Eight-Nation Alliance
Eight-Nation Alliance | |
---|---|
八國聯軍 (in Chinese) | |
Active | 10 June 1900 – 7 September 1901 (1 year, 90 days) |
Country | Austria-Hungary British Empire France Germany Italy Japan Russia United States |
Allegiance | None (individual) |
Type | Expeditionary force |
Role | To relieve a siege of various legations, suppress the Boxer Rebellion, and safeguard privileges of foreign nationals and Chinese Christians. |
Size | About 51,755 troops |
Nickname(s) | Coalition |
Engagements | Boxer Rebellion |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Second: Alfred von Waldersee (September 1900 – September 1901) First: Edward Seymour (June 1900 – September 1900) |
Eight Nation Alliance | ||
---|---|---|
Hanyu Pinyin | bā guó lián jūn |
The Eight-Nation Alliance was a multinational military coalition that invaded northern China in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion, with the stated aim of relieving the foreign legations in Beijing, which was being besieged by the popular Boxer militiamen, who were determined to remove foreign imperialism in China. The allied forces consisted of about 45,000 troops from the eight nations of Germany, Japan, Russia, Britain, France, the United States, Italy, and Austria-Hungary. Neither the Chinese nor the quasi-concerted foreign allies issued a formal declaration of war.[1]
No treaty or formal agreement bound the alliance together. Some Western historians define the first phase of hostilities, starting in August 1900, as "more or less a civil war",[1] though the Battle of the Taku Forts in June pushed the Qing government to support the Boxers. With the success of the invasion, the later stages developed into a punitive colonial expedition, which pillaged Beijing and North China for more than a year. The fighting ended in 1901 with the signing of the Boxer Protocol.[2]
History
Background
The Boxers, a peasant movement, had attacked and killed foreign missionaries, nationals, and
The diplomatic compound was under siege by the Wuwei Rear Division of the Chinese Army and some Boxers (Yihetuan), for 55 days, from 20 June to 14 August 1900. A total of 473 foreign civilians, 409 soldiers from eight countries, and about 3,000 Chinese Christians took refuge in the Legation Quarter.[4] Under the command of the British minister to China, Claude Maxwell MacDonald, the legation staff and security personnel defended the compound with small arms and one old cannon discovered and unearthed by Chinese Christians, who turned it over to the allies. It was nicknamed the International Gun because the barrel was British, the carriage Italian, the shells Russian and the crew American.[5]
Also under siege in Beijing was the North Cathedral, the
On 14 August 1900, the allies marched to Beijing from Tianjin to relieve the Legation Quarter siege.[7]
Military engagement, punitive expeditions and looting
The allied troops invaded and occupied Beijing on 14 August 1900. They defeated the Qing Imperial Army's Wuwei Corps in several engagements and quickly brought an end to the siege and also the Boxer Rebellion. Empress Dowager Cixi, the emperor and high government officials fled the Imperial Palace for Xi'an and sent Li Hongzhang for peace talks with the alliance.[8]
As allied troops moved from Beijing into the North China countryside, they executed unknown numbers of people accused or suspected of being or resembling Boxer rebels, which became the subject of an early short film.
More than 3,000 gold-plated bronze
The
Member nations
Forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance Relief of the Legations Troops of the Eight-Nation Alliance in 1900 (Russia excepted);
left to right: Britain, United States, Australia, India, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Japan | |||
Countries | Warships (units) |
Marines (men) |
Army (men) |
---|---|---|---|
Empire of Japan | 18 | 540 | 20,300 |
Russian Empire | 10 | 750 | 12,400 |
British Empire | 8 | 2,020 | 10,000 |
France | 5 | 390 | 3,130 |
United States | 2 | 295 | 3,125 |
German Empire | 5 | 600 | 300 |
Kingdom of Italy | 2 | 80 | 2,500 |
Austria-Hungary | 4 | 296 | unknown |
Total | 54 | 4,971 | 51,755 |
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary had a single cruiser,
In June, the Austro-Hungarians helped hold the Tianjin railway against Boxer forces and fired upon several armed
The
British Empire
At the outset of the Boxer Rebellion, Britain was engaged in the
British forces were the third-largest contingent in the alliance and consisted of the following units:
Australian colonies
The Australian colonies did not become a unified federation until 1901. As such, several of the colonies, independently of each other, sent contingents of naval and army personnel to support the British contingent. For example, South Australia sent its entire navy: the gunboat HMCS Protector.[22] Australia was not an official member of the Eight-Nation Alliance, and its forces arrived too late to see significant action.[23]
India
Britain provided 10,000 troops, many of whom were Indian troops, made out of units of Baluchis, Sikhs, Gurkhas, Rajputs and Punjabis.[24][25][26]
Germany
Germany had gained a presence in China after the
With the increasing threat of the Boxers, a small armed group from the III. Seebatallion was sent to Beijing and Tianjin to protect German interests there while the majority of the remaining forces stayed behind to prevent attacks against Qingdao. The siege of the foreign legations in Beijing soon convinced Germany and the other European powers that more forces were needed to be sent to China to reinforce the allied forces. The first troops dispatched from Germany were the marine-Expeditionskorps which consisted of the I. and II. Seebatallions.[27]
