THE BOXER REBELLION EXPLAINED - BOXER REBELLION DOCUMENTARY

[Music] spring 1898 the destitute province of chantal following war with foreign powers droughts and disasters poverty has soared in the region as a result many idle youths have turned to banditry bringing down the economy even further in the village of liuenton young impoverished villages look with contempt on the chinese christian converts of the village many of them are bandits who have converted to evade the law as the foreigners have had their faith officially protected by the imperial authorities in addition the christian community has taken over the old temple of the emperor of jade a supreme authority of chinese traditional mythology and made it into their church young local men with no future feel their culture tainted by traitors and are disgusted at the weakness of the tsing dynasty devout practitioners of mystical spirituality and martial arts for the most part these young men form groups in the whole region one local leader sandor organizes a massive gathering in charlotte drive village calling others to join the effort over ten thousand resentful men answer the call ready to launch an uprising and reclaim their culture by force they take the name of her tren the fists of harmony and justice those who would soon be called the boxers are born by late 1898 the situation in china was tense after the murder of two german missionaries by locals a year earlier the german empire seized the strategic jourdal bay in shandong province this event triggered a scramble for concessions as other western powers rushed to gain influence and privileges in the imperial nation britain obtained an extension of its hong kong colony an area called the new territories in addition it gained the city of way highway as a naval base france received the guangzhou territory as well as strong influence in yunnan province the russian empire who already controlled the recently built chinese eastern railway in manchuria obtained the city of dalian finally the japanese who had acquired taiwan three years earlier gained several concessions in different cities especially in tianjin this city in the imperial domain already hosted several foreign settlements which would be of prime importance in events soon to come as the foreign power's influence grew more and more impoverished and idle youths of the countryside flocked towards the bands of boxers armed with spears swords and a few hunting rifles with the intent of restoring chinese domination and culture in addition popular support for the boxes developed exponentially especially in shandong and julie provinces with their mystical rituals they believed themselves invulnerable to firearms and as such their eagerness to fight skyrocketed their target was first and foremost the christian foreigners and secondly the converted chinese whom they perceived as traitors initially their attitude towards that seeing imperial authorities was ambiguous as the boxers were a very heterogeneous group some supported that singh while others aimed to overthrow them entirely on the other side the teen authorities were equally puzzled on how to handle this sudden popular movement the imperial court was officially under the control of empress dowager zlussie emperor guayshu's art who had overthrown him and taken control of the nation she was head of the conservative faction of the court who overall believed the boxers could be used as an asset to fight the foreign powers and return to tradition other cliques believe the movement should be rapidly suppressed meanwhile violence against foreigners and christians developed more and more subsequently foreign powers especially the french who presented themselves as guardians of catholicism in china pressured the imperial authorities to defend the christian communities the imperial court conceded which only strengthened the boxer's resentment in the summer of 1899 trouble would shake shanlong province's county of pinyuan repeated attacks against christians led the local magistrates to request soldiers and crack down on the unrest however each act of repression only strengthened the motivation of the boxers and by the 18th of october 1899 over a thousand armed boxers assembled the magistrate marched 500 imperial troops to fight against the small army that had settled next to san lord chinese temple initially the singh forces were defeated and retreated which greatly boosted pro-box's sentiment within the population the qing however rallied and crushed the local boxes executing many of their leaders and the most fanatical figures the battle of san luis temple would mark a turning point boxers and local authorities alike despising the west came to agree they could join forces and cooperate to drive out foreign influence as a result the retrend fists of harmony and justice was renamed the militia united in righteousness openly separating themselves from bandits and appearing as a legitimate chinese force a new slogan would also appear on their banners support the qing destroy the foreigners in the following weeks the boxer movement kept developing in northern china and began distributing anti-foreign and anti-christian propaganda to the local population seeing general yuan shukai who controlled the most modernized army in china was appointed as governor of shandong in late 1899 although loyal to conservative empress dowager tsushi yuan shukhai favored western methods and despised the boxes he would always be hostile to them which