Boxer+rebellion,+1900

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Boxer Rebellion-Fall 1899-September 7, 1901: Operation Boxer Rebellion Brooks M. & Lexie M. a Map that Shows Battle Strategy ||
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Tasks I: Explain the nature and scope of the conflict.-- Due Friday, November 18th ====The Boxer Rebellion war was between China and the Western Powers, the war lasted about two years. The war took place in China because some of the citizens, known as The Boxers, had trouble accepting the fact that westernization was occurring in their country. The Boxer Rebellion began in the fall of 1899 and ended on September 7, 1901 when the Treaty of Peking was put into action. The “Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists”, or the “Boxers”, created an uprising to get rid of any and all western ideas. They targeted foreigners, missionaries, priests, and Chinese citizens who had converted to Christianity (Wert, Hal). At first, the Boxers “were hostile toward the ruling Manchu Qing dynasty” (Fontenoy, Paul E.). But after they were defeated by the imperial troops they focused their attention on getting rid of all western culture in China; when Empress Dowager Cixi heard about this she had the imperial troops join forces with the Boxers, to rid any western ideas in their country (Fontenoy, Paul E.). When the imperial army joined in the battle against westerners in China, it was time for “Japan, Russia, Great Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary” to come to the rescue of their citizens in China (Fontenoy, Paul E.). The Boxers had gone so far as to “[burn] Christian churches and foreign embassies”, and they had already killed many foreigners and even the German ambassador, so the western powers made sure to keep a close eye on their citizens and especially the embassies there (Bryant, Mark). It was a very dangerous to be an outsider in China, the Boxers would stop at nothing to get rid of all the Western influence in China.====

2011. .
The Boxer rebellion all started off with the movement "by a secret Chinese society called Yihequan" (Xiang), who were given the name "Boxers" because they fought only with martial-arts combat. The Boxers hated the idea of westernization, and started executing any Chinese citizen who converted to Christianity, priests and missionaries. As the Boxers became more and more powerful, western countries became alert and noticed the amount of damage the Boxers could do, so "Japan, Russia, Great Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary" (Fontenoy 2) formed the Eight-Nation Alliance, and fought against the Boxers, trying to stop everything they were doing in China. The US joined the Eight-Nation Alliance because they did not want to see their trade with China crumble. "By the turn of the century China still only accounted for only 1 percent of U.S. foreign trade, but the dollar value of American exports there had more than tripled during the 1890s and promised to grow further still..." (Boot 71). As the battle between the Boxers and the Eight-Nation Alliance fought on, it finally came to an end. After the Eight-Nation Alliance captured Beijing, they wrote the Boxer Protocol, and forced the Manchu government to sign it. It is a good thing that Boxer Rebellion came to an end, or else America's trade relation with China would have come to an end, and we would never be able to trade with them again.


 * < Boot, Max. //The Savage Wars of Peace//. N.p.: Basic Books, 2003. Print. ||

2011. . ||
 * < Lanxin, Xiang, Ph.D. "Boxer Rebellion." //World Book//. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov.

. || Task II: Analyze the U.S.’s involvement in the conflict.- Due Tuesday, November 22nd The Boxer Rebellion fits the category of pacification: the act of forcibly suppressing or eliminating a population considered to be hostile. The Boxers saw Western society as a threat to their country. America had grown immensely from 1800 to 1900; the population had gone from 5,308,483 to 76,304,799. In time, America had become a major world power, and was now moving away from agricultural labor. So America had become reliant on China to supply them with food and trade. Western powers, including America, went into China and placed telegraphs and railways “over their land, the steamers plying on their waterways, the merchant and the missionary penetrating year by year farther to the interior” (McKinley, William); the Boxers saw this as an invasion. The president at the time, William McKinley, said that America was becoming involved in this war because, “the recent troubles in China spring from the antiforeign agitation which for the past three years has gained strength in the northern provinces. Their origin lies deep in the character of the Chinese races and in the traditions of their government. The Taiping rebellion and the opening of Chinese ports to foreign trade and settlement disturbed alike the homogeneity and the seclusion of China” (McKinley, William). The Chinese did not like the idea of western culture being brought into their country, so they would destroy the westerners transportation (in China) and rebel. The United States had good reason to go to war with the Boxers, they were killing innocent people. Even if those being killed weren’t all Americans, the US had precedent to protect democracy. President William McKinley said that “[p]opular government has demonstrated in its one hundred and twenty-four years of trial here its stability and security, and its efficiency as the best instrument of national development and the best safeguard to human rights" (McKinley, William). The Boxer Rebellion was led by Chinese citizens that refused to be another county that Western society had imperialized.
 * < Fontenoy, Paul E. "Boxer Rebellion." //ABC-Clio//. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2011.

"William McKinley: annual message (1900)." //American Government //. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.

