History of China Since 1800 – S08: Boxer Rebellion

Song: 55 Days at Peking

Key Questions

Figurine depicting a British soldier fighting a Chinese Boxer, ca. 1900, National Maritime Museum, UK

From Shimonoseki to Boxer: Changes in fin-de-siècle China
Boxer as event and experience: How are they different?
How do we know what we know about the Boxer (or the past)?

Li Hongzhang on Great Changes

In a 1872 memorandum advocating for more investment in Chinese shipbuilding, Li Hongzhang penned a line since repeated for generations: China was experiencing “great changes not seen in three thousand years.”
What was the cause of Qing’s decline? The dynasty’s inability to reckon with transformative geopolitical and technological forces.

Factional Rivalry: Reformers vs. Conservatives?

Pure Stream Party (qingyi pai)

From the 1860s, a political style called “pure discussion” (qingyi) emerged.
Activists in this movement opposed institutional changes and advocated a hardline stance against the West and Japan.
literati politically intimidated figures like Zeng Guofan for their conciliatory stance towards foreigners.

Foreign Affairs Party (Yangwu pai)

The Foreign Affairs Party was composed of high-ranking officials like Zeng, Guo, and Li Hongzhang.
These officials promoted their foreign expertise as qualifications for power but were often rivals, undermining each other’s reform efforts.

Zhang Zhidong: Essence vs. Function

Zhang Zhidong retained control over his projects and promoted himself as a leader in educational reform while suppressing radical ideas.
Zhang executed radical reformers like Tan Sitong and Liang Qichao while trying to gain favor with the West by distancing himself from the pro-Boxer stance of the Cixi court.
His actions often reflected a personal agenda rather than purely ideological beliefs, emphasizing the connection between his vision for China and his political ambitions.

Qing’s Conservative Reformers: Their Rise and Fall

These officials were not just progressive reformers: while loyal to the Qing, they also had personal and factional interests.
Personal self-interest and careerism existed among these so-called progressives, often leading them to undermine each other’s reform efforts.
Difficult to find an equilibrium between “essence” and “function”, between reform and reaction.

France: Missionary Massacres

Slaughter of Christians by the Chinese at Pekin; Butchery of the sisters of mercy

Rumors of Western missionary barbarism
Official search of French orphanage in Tianjin; local French consul killed Qing inspectors
Zeng Guofan’s accommodationist proposal rejected at court,
Li Hongzhang investigation: Fewer executions, indemnity, apology mission to Paris
Anti-foreignism inflamed at court

Sino-French War (1884-1885)

Sea battle across the Taiwan strait, land battle in northern Vietnam
France: maritime victories but repeated losses on land
Qing: rush concession; French spheres of influence in China enlarged
Taiwan elevated from county in Fujian to provincial status

Japan: Seizure of Ryukyu

Departure of Ryukyu junk with tribute to Beijing, 1831

Qing policy in Korea

No longer traditional suzerainty under “Chinese world order”
Qing policy: multinational imperialism in Korea, rather than Japan’s monopolistic imperialism
Treaty among Korea, the US, Germany, and China (1882), including treaty ports, foreign-staffed maritime customs, modeled after China
Use government agency to push Chinese commercial interests abroad

Sino-Japanese War of 1894

Battle of Weihai, Museum of Fine Art, Boston

War triggered by domestic rebellion: Tonghak (Eastern Learning) movement invited Qing intervention
From civil war to international war: Japan declared war on the Qing on August 1, 1894
Destruction of Li Hongzhang’s Beiyang Fleet on Yalu River

Treaty of Shimonoseki

200 million silver taels in indemnity
Change in status of Korea: no longer a Qing tributary, but an independent nation (later officially annexed)
Taiwan ceded to Japan as colony
“Carving up China”: Loss of Liaodong peninsula and creation of foreign “spheres of influence”
Right to set up foreign industrial factories in Qing

Did Self-Strengthening “fail”?

Too little too late?
Cherry-picking?
Reform or restoration?
Lack of will or ability?

