The Boxer Rebellion in China

By 1900, the majority of Chinese sea ports were under the effective control of Western powers, foreign nations controlled much of the Chinese economy. Christian missionaries were converting Chinese throughout the co... ... middle of paper ... ...ufacturing powers. Eventually, in China, an anti-Western organization called the called the “Boxers” by the Europeans due to their capabilities in the martial arts, emerged to protest the increasing Western presence in China. In 1899 the participants of the Boxer Rebellion organized to rid China of foreign authorities. They went on a rampage killing Chines Christians, the Chinese who had ties to foreigners, and Western outsiders.

On August 24 1911, between the conflict of protesters and the government troops, 32 people were killed and many were injured. More and more people hated the Qing government as the government shows no consideration towards the peasant’s financial concerns. With Sun Yi Xian’s three principle of to make China free of the rule of Manzhous and foreigners, to make China a democratic republic, to give everyone land and a fair wage and the inconsiderable actions of the government encouraged the people to revolute against the Qing. The revolution was mainly caused by the internal and external factors. There were many internal factors that sparked off the revolution.

After the war the treaty of Nanjing was imposed on the Chinese to pay for Britain’s war expenses and provided Britain with Hong Kong. Out of these events nationalism began to grow in China and many Chinese came to see the emperor as ineffective. After settling many internal problems the Chinese reformers began the “Self strengthening” movement. This movement’s goal was to reform China using modern European techniques. Many of the reformist and traditionalist came into conflict with each other.

The Nationalists controlled South China in the year of 1928 after the Northern. Expedition. The time had come to attack the warlords who ruled the North so that the enemy could be reunited under a single government. The ordinary Chinese civilians were sick of the warlords and the constant civil war and they greeted the Kuomintang forces as liberators. The Communist using of the Kuomintang army soon captured the important cities in the Yangtze valley and set up a new national capital at Hankow.

A third reason was continued intervention of the foreign powers. Since the 19th century, the West had intervened in the affairs of China, forcing China to open up its ports and trade with them. Their exploitation caused many people to think lowly of the central government. Their continued presence after 1911 revolution caused a lot of resentment amongst the people. This caused the Chinese to stage protest movements, such as the May Fourth Movement.

The Emperor of China was thought to be the elder brother to all other surrounding kings and emperors. China rarely had any contact with the West until the West turned to China for spices. This type of arrogance embodied by the Chinese proved to eventually hurt them as a society, both internally and externally. In t... ... middle of paper ... ...s”, this began a new stage of imperialism in China. The Opium War not only embarrassed China, but as a consequence, it also had a lot of dramatic social and economic effects as well.

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 suffered for many years, but at the same time it also forced China to open its door to the foreigners. Opium is dangerous, and it will ruin people’s life once people get addicted to it.

In comparing the two speeches in this document, they reveal the mindset of Kaiser Wilhelm and the nationalistic attitudes held by Germany and other nations at the time. It’s easy to understand the contempt held by a nation being occupied by a foreign military, its government, and its missionaries. No different is China and the boxer rebellion of 1900. In a quest to divvy up Chinas resources, Germany, along with other European nations, occupied China in the name of imperialism and Christianity. In June of 1900, 140,000 boxers occupied Peking in a violent effort to overrun foreign occupants along with native converts to Christianity.

The Sino-Japanese War of 1895 and the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 further humiliated the imperial government. Defeat from the Japanese was followed by a period where foreign powers scrambled for privileges in China, exacting lease territories, railroad concessions and mining rights, and carving out their respective ‘spheres of influence.’ Therefore, it is important to understand whether foreign intervention in China was the most significant factor in exposing the Qing governments’ weaknesses which led to anti-foreign sentiment and would spark revolutionary ideas from key figures such as Sun Yat Sen to overthrow the dynasty. The revolt that toppled the world’s longest lasting empire had been developing for decades but, when it finally came in October 1911, it was sparked by accident when a bomb exploded in the office of a group of revolutionary soldiers in the Russian concession of the city of Hankou on the river Yangtze in central China. The events led to the abdication of the last emperor, Puyi, four months later on February 12th, 1912 and marked the end of the Qing Dy... ... middle of paper ... ...naries, Cixi’s death was a cue for reformers to act quickly and make the transformation to a democracy quicker, especially while the little 6 year old Puyi was made Emperor. Therefore, the backward ideologies of Cixi and the reluctance to reform did not go down well with the people and their national pride, especially at a time when China was being carved up by foreigners.

The Battle of Nanjing, also known as the Rape of Nanjing was a particularly horrific battle during World War II from December 9, 1937 to January 31, 1938. After World War I, Japan was suffering crucial economic complications. Due to the fact that America was experiencing the Stock Market crash, they were not purchasing any goods from the Japanese and business was deteriorating. They started to demand more territory, and they were bothered by the fact that countries were investing more in China. The Japanese viewed China as a threat, and they assassinated Chang Esolin, and blew up one of their own railways that was located in southern Manchuria on September 18, 1931.