The Boxer Rebellion was fought to keep US trade with China still available. If the US didn't fight in the Boxer Rebellion, it could be possible that our trade with them would have been eliminated. The Boxer Rebellion follows the Carter Doctrine, which stated that "the United States would use military force if necessary to defend it's national interests in the Persian Gulf region" (Sidor). Although the Boxer Rebelion wasn't fought in the Persian Gulf or in 1980, the time of the Carter Doctrine, the Boxer Rebllion was still fought to keep the national interests in China. William McKinley had a major role in the US's involvement in the Boxer Rebellion. He stated in his fourth Annual Message why he chose to fight in the Boxer Rebellion, mainly because the Boxer's hated westernization, and they would destroy any American trade ships. He knew that the US needed China to trade with, as stated in his 1900 Annual Message. Also. Secretary of State Jon Hay had a big part in the Boxer Rebellion aswell. In his famous Open Door notes, he "committed the U.S. to maintain China's territorial integrity and, more important from America's standpoint, to preserve free trade for all comers-what Hay called "a fair field and no favor"" (Boot 71). As you can see, if these big and important politicians didn't step up to the plate, we possibly could have lost all trade with China forever.

"William McKinley: annual message (1900)." //American Government //. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 22 Nov. 2011

Boot, Max. //The Savage Wars of Peace//. N.p.: Basic Books, 2003. Print.

Mrs. Sidor United States Presidential Doctrines TASK III: How did United States' Public view this conflict? Due Tuesday, Noevmber 29th Public opinion on the Boxer Rebellion, at the time, was how the American government viewed the war. Americans sided with the American government because most were uneducated about the war. The people of America did not know much about the war in China in 1900 because, "people stayed in touch via personal letters and newspapers, but there was a significant time delay between communiqués" (Salisbury, Joyce E.). In President McKinley's annual message he wrote America an overview of the entire war, showing how uneducated the public was on this topic (McKinley,William). It took time for information to travel around, and the information that Americans were receiving was shaped by the media. Therefore the publics' opinion was not very important because they had no choice other than to believe what they were told.

Salisbury, Joyce E. and Andrew E Kersten. "Communication Technologies in the Modern World." //Daily Life through History //. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 28 Nov. 2011.

"William McKinley: annual message (1900)." //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #121917; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,;">American Government //. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 28 Nov. 2011.

Very few American citizens knew about the Boxer Rebellion, mainly because it was so small, and barely any newspaper publicized about it, even William McKinley stated in his 1900 Annual Message about how little the public knew about the war going on in China (McKinley, William). With the public being extremely uneducated about the war that was going on, not many people had anything to worry about. Churchmen had sent missionaries into China to convert the Chinese people to Christianity, but the Boxers hated the idea of westernization, and "were particularly hostile to Christian missionaries" (ABC-CLIO). The churchmen begged the government to send in a "strong rescue force of marines, and if necessary, troops, to the relief of the missionaries" (New York Times). Only churchmen worried about this small war, but the public knew little to even nothing about it, causing very little to no conflicts.

"Boxer Rebellion." // World History: The Modern Era //. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. "William McKinley: annual message (1900)." //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #121917; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,;">American Government //. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 28 Nov. 2011.

n. pag. Print. || <span style="background-color: #ff002d; color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 17px;">Task IV: Did the U.S. achieve its goals? -- <span style="background-color: #ff002d; color: #ffff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 20px;">Due Friday, December 2nd The conflict in China was finally ended in 1901. It took a long time to draw out the treaty because China could not afford to pay the reparations needed to satisfy the western powers. The treaty was known as the Peking Protocol, China signed the protocol on September 7, 1901 bringing an end to the small war. "[T]he powers opting for the "open door" of trade rather than an imperialist division of its territory among them" (Jds.cass.cn). The open door policy was a policy in which every country got equal trade with China, instead of partitioning off the country between the powers (wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn). President McKinley wrote that it was "the opening of China to the equal commerce of all the world" (McKinley, William). China could not afford to pay compensation to each of the countries, so the conflict was resolved by the China allowing equal trade among the western powers.
 * < "State Department's Dilemma Over China." //New York Times// [New York] 7 June 1900:

Princeton University "About WordNet." WordNet. Princeton University. 2010. <http://wordnet.princeton.edu>

"William McKinley: annual message (1900)." //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #121917; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,;">American Government //. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 1 Dec. 2011.

"Boxer Protocol (Peking)."Jds.cass.cn. Inst. of Modern History, Chinese Acad. of Social Sciences, n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2011 <http://jds.cass.cn>.

After nearly 2 years of fighting, the Boxer Rebellion finally came to an end on Sptember 7th, 1901, in which "imperial officials had no choice but to sign the so-called Boxer Protocol" (Fontenoy 2). With the signing of the Boxer Protocol, China was to pay "an indemnity of $335 million over the next 39 years at 4 percent annual interest" (Boot 97) to the Eight-Nation Alliance. All of the Marines and sailors that were sent to China to fight off the Boxers played a big part in the making of the Boxer Protocol, along with President William McKinley. The US had a good outcome from the Boxer Rebellion, in which they gained a big chunk of money, but "in 1908, the United States returned part of the money it had received, to be used for educational purposes" (Xiang). As the UK and Japan did the same, this shows that they cared about China and wanted to keep their good relationship with them going. Since the Boxer Rebellion was very small and kept private, nobody was praised or vilified, but the US did benefit from the Rebellion by making a good chunk of money and keeping their strong relationship with China going.

Lanxin, Xiang, Ph.D. "Boxer Rebellion." //World Book//. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. <http://worldbookonline.com/advanced/ article?id=ar072940&st=boxer+rebellion>.

Boot, Max. //The Savage Wars of Peace//. N.p.: Basic Books, 2003. Print.

Fontenoy, Paul E. "Boxer Rebellion." //ABC-Clio//. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. <http://worldatwar.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/ 959730?terms=Boxer+Rebellion>.