Qing’s Self-Strengthening Reform: Successes

Confucian scholar-officials successfully suppressed the Taiping Rebellion and three other major uprisings.
They re-established civil government and regained the loyalty of the local gentry.
The Zongli yamen, Qing’s Foreign Office, was developed and performed its duties effectively.

Successful agrarian and economic modernization measures: new tax policies, customs, armies, infrastructure, etc.
Suppression of frontier uprisings and incorporation of Xinjiang and Taiwan as provinces.

Qing’s Self-Strengthening Reform: Failures

Devolution of power from imperial center: local self-governance as both foundation of and impediment to reform
Lack of political resolve and reluctance to sacrifice Confucian values for modernization
Natural disasters: Yellow River changed course (1855), three year drought (1873-1876), Great North China Famine (1876-1879)

Worsening geopolitical environment: Great Games in Central Asia and East Asia
Military defeats: First SIno-Japanese War (1894)

Treaty of Shimonoseki and Its Impact

The age of imperialism in East Asia began in April 1895 with the Treaty of Shimonoseki.
Japan gained control of Taiwan. Korea, now an independent nation, effectively became a Japanese protectorate, leading to formal annexation fifteen years later.
It granted Japan the right to establish industrial factories in Qing territory, opening the door to foreign investment and economic imperialism.
Japan also acquired the Liaodong peninsula in southern Manchuria, including key ports like Dairen and Port Arthur.

Carving up China

Cession of Liaodong Peninsula to Japan disrupted the balance-of-power principle in China.
By the early 1900s, foreign powers divided large areas of the Qing empire into zones of influence: Russia in Manchuria, Germany in Shandong and parts of north China, Britain in the Yangzi valley, Japan in Fujian, and France in southeast China.

The Great Game: Over Central Asia

The British and Russian empires competed for influence in Central Asia, particularly in Afghanistan, Persia, and Tibet.
The Crimean War (1853–1856) between Russia and Britain, France, and the Ottoman Empire as catalyst.
Britain feared Russia’s expansion would threaten India, while Russia was wary of British interests in Central Asia.
Russia conquered Turkestan, and Britain expanded British India and defined its borders.
By the early 20th century, many independent states between the Caspian Sea and the Eastern Himalayas became protectorates of the two empires.

The Other Great Game: Over Korea

China, Japan, and Russia competed for control of the strategically important but impoverished Korean Peninsula.
This competition led to the First Sino-Japanese War (1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1905), which transformed East Asia and shifted power dynamics, ending China’s historical dominance.
Korea became the trigger for regional competition, fracturing the Confucian world order and inviting Western intervention in East Asia.
The concept of the “Yellow Peril” emerged, reflecting Western fears of China’s potential power if it adopted modernization like Japan.

Making Modern East Asia

Key events:

1895: Japan began its expansion into Korea and acquired Taiwan.
1905: Japan fought Russia, leading to its takeover of Korea.
1898: The Spanish-American War marked the U.S. emergence as a Pacific power, acquiring the Philippines, Guam, and other islands.
1900: The Eight-Nation Alliance launched the China Relief Expedition to protect foreign legations in Beijing from Boxers.

Implications:

The shift to a “modern” East Asian order involved moving from the Confucian system to a Westphalian system of sovereign nation-states.
This transition was marked by conflict, particularly involving the Korean Peninsula.
The conflicts fostered national identity and sparked reforms in Japan, China, Russia, and Korea.
Regional power struggles helped define these nations in relation to the West and each other.

Rise of Nationalism

Understanding Qing empire politics in its last fifty years focuses on local power struggles between central bureaucrats and local elites.

First Stage: Reconstruction after the Taiping Rebellion

Local elites collaborated for communal interests, managing relief efforts, repairing irrigation, reclaiming land, and building schools.

Second Stage: Translocal Networking

The establishment of Shenbao, the first lasting Chinese-language newspaper, in 1872, was primarily read by activist elites.
During the north China famine of 1876–1878, local elites organized relief efforts beyond their communities.
This led them to question the imperial court’s effectiveness.
By the early twentieth century, these local elites were increasingly supporting republican revolution.

