The Three Main Causes Of The Boxer Rebellion

Western imperialism in China was very significant, costed the lives of millions of people, but also helped shape China into a much stronger country than it was before, being ruled by the Qing Dynasty. Imperialism is a country extending its power and influence through the use of military force. There were two wars between the imperialists and China, the first and second Opium wars. The result of these wars was the weakening of the Qing Dynasty and led to a time of rebuilding, which was a great struggle, for China. The Europeans wanted to trade with China because of the great opportunity that they saw in the market. China’s population, which was 430 million, was seen as a fast and easy way for the Europeans to make a lot of money. The

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

A second point to be mentioned is the Spheres of Influence, which were predetermined after the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing and the Treaty of Tientsin. A Sphere of Influence is considered a region where a separate state has a tight grasp over the other country’s political, economical, and social standpoints. Being a form of colonization, the countries that created the spheres were Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Japan. As a result, the angry and disgusted China organized the Taiping Rebellion. Then, the United States issued the Open Door Policy, where the weakened China would be forced to open trading ports with most European countries and the United States. This plan failed and only enraged the Chinese. In an attempt to rebel and finally be set free, China created the Boxer Rebellion. Marking feelings of intense hate, hostility, and patriotism, the Chinese attempted to rid their country of foreigners. At its end, the Boxer Rebellion depicted the Chinese’s true feelings and hostility at their breaking point. It required force of British, French, Russian, American, German and Japanese troops to finally finish it off.

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.

In 1900, a few internal events taken place in China threatened the idea of the Open Door Policy. Boxer Rebellion was one of these events. It was an anti-foreign, anti- colonial, and anti- Christian movement that was initiated by the Militia United in Righteousness. It was associated with Christian missionary activity and motivated by proto-nationalist sentiments and opposed western

During the 1900, war broke out between China and 8 European countries. This was known as the Boxer Rebellion. Other events that occurred during this time, President McKinley of the US was assissnated as were King Umberto of Italy and Prince Ito of Janpan; the industrial revolution was in full swing throught out the world. Inventions

British dominance over China- it led to the ultimate collapse of the centuries-old Qing Dynasty, and more than two millennia of dynastic rule. It convinced China that it had to modernize and industrialize. Chinese Economic Hardships-   However, the most important reason for Chinese immigration was economic hardship due to the growing British dominance over China in the Opium War of 1839-1842 caused financial problems as well as starved the citizens Chinese immigrants in the late 19th century-

After The Boxer Rebellion, many aspects of Chinese society changed. The rebellion ended with the signing of The Boxer Protocol, on September 7 1901. In the agreement, forts and walls protecting Beijing were to be destroyed. Also Chinese government officials that supported the uprising were to be punished. China was to stop importing arms for two years and was forced to pay more than 330 million in reparations to foreign nations involved.

A Man named Hong Xiuquan who failed to pass the imperial exam to join the Qing government's civil service, experienced visions relating to Jesus, while he was suffering from an illness. Hong Xiuquan created his own version of Christianity, and gained a mass amount of followers; “In January 1851 Hong and the rebels declared the creation of their own state, Taiping Tianguo (Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace), in the Guiping district of Guangxi” (Gale). The Taiping Tianguo was under the rule of Hong Xiuquan as he crowned himself king. In 1853 the Taiping Rebellion took over Nanjing and settled there, however the inability to reach Hong Xiuquan’s utopia in Nanjing caused him to lose focus and enjoy the pleasures of his palace instead of gaining more followers. Without Hong Xiuquan leading, the Taiping rebellion came to their end in the hands of Li Hongzhang and Zeng Guofan. In 1988, when the Boxer Rebellion was spread throughout china, foreigners and Chinese Christians were harassed because the Boxers desired to get rid of the nation of foreign influence. The rebellion itself brought a lot of hate upon Christianity specifically towards Chinese Christians. The Boxers were very extreme and their works ranged “From burning the homes and harassing the businesses of foreigners, they soon turned to massacring Chinese Christians and Christian missionaries” “In and around the capital of Peking (present-day Beijing), the Boxers killed Christian missionaries and destroyed churches and railroads, which were largely owned by foreign entities” (Gale). Once again, when Sun Yat-sen established the republic of china, he brought many foreign ideas into china, one being “the once unthinkable — that a Chinese leader would be a Christian — became a reality” (Christians in China). and that definitely helped the Chinese become more open-minded towards Christianity in China. “In 1949, Chinese

In 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress. This act exiled Chinese laborers from arriving in the United States. This was the first time ever that a specific ethnicity was banned from immigrating to the U.S.A. Racism against the Chinese was strong, so the ban remained for ten years, but was eventually made “permanent”. However, China soon became a war ally in World War II, so the ban was repealed in 1943.

Its motivation was to propose open and free market for countries that were keen on exchanging and monetary business with China. In spite of the fact that Hay had made the strategy, in any case, he didn't counsel the Chinese. However the Chinese did wouldn't fret as much, but rather North China did. North China did not need the outsiders, particularly westerners and Japan, to meddle with their lives and thus, the Boxer Rebellion was set up. They called themselves "boxers" and executed numerous outsiders amid the Boxer Rebellion. Case in point, as in the motion picture "Ip Man," it depicted the Boxer Rebellion and the battles of the

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

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

It is in fact plausible that foreign intervention played a role in influencing some of the change between 1900-1912. The introduction of such heavily influenced western reforms resulted in further hatred of the foreign occupiers and thus sparking the launch of an anti-westerners campaign, known as the Boxer Rebellion. Consequences of tighter western controls took place, including further foreign presence and involvement, which was explicit in the humiliating imposition of punitive measures. These sanctions consisted of a $450 million reparation, weaponry destroyed and the permanent stationing of foreign troops in and around Beijing. The punishments brought about an atmosphere of utter embarrassment and fear but also encouraged a lack of distrust in the Manchus; the event validated the imperial government’s incapability to lead China to liberation. Although the financial cost caused some apprehension, it didn’t amount to economic turmoil – the penalties actually caused a change in the nation’s perception towards the Manchu dynasty as opposed to an economic transformation. The reparations led the Chinese to have an increasingly negative stance towards the dynasty, diminishing any respect the imperial rulers upheld.

The boxer rebellion−the fight between China and Western countries−has been a debate since the end of 1901. Many people have been wondering how the war happened and what were the reasons that lead to it. Although many researchers have showed the causes they have found, there will be other research that disagrees with them. This paper mainly supports the claim that suggested the three major causes of the boxer rebellion, and refutes the point that the new technologies and innovations that the West had introduced was not one of the causes. It will define three main causes that leaded to the boxer uprising which were the personal and religious belief of Chinese people, the rise of Christianity, and the support of Qing dynasty.