They were soon followed by the Ostasiatisches Expeditionskorps (East Asian Expeditionary Corps), which was a force of about 15,000 of mostly volunteers from the regular Army under the command of General Alfred Count von Waldersee. It comprised initially four and later six two-battalion infantry regiments and a jäger company, single regiments of cavalry and field artillery and various support and logistics units.[27] On arrival in China, it incorporated the marine-Expeditionskorps that had preceded it to China by a few weeks.[27]
Most of the German forces arrived too late to take part in any of the major actions.[27] The first elements of the Expeditionskorps arrived at Taku on September 21,[27] after the legations had been relieved. As a result, most of the Expeditionskorps was mainly employed for garrison duties. They fought a number of smaller engagements against pockets of remaining Boxers.[28] The Expeditionskorps was disbanded and recalled to Germany in early 1901.[28]
France
Three battalions of marines, the II/9th, and the I and II/11th RIMa which were stationed in French Indochina were sent to China. They joined the 1st Brigade commanded by General Henri-Nicolas Frey. In July 1900, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of infantry embarked from Toulon but did not reach China until September. In October, following losses and rotations of duty, the first three battalions sent were included in the 16th regiment of marines by order of General Régis Voyron, commander in chief of the French Expeditionary Corps in China. On 1 January 1901, the 16th RIMa was renamed the 16th Regiment of colonial infantry. At the end of the campaign, it moved to a new base in Tianjin, with its headquarters in the former buildings of the Chinese admiralty.[29]
Italy
In 1898, the Italians had demanded San Mun Bay as a concession, but the Chinese refused.[30] The Italian Navy then dispatched a squadron to San Mun Bay, but no further action was taken. The squadron remained there, and in the summer of 1900, when the Boxer Rebellion broke out, detachments from Italian cruisers were sent to Beijing. Italian forces were initially made up of sailors from warships.[31] Some of them helped the French defend the Pei Tang Catholic cathedral, and another defended the European Legations in Beijing during the 55-day siege.[30] Italian sailors also took part in the attacks on the Taku forts and in capturing Tianjin.[30]
A larger contingent was later dispatched from Italy, including 83 officers, 1,882 troops, and 178 horses. The contingent included a battalion of Bersaglieri, which was formed from one company each from the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, and 11th Bersaglieri Regiments. In addition, the 24th Line Regiment, volunteers from the Alpini, a battery of machine guns, and some engineers were also sent to China.[31] A battery of field guns was also supplied by the Italian Navy.[31] The total force of 1,965 officers and men, which composed the Italian expeditionary force against the Boxers, was officially referred to as the Italian Royal Troops in China.[30] In August 1900, when the larger force reached the capital, the Italians had seven cruisers and 2,543 men in the country. They were involved in numerous operations along the coast and in the interior of northern China.[30]
The larger part of the approximately 2,000 Italian soldiers and officers who fought in the campaign against the Boxers were recalled from Beijing after the end of the conflict. Italy obtained a 151-acre (61 ha) concession area in Tianjin and the right to occupy the Shanhai Pass fort.[32][30] A small naval squadron and a naval garrison were maintained in China to protect Italian interests there.[30]
Japan
Japan provided the largest contingent of troops; 20,840, as well as 18 warships. Of the total number, 20,300 were Imperial Japanese Army troops of the 5th Infantry Division under Lieutenant General Yamaguchi Motomi; the remainder were 540 naval rikusentai (Marines) from the Imperial Japanese Navy.[citation needed]
At the beginning of the Boxer Rebellion, the Japanese had only 215 troops in northern China stationed at Tianjin, nearly all of whom were naval rikusentai from the Kasagi and the Atago, under the command of Captain Shimamura Hayao.[33] The Japanese were able to contribute 52 men to the Seymour Expedition.[33] On 12 June the advance of the Seymour Expedition was halted some 30 miles from the capital, by mixed Boxer and Chinese regular army forces. The vastly-outnumbered allies withdrew to the vicinity of Tianjin and had suffered more than 300 casualties.[34]
The
On 17 June naval Rikusentai from the Kasagi and Atago had joined British, Russian and German sailors to seize the Taku forts, near Tianjin.[35] The British, in light of the precarious situation, were compelled to ask Japan for additional reinforcements since the Japanese had the only readily available forces in the region.[35] Britain at the time was heavily engaged in the Boer War, and so much of the British Army was tied down in South Africa. In addition, deploying large numbers of troops from its garrisons in India would take too much time and weaken internal security there.[35]