encouraged the militias to move up north li hongjong the most prominent han chinese official and admirer of modernization was appointed as viceroy of lianghuang much like shokai he had nothing but contempt for the boxes and their mystical rituals far from the trouble he would nonetheless keep a keen eye on the events in the north by now the boxer issue had become a frequent subject in the imperial court advised by dagi prince duan one of the most conservative officials of the court empress dowager zushi officially showed her support for the boxers in january 1900 this event further fueled the boxer momentum and tens of thousands of militias started moving towards the foreign influence city of tianjin and towards beijing the imperial capital of the celestial empire on their way they murdered chinese christians and unfortunate foreigners and burnt or tore down western buildings and churches beijing had over one million inhabitants divided into several quarters including the chinese city the imperial city and the forbidden city the capital also hosted the international legations quarter where many foreign powers had embassies for diplomatic affairs with china this area was established following the second opium war in 1860 and had been since greatly expanded and strengthened in 1900 it was over five square kilometers wide with around half a thousand foreign citizens in addition to the foreign power's actual diplomats the atmosphere in the international legations was getting more and more tense the residents had caught word of the box's massacre of christians and realized the militias were now heading over to beijing edwin conger the american minister to china contacted the united states saying situation becoming serious the whole country is swarming with hungry discontented hopeless idlers fearing for the safety of delegation's inhabitants he suggested military forces should be ready to intervene british minister to china sir claude maxwell macdonald growing nervous himself petitioned the imperial court for permission to garrison soldiers inside delegation's quarter after consideration the request was met consequently over 400 naval troops of different nations were disembarked from the many foreign warships stationed off the border coast using the recently built railway system they were transported by train from tianjin to beijing and garrisoned in the legation's quarter during the following days determined boxer militias grew closer and closer to the capital preparing for a potential attack the mobilized soldiers in the international legations quarter swiftly set up barricades and perimeters to protect the area three factions were now in the region the boxes organized in militia regiments and armed mostly with speeds and sort the approximately 400-man strong foreign garrison inside delegation's quarter of beijing well-drilled and ready to defend an attack and most importantly the xing dynasty's imperial forces a great number of imperial troops who concentrated in the metropolitan area the oldest division was the peking field force established in 1862 which mainly operated as a police force it was armed with european rifles and some artillery and commanded by moderate official yi kwang princetin secondly beijing hosted a seasoned division of muslim soldiers named the gansu braves and led by general dongfoxiang this was the main force that had been mobilized to beijing to overthrow the guanxi emperor in favour of emperor's daughter sushi they were armed with german mauser rifles and modern artillery the gansu braves were part of the way corps also known as the gods army under the general command of general rong the champion and rumored lover of empress dawaj at sushi finally zayi prince dwan fervent supporter of the boxers had assembled his own ten thousand man strong wushang or tiger spirit division for the moment the imperial troops were nonetheless neutral in the conflict however with these three forces in the area tensions were high and foreign inhabitants of the legations quarter nervously waited for the next event on the 5th of june 1900 the boxes destroyed the railway connecting tiente into beijing consequently the legations were cut off and isolated in an increasingly hostile environment four days later british minister to china sir claude maxwell macdonald feeling a trap closing in requested further military assistance he directly addressed vice admiral edward seymour commander-in-chief of the china station the british royal navy's formation in the local waters consequently vice admiral seymour concerted with other foreign troops and managed to assemble within a day a force of western and japanese sailors and marines with the intent of coming to the defense of delegations in addition to his own 916 british sailors seymour recruited 455 german 326 russian 158 french 112 americans 54 japanese 41 italian and 26 austro-hungarian marines and sailors in an over 2 000 strong regiment under his command the eight nation alliance was born this force known as the seymour expedition left the foreign settlements of tianjin on the 10th of june unaware that the railway had been cut off they departed by train on the way they passed anti-boxer yet anti-foreign seeing general nier xiu chong and his thousands of imperial soldiers who were also part of the wu wei corps on the general ron lu due to the massive confusion of the events near xiujiang let the seymour expedition pass on a post he instead focused his troops on suppressing roaming groups of boxers