Need for More Radical Reforms

The late-nineteenth-century court was divided into two factions: the emperor’s party and the empress dowager’s party.
The Sino-Japanese War was a greater shock, even more so than the Opium War (1839–1842).
Young reform-minded intellectuals, like Liang Qichao, highlighted the urgent need for modernization and Westernization.
More than importing Western technology, the Qing needed more radical reform to prioritize constitutionalism, like Japan.

Hundred Days Reform: June to September, 1898

Intellectuals into statesmen: Kang Youwei appointed to Foreign Office, Tan Sitong to he Grand Council
Opening of “pathways of words”: soliciting reform suggestions
Replacing Six Boards with Western-style cabinet ministries
Introduction of an independent judiciary

After Failed Reform, New Rebellion

“The Cause of the Riots in the Yangtse Valley” (Hankow, 1891)

The 100 Day Reform was an elite response to foreign imperialism, while the Boxers led a popular anti-foreign movement culminating in 1900. Here are the immediate contexts:

The Qing’s abandonment of the Grand Canal and competition from foreign cotton goods caused poverty in Shandong.
Flooding of the Yellow River in 1898 and drought in 1900 worsened poverty and discontent.
Resentment grew due to foreign missionaries, especially German Catholics.
The Spirit Boxers targeted foreign artifacts and violently attacked foreigners and Chinese Christian converts.

Boxer Rebellion, according to ChatGPT

Le Petit Journal: Assassination of Baron Ketteler, Minister of Germany

The Boxer Rebellion was a violent uprising that took place in China from 1899 to 1901. It was led by a secret society known as the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, commonly referred to as the Boxers. The rebellion was primarily motivated by opposition to foreign influence and Christianity in China. […] The Boxer Rebellion marked a significant turning point in Chinese history. It highlighted the growing discontent and resistance against foreign interference, paving the way for the Chinese Revolution in 1911 and the eventual establishment of the Republic of China. It also contributed to the rise of Chinese nationalism and anti-imperialist movements in the 20th century.

Discussion: Living Through Chaos

Who were Miss Han and Ning-lao-tai-tai?
How reliable were their accounts? Why or why not?

Rumors and conspiracies: Discussion of Cohen

What were the origins of the Boxer movement?
Why was there such an extreme response to the foreign presence at that time?
What are the main types of rumors? Why and how did they spread?
How can historians reconstruct the Boxer movement – as event, as history, and as myth?

The Boxers on Screen: Boxer Rebellion, (Chang’s Film Company, 1976)

Boxer as Misnomer: Myths in China

“Yihetuan”: Righteous and Harmonious Militia
Righteous resistance against foreign invasion
Boxers as proto-socialists
Killing as only one stage: foreign occupation and unequal treaties

Boxer as Misnomer: Reception in the West

Samuel Bronston: 55 Days at Peking (1963)

“Boxer”: massacres by xenophobes
Cause of event: foreign lives were threatened
Resonance with anti-colonial disquiet in South Africa, Philippines, and more
Chinese Boxers compared to Native Americans

Boxer Protocol

Signed between China and eleven Great Powers on September 11, 1901
450 million silver taels as indemnity; 668 million with interest
Entire revenue structure, except land tax, placed under foreign control
Further erosion of national sovereignty: Japan retained troops in north China

“Great Changes Unseen in a century”: From Humiliation to Rejuvenation?

“Great Changes Unseen in a century”

Geopolitical trends are shifting away from globalization to a multipolar world dominated by two or three major trading blocs. This resembles the global structure of the late nineteenth century.

Korea has a complex identity about its independence as well as history of instability.
China seeks to reclaim its historical status as the dominant power: territorial recovery (of Qing) and national unity.
Japan is viewed as a model of development, as a cautionary tale, and a target of resentment.
Russia is still grappling with lost imperial aspirations and its past dominance in Asia.