The Boxer Rebellion

The Boxer Rebellion is two things; one, a violent anti-foreigner movement in China circa around 1900, and two, an incredible band. Today I'll be talking about the former.

The Boxer Rebellion event, while not as musically talented, was an opposition to foreign imperialism and Christian meddling towards China and its people. Basically, the big European powers along with the United States wanted to run China, and the Chinese started to get a little sick and tired of, you know, having unequal treatment in regards to laws, having opium ruin their country, losing their religion, and having foreigners take over everything that's theirs. This is nothing new - the powers that be have already been working away at the sovereignty of China for quite some time now. While I cannot personally understand what got them so worked up, the fact of the matter is they revolted.

A French political cartoon of the invading
forces dividing China. They are also
made to look hilariously like their
stereotypical racial appearances.

The Boxers did not refer to themselves by that name. They were actually called the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, a clearly Chinese name that was somewhat of a secret, underground society of men growing increasingly discontent with the powers of imperialism. Adding the natural disasters and brutal drought that happened around the same time, they reached the breaking point and began to violently rebel against the soldiers of the imposing countries as well as the Christian missionaries that upset them through what I can only assume was constantly reminding them eternal damnation is the result of not accepting Christ. In all fairness, hearing that all the time quickly becomes a downer, I would assume. These Boxers were already spiritual as is - in fact, they believed they possessed the supernatural ability to be invulnerable to cannon fire, rifles and knives. This was most likely due to the fact that the men killed by cannon fire, rifles and knives could not report back to inform them of their deaths.

Before things really took off, Empress Dowager Cixi officially had the policy of suppressing the Boxer movement. The Boxers had been taking shots at Christian churches and leaders here and there, but nothing too substantial as of yet. The Empress had to make a decision (along with the Imperial Court); support the Boxers in an attempt to maintain sovereignty in the country, or attempt to maintain peace by working with the foreign powers. Cixi and the court ruled to back the Boxers, much to the displeasure of the invading forces. The result was a rapid spread of the Boxer movement, killing many freshly converted Chinese Christians, intimidating Chinese officials and burning churches. The foreign response was sending a number of soldiers to Beijing to defend - four hundred soldiers from eight countries rushed in. In retrospect, four hundred doesn't really sound like all that many considering China is kinda big with a lot of people.

Troops from (left to right) Britain, U.S., Australia,
British India, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy and
Russia. Just kidding, the last guy is from Japan. The Russian
must have been in the bathroom or something.

Tensions mounted even higher as time went on. More people were killed on both sides, everyone was angry and the Empress declared war on all foreign powers. The Chinese loyalists (I think you can call them that. Basically the non-Christian-converted Chinese Boxers) attacked the legation quarter of Beijing, basically where the foreigners lived. A small number of French and Italian soldiers, some priests, and (most importantly) 3,200 Chinese Catholics successfully defended the quarter against a large number of attackers.

However, the rest of the converted Chinese did not fare so well. The Boxers annihilated Christians throughout China, arguably the worst event being the Taiyuan massacre. Fourty four foreigners, including women and children, were murdered. Over time the killings continued and the protestant dead were later named the China Martyrs of 1900.

Italian soldiers wearing ponchos and ridiculously goofy hats,
hanging around in China.

In response, the allied forces send in a much larger contingent of soldiers to quell the rebellion. The countries of Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. all worked together to secure the country that was in complete disarray. It was then occupied for roughly a year, but a dark spot in history it surely was. Atrocities and looting was rampant, each of the invading countries saying the others were committing the worst of these crimes. To add insult to injury, China had to pay a large sum in reparations to the countries that would be splitting their land up on their whim.

In a nutshell, the rebellion was a failure. This begs the question then, how is China a sovereign country and not divided up between the eight invaders? Well, in short, they decided the easiest and most effective way to govern China was through the Chinese dynasties instead of directly dealing with the Chinese people. I suppose over time the power just wained, but that'll be some research for another time.

I guess the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists simply would have been better if they used more guns.

Famous Historical Figures Say the Darndest Things!

1. "Support the Qing, exterminate the foreigners!" This was the rallying cry of the Boxers, the Qing being the then leading Chinese dynasty.
2. "Take away your missionaries and your opium and you will be welcome." Well, "welcome" may be somewhat of a stretch, but... you get the idea.
3. "The whole country is swarming with hungry, discontented, hopeless idlers." An American speaking to Washington soon after the Empress' initial plans on supporting the Boxers officially.
4. "The conduct of the Russian soldiers is atrocious, the French are not much better, and the Japanese are looting and burning without mercy." I was pretty serious when I said it was a dark spot in history.