Depth study - Boxer Rebellion

causes of the Boxer Rebellion

• the West caused major economic hardship on China due to the large reparations China had to pay for previous events

• there was heavy resentment for Japan adding onto Western exploitations of China and reparations that China had to pay to them (after the 1st Sino-Japanese war)

• the Qing dynasty was said to be too lenient towards Western exploitations/impositions in China

• Western missionaries imposed too heavily on Chinese cultural norms - this felt colonialist to the Boxers

events of the Boxer Rebellion

1. 1898 - Boxers attacked Christian missionaries and Chinese converts (hairy men) in the Shangdong and Zhilli provinces

2. 1900 - the Boxers took over most of Shangdong and approached Beijing - Cixi joined the Boxers against the West after being initially sceptical of deposition

3. Cixi failed to gather support from some of the Chinese rural gentry and most of South China against the West - these groups did not want to lose trade access with the West

4. summer of 1900 - the Boxers reached Beijing and besieged Western legations for 55 days - this was quickly dispersed and defeated by the 8 Nation Alliance and 20,000 Japanese soldiers

5. Cixi and the emperor at the time fled to Xing city in south central China to evade potential Western attacks - the West didn’t attack because they wanted to protect the trade they still got from China

consequences of the Boxer Rebellion

• the West used anti-Chinese (Sinophobic) propaganda to portray them as brutish and dangerous threats (yellow peril)

• Cixi was labelled a war criminal, but the West failed to acknowledge their own war crimes

• anti-Western and anti-Japanese hatred spread across China, causing Chinese nationalism to rise

• the Manchu court/ Qing dynasty lost a lot of reputational approval and respect from China

• the 1901 Boxer Protocol imposed harsh economic sanctions - China had to pay £68M in reparations to the West and Japan

• the West continued to impose on China’s culture as punishment for the revolt - statues of Western heroes were forcibly erected across China

why the Boxer Rebellion failed

• the Eight Nation Alliance was much stronger, technologically advanced and united than China

• the rebellion lacked support from China itself (from the gentry and south China, no initial QD support)

• the Boxer-Qing armies were disunited and lacked clear leadership - Cixi could not be a clear leader because she still wanted to appease the gentry