Causes And Effects Of The Boxer Rebellion In China

The Treat of Nanking was established in 1842 to end the first Opium War between Britain and China. This affected the Chinese by forcing them to open up more trade to other countries and lowered tariffs. This was considered the “unequal treaty” by the Chinese as they lost the war.

While most of the Western Hemisphere was undergoing drastic advancements, such as former colonies gaining their independence and transforming into more modernized nations, a lot of mishaps were occurring in the Eastern Hemisphere—China, specifically—a nation that was notorious for its isolation from foreign influences. European nations began to greedily eye China’s abundance of desirable resources, such as tea, porcelain, and silk. However, China had very little need or desire for European goods. In an attempt to resolve the trade imbalance Britain began importing opium into China, which would prove to be disastrous for the Chinese population. The dispute over the importation of the drug eventually led to the

China has 5000 years of history which experienced wars, collapses, failures and successes. The Opium War in the year 1839 and 1856 marked the changing point of China’s trade policy with foreigners, especially with British in opium and tea. China changed from getting tributes to being forced to sign the Nanjing Treaty and Tianjing Treaty with British and French. Due to China’s over confidence and unwelcome attitude toward foreigners and opium, it caused the British to declare the Opium War to China which made Chinese suffer for many years, but at the same time it also forced China to open its doors to the foreigners.

After the war, internal conflicts emerged. In 1899, the Boxer Rebellion started with the opposition to foreign spheres of influence. They were angry about the missionaries, and legalization of opium. The Boxers massacred Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox missionaries everywhere and their leader called for a brutal anti Christian policy. But soon, the Great Powers came in the way and defeated them. This event only made the spheres more powerful. Then in 1901, the Boxer Protocol was announced and its intent was to execute

Finally, deeply rooted tensions between Britain and China began to come to the surface as the Chinese attempted to crack down on opium use and trade within its borders.

China experiences the pressure of the imperialist’s military which China did not have the knowledge or the experience to match. China went from a superior leader, self-sufficient country, that thought that everyone else were barbarians to a torn country. China accepted foreign trade, but they wanted to control and limit how much and with who the trade was used for, they felt that they European trade was unnecessary. They did not allow the western merchants to have any power or privileges and restricted them to Canton, plus they refused to open their trade system beyond Co-Hong which caused china to not become as prosperous as Japan. (Valentini 2013) Because China the believed that they were the center of civilization and that the Western culture was inferior the Chinese government refused to go along with any of the European’s request and the two nations became hostile towards

The first cause for the Boxer Rebellion, was the anti-foreign stance in China. As a result of suffering humiliating defeats in both the first, and second Opium wars, China was forced to grant concessions to foreigners. Furthermore, they had to sign the “unequal treaties” which allowed the West to gain a significant amount of control over China. This left the Chinese population poverty-stricken, and angry at foreign powers. The economy became disrupted by the arrival of modernity and industrialism. According to historian David Silbey “Many Chinese worked in industries that were disrupted by the arrival of the railroad and the telegraph. There was a sense that China’s balance had been thrown out of whack by these modern innovations, and only by destroying the innovations and the foreigners who brought them could the balance be restored.”. The Chinese regarded the West as “foreign devils”, and wished to retain sovereignty and independence. They were extremely nationalistic. Mark Twain addressed the boxer rebellion in 1900.

A picture of the Chinese naval fleet being destroyed shows us that the Chinese chose to go to war due to the opium trade with England. Depending on who made the picture, either the British were trying to show their naval power or the Chinese were attempting to show how much damage Britain was inflicting on their country. Imperial China’s government responded violently and politically to British trade, doing everything they could to get the merchants out of their country.

While westerners in China pushed to claim rights and generally oppose Chinese reformers who worked to better China, Chinese government and society faced internal problems. Being a main target for imperialism, China faced much western influence. One of the events that marked the beginning of intense western influence was the case concerning the Opium Wars. A main imperialistic power, Great Britain, began trading China opium, a heavily addictive drug, in exchange for tea and silk. At first, it seemed like a positive idea – the Chinese

This was a major example of imperialism as these treaties favored foreign trade but China didn’t gain any concession from the foreigners. This in turn weakening the economic power of china and the governments control over the country weakened.

In the 19th Century British planned to invade China for economic reasons. It had no motives to conquer the state rather entice it to accept a free trade. The country was rich in tea which was in high demand not only in Britain but all over the world. China also had porcelain and silk which the Britons envied. The intruders did not have enough silver to buy the commodities thus opted for a barter system. Consequently, a war between the two states occurred. It was fought between 1848 and 1852 with China becoming unsuccessful due advanced military competence of Britons. The signing of an agreement between them then followed, and British was additionally awarded extraterritorial rights by China. However, the imperialism in China was a positive thing to the natives because it introduced trade and much education in the region which opened up opportunities.

In the early eighteen hundreds, Britain and other European countries demanded more and more Chinese commodities, especially tea and silk. However, only the port in Canton was opened to foreign countries, and Chinese would not take any other form of payments besides silver. The desire to make China into a free market that foreigners have more access to and the increasing, though illegal, European opium import to China eventually created tension between the European countries, especially Britain, and the Chinese government (Allingham Par. 1-2). The two battles fought and won by European powers were known as the Opium Wars. China’s politics, economy, and intellects were both positively and negatively

During the early nineteenth century, both China and Japan enforced policies restricting foreign trade in order to avoid industrialization and western ideas, but after both societies experienced foreign invasions and unequal treaties being established by foreigners, Japan began to industrialize and became imperialists trying to create an empire, while China differed in that the people wanted reform and government restrained the reformation of their society, therefore causing multiple rebellions and overall the collapse of their empire.

After the first Sino-British War, China was forced to accept the western influence and later then the Taiping movement accelerated the progress of China’s modern history and promoted the Westernization movement.

The first cause for the boxer rebellion, was the anti-foreign stance in China. After suffering humiliating defeats in both the first, and second Opium wars, China was forced to grant concessions to foreigners. Along with this, they had to sign the “unequal treaties” which allowed the West to gain a significant amount of control over China. This left the Chinese population poverty-stricken, and angry at the foreigner. The economy became disastrously disrupted by the arrival of industrialism and modernity. According to historian David Silbey “There was a logic to the anti-foreign sentiment: Many Chinese worked in industries that were disrupted by the arrival of the railroad and the telegraph. There was a sense that China’s balance had been thrown out of whack by these modern innovations, and only by destroying the innovations and the foreigners who brought them could the balance be restored.”. They regarded the West as “foreign devils”, and wished to keep sovereignty and independence. They were extremely nationalistic. Mark Twain