the Americans' sentiment towards the Chinese people in the late 19th century? I would like to analyze this issue in the following paper.

    Read More

  • Westernization in China and Japan

    1311 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the middle of the 19th century, despite a few similarities between the initial responses of China and Japan to the West, they later diverged; which ultimately affected and influenced the modernizing development of both countries. At first, both of the Asian nations rejected the ideas which the West had brought upon them, and therefore went through a time period of self-imposed isolation. However, the demands that were soon set by Western imperialism forced them, though in different ways, to reconsider. And, by the end of the 19th century both China and Japan had introduced ‘westernizing’ reforms. China’s aim was to use modern means to retain and preserve their traditional Confucian culture. Whereas Japan, on the other hand, began to successfully mimic Western technology as it pursued modernization, and thus underwent an astounding social upheaval. Hence, by the year 1920, Japan was recognized as one of the world’s superpowers, whereas China was on the edge of anarchy.

    Read More

  • Russo-Japanese War

    2336 Words  | 5 Pages

    Walder, David. The Short Victorious War. (London: Hutchinson & Co Ltd, 1973), 89-90.>> The Boxer Rebellion of 1900 was used by Russia “as a welcome pretext for taking outright possession of most of Manchuria, as a preliminary to turning it into an additional Russian province.” <<5

    Read More

  • Ancient Chinese Civilization, East Asia, and Spread of Buddhism

    1937 Words  | 4 Pages

    In this Treatise have discussed China's classical age and how they influenced all of east Asian culture for over two thousand years. And How Buddhism spread throughout east Asia and evolved into several different schools each embracing the host nations principle and beliefs. I have discussed Confucian teachings and texts have influenced Chinese and Eastern Asian culture and government for centuries. How China overcame invaders from all sides and managed to emerge as a world economic power. And finally how Japan developed its own culture and founded a new social class the Samurai. East Asian History is compelling, deep and complicated. A history that will sound differently each time as their history continues to grow and influence other non Asian cultures.

    Read More

  • The United States and the Era of Imperialism

    2453 Words  | 5 Pages

    The U.S. got a late start in the race for trading rights with China, and with the U.S. now in the Philippines, the race became economically crucial for America. By this time, Great Britain, France, Russia, Germany, and Japan claimed exclusive trading rights with China within their sphere of influence. Some, like Japan, even claimed parts of China as their own. In order to level out the playing field Secretary of State John Hay sent diplomatic dispatches to these nations, urging an Open Door Policy, in which there would be equal trading rights with China. All the dispatches came back to Hay with their corresponding nations endorsing the proposal. However, before the policy was enacted, the Chinese tried to expel the “foreign devils” from their homeland in what was to be called the Boxer Rebellion. This nationalist rebellion was put down by an international police force including 2,500 U.S. troops. These actions of intervention in Latin America and China were part of American imperialism.

    Read More

  • The Downfall of China

    737 Words  | 2 Pages

    were of no avail to the poor Chinese civilians as their profits on land and education.

    Read More

  • Western Imperialism and Modern East Asia

    1194 Words  | 3 Pages

    The imperial realms of East Asia before the 19th century were largely based on the theory that Asian countries were far better than their neighbors in the West. The nonchalant manner portrayed by East Asian countries towards western technology and culture led China to become unknowledgeable of the Western empires. As a result, China was astonishingly impacted by imperialism from Great Britain during the 1800’s. During the 18th century Great Britain had set up trade off the coast of the Chinese borders to trade British silver for China’s soft silks, fine porcelain, and strong teas. During this period Qing officials overlooked the foreign brokers. By the early 1800’s, however, Great Britain b...

    Read More

  • British-Chinese Relations in the Nineteenth Century and Alicia Bewicke Little's Novel, A Marriage in China

    4894 Words  | 10 Pages

    Voiced at mid-century, this statement paradoxically depicts the Chinese as both "enveloped" by backwardness, yet capable of reform and progress; as ignorant, superstitious, and characterized as pest-like "vast hordes of populations," yet also seen as equal partners with the British in a "mutual intercourse." This varied and contradictory opinion could just have easily been voiced at the end of the nineteenth century. In a way, this statement can be seen as representative of the history or, more accurately, the story of the relationship between ...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The West Unique, Not Universal

    701 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many societies who viewed Western culture as parasitic were forced to adapt to Western culture for survival. For China, the Americans made the Chinese dependant on them for supplying Opium. When the Chinese fought against the sale of Opium, the America 's superior military defeated them and forced them into an unfair treaty. This created a Western presence in China, pushing Western laws, values, religion, and language on the Chinese. The embarrassing defeat of China directly influenced Japan to voluntarily accept Western culture. Both Japan and China adopted bits and piece from Western culture and adapted it to their traditional culture rather than becoming Westernized. The Boxer Rebellion is proof to China’s refusal to accept Western culture in particular for of Christianity. The slaughtering of practicing Christians, both Chinese and Western, is a very distinct rejection of Western

    Read More

  • The Fall of the Qing Dynasty

    1673 Words  | 4 Pages

    The early nineteenth century was the beginning of the Qing Dynasty’s downfall. During this century multiple issues, including economic pressures, corruption, domestic rebellions and foreign wars, challenged ...

    Read More

  • The 1911 Chinese Revolution

    1164 Words  | 3 Pages

    He Lian Bo Bo Da Wang (Mei Yi), Yi Jiu Yi Yi, Ge Ming Yu Su Ming (Hong Kong, Hong Kong Open Page Publishing Co, Ltd., pp.1-35, 138-157. Hsueh, Chun- tu, The Chinese Revolution of 1911: New Perspectives (Hong Kong: Joint _____Publishing Co., 1986), pp.1-15, 119-131, 139-171. Lin Jiayou, Xin Hai Ge, Ming Yu, Zhong Hua Min, Zu De Jue Xing (Guangzhou, Guangdong _____Ren Min Chu Ban She, 2011), pp.

    Read More

  • The Alliance Between China and the Soviet Union

    1591 Words  | 4 Pages

    Historical conceptions of China’s culture and global position shaped the PRC’s perspective. Central to this is Sino-centrism and its edict from heaven for dynastic China to spread civilisation (Xinning 2001: 70). Imperial China’s tribute system represented a “Pax Sinica” and the physical manifestation of Sino-centrism, with its success affirming Chinese cultural superiority (Y. Zhang 2001: 52). Instructive in this is Sino-centrism’s similarity to, and conflict with American Manifest Destiny, itself an articulation that Anglo-Saxon American’s are God’s chosen people, with a superior culture and who are pre-ordained to spread civilisation to inferior peoples (Hollander 2009: 169). The PRC’s nationalism can be seen in part as a rejection of this competing celestial mandate, linking China’s decline to foreign intervention and the acceding to unequal treaties that saw the loss of peripheral territories considered intrinsic to historic China (Kissinger 2011: 112). In this way, the PRC’s formation as a modern nation state is the recrudescence of Sino-...

    Read More

More about The Boxer Rebellion in China

Open Document