in the area the seymour expedition soon arrived at lanfang where the railway had been destroyed with that much of a choice its engineers began repairing the tracks a task that would take several days the foreign force was unaware that the situation in beijing was about to degenerate on the 11th of june japanese diplomat sugiyama akira was murdered in the streets by a group of general don fusiang's xenophobic gansu braves the following day german soldiers under the orders of german minister to china clemens von keteler captured an isolated suspected boxer boy and beat him to death in retaliation this single event would ignite incredible violence for the months to follow outraged about this murder thousands of boxers poured into baiting ransacked and burnt churches murdering chinese christians and foreign priests alike the consul braves of general don fusion joined in the chaos taking part in the massacre about 3 000 chinese christians took refuge in the legation's quarter the others either fled or perished meanwhile although unaware of the beijing events several ships of the eight nation alights stationed in the gulf of borja decided to act led by the imperial russian navy a decision was made to occupy the dargul forts guarding the imperial domain until the boxer issue was settled by consent or by force they sent an ultimatum for a surrender of the local team garrison by 2am of the 17th of june and deployed their 10 warships manned by a total of 900 men in front of the forts unfazed the teen garrison's answer was rapid over an hour before the ultimatum would end every single cannon of the dargol forts opened fire on the allied ships the fourth battle of dargor had begun in addition to their artillery that singh possessed four modern cruisers these were however promptly bordered and captured by two british destroyers during the whole night the allied foreign ships and their team forts exchanged fire gradually the allies coordinated assaults under several forts successfully conquering them one after the other by 6 30 am the battle was over although it had sustained about 20 casualties the eight nation alliance had won a strategic victory which would be of great importance in the events to follow when the tsing imperial court learnt of the battle of dagu it considered the attack an act of war and was convinced to officially side with the boxes in their anti-foreign violence their first target would be the seymour expedition the allied force was still stuck at lanfang since its engineers had not quite finished repairing the railway the seymour expedition had been attacked twice by boxer regiments but had successfully repelled them suffering minor losses the imperial court wished to drive out or destroy this foreign force with the help of the boxers however local general nijang had spent the last weeks violently suppressing the boxes and it was clear that his force would not cooperate with them he was subsequently set to tianzin to assault the foreign settlements there instead and replaced by pro-boxer general dongfoo general dongfosyang's braves counted about 3 000 well-equipped soldiers seasoned and ready to fight the team forces coordinated the pincer attack with the help of over 2 000 boxer militias on the seymour expedition overwhelmed and under supply vice admiral seymour and the allied officers decided to withdraw back the tianjin after a short battle realizing they could no longer advance on beijing the following day empress dawaj at sushi ordered all the foreigners in the legations quarter of beijing to leave the city within the day and go back to tianjin after discussing the matter between themselves the diplomats realized that travelling over 17 miles escorted by only 400 soldiers in such a hostile climate would mean certain death they decided to challenge the decision and continue negotiations with the court on the morning of the 20th of june german minister to china clermont von ketiller headed to the tsing dynasty's ministry for foreign affairs the tsung li yaman along the way he was however attacked by the pro-boxer troops of the horsham the tiger spirit division and assassinated in the street the message was clear there would be no talking their way out of the situation unaware that the seymour expedition had been repelled the shock legations expected the relief force to arrive soon in the meantime they organized themselves for a siege having served in the british army sir claude maxwell macdonald assumed command of the defense food and water supplies were registered and rationed about a hundred civilians volunteered to defend the area reinforcing the 400 multinational soldiers the international legations were unaware that they were about to enter 55 days of chaos thank you for watching my video i hope you enjoyed it if so please leave a like and subscribe to the channel part 2 will be available shortly if you have any questions or requests feel free to leave them in the comments section below you

Channel: History of China

Views: 286,705

Keywords: boxer rebellion, boxer uprising, boxers china, boxer rebellion china, seymour expedition, boxer rebellion documentary, boxer rebellion explained, eight nation army, eight nation alliance, 8 nation alliance, the boxer rebellion, boxer rebellion (military conflict), qing dynasty, 55 days at peking, history of china documentary, history of china, siege of the international legations

Id: DXuV9vOdfZA

Length: 18min 5sec (1085 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 15 2021