Overriding personal doubts, Foreign Minister Aoki Shūzō calculated that the advantages of participating in an allied coalition were too attractive to ignore. Prime Minister Yamagata likewise concurred, but others in the cabinet demanded that guarantees from the British in return for the risks and costs of the major deployment of Japanese troops.[35] On 6 July the 5th Infantry Division was alerted for possible deployment to China, but no timetable was set for its deployment. On 8 July, with more ground troops urgently needed to lift the siege of the foreign legations at Beijing, the British ambassador offered the Japanese government one million pound sterling in exchange for Japanese participation.[35]
Shortly afterward, advance units of the 5th Division departed for China, bringing Japanese strength to 3,800 members of the 17,000-strong allied force.[35] The commander of the 5th Division, Lieutenant General Yamaguchi Motoomi, had taken operational control from Fukushima. Japanese troops were involved in the storming of Tianjin on 14 July,[35] and the allies later consolidated and awaited the remainder of the 5th Division and other coalition reinforcements. The siege of legations was lifted on 14 August; the Japanese force of 13,000 was the largest single contingent, making up about 40% of the approximately 33,000-strong allied expeditionary force.[35]
Japanese troops involved in the fighting had acquitted themselves well although a British military observer felt that their aggressiveness, densely-packed formations, and overly aggressive attacks cost them excessive and disproportionate casualties.[36] For example, during the Tianjin fighting, the Japanese suffered more than half of the allied casualties, 400 out of 730, but made up less than one quarter (3,800) of the force of 17,000.[36] Similarly at Beijing, the Japanese accounted for almost two thirds of the losses, 280 of 453, but constituted slightly less than half of the assault force.[36]
Russia
Russia supplied the second largest force, after Japan, with 12,400 troops consisting mainly of garrisons from Port Arthur and Vladivostok.[37] On 30 November 1900, Admiral Yevgeni Ivanovich Alekseyev compelled the Chinese military governor of Shenyang, Zeng Qi, to sign an agreement that effectively ended Chinese sovereignty over Manchuria and placed it under Russian control.[38]
United States
In the United States, the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion was known as the China Relief Expedition.[39] The United States was able to play a major role in suppressing the Boxer Rebellion largely because of the presence of American forces deployed in the Philippines since the U.S. annexation after the Spanish–American War in 1898.[40] Of the foreigners under siege in Beijing, there were 56 American sailors and Marines from the USS Oregon and USS Newark.[40] The main American formations deployed to relieve the siege were the 9th Infantry and 14th Infantry regiments, elements of the 6th Cavalry regiment, the 5th Artillery regiment, and a Marine battalion, all under the command of Colonel Adna Chaffee.[41][42] Herbert Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover were living in the foreign compound during the siege when Mr. Hoover was working for the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company. Mr. Hoover helped erect barricades and formed a protective force of the able-bodied men. Mrs. Hoover helped set up a hospital, nursed the wounded, set up a dairy, took part in the night watch, took tea to sentries and carried a Mauser .38 semi-automatic pistol.[43][44]
See also
- Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War
- Foreign concessions in China
- Scramble for China
- The Great Game
- Great power
- Mutual Protection of Southeast China
- Twain–Ament indemnities controversy
- Alfred von Waldersee
- Tai chi chuan
- G7
- G8
Notes
- ^ a b Klein (2008), p. 3.
- ^ a b c d Hevia, James L. "Looting and its discontents: Moral discourse and the plunder of Beijing, 1900–1901" in R. Bickers and R.G. Tiedemann (eds.), The Boxers, China, and the world Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009 [ISBN missing]
- ISBN 978-962-209-881-7. Retrieved 2010-10-31.
- ^ Thompson, 84–85
- ISBN 0-8240-5624-8. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
- ^ Thompson, 85, 170–171
- ISBN 0-7091-4780-5
- ISBN 978-1-317-81716-1.
- ^ Beheading a Chinese Boxer at IMDB
- ISBN 0-393-04085-2. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
- ISBN 978-7500407669.
- ISBN 978-7500407669.
- ISBN 978-7500407669.
- ^ Sondhaus 1994, p. 139.
- ^ a b c d Sondhaus 1994, p. 140.
- ^ Carr 2006, p. 224.
- ^ Bassett 2015, p. 393.
- ^ Ion 2014, p. 37.
- ^ Harrington 2001, p. 28.
- ^ Bodin 1979, p. 34.
- ^ Harrington 2001, p. 29.
- ^ Nicholls, B., Bluejackets and Boxers
- ^ "China (Boxer Rebellion), 1900–01". Australian War Memorial. Australian Government. Archived from the original on 18 February 2011. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
- ^ Krishnan, Ananth (8 July 2011). "The forgotten history of British India troops in China". The Hindu. Beijing. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
- ISBN 978-1-57607-925-6. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-307-41604-9. Retrieved 22 December 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f de Quesada & Dale 2013, p. 23.
- ^ a b de Quesada & Dale 2013, p. 24.
- ^ "Insignes des Troupes Françaises en Chine". www.symboles-et-traditions.fr. Archived from the original on 11 February 2016. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g Paoletti 2008, p. 280.
- ^ a b c Bodin 1979, p. 29.
- ISBN 978-1-61147-502-9.
- ^ a b Ion 2014, p. 44.
- ^ Drea 2009, p. 97.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Drea 2009, p. 98.
- ^ a b c Drea 2009, p. 99.
- ISBN 978-0-8047-6405-6.
- ISBN 978-0-275-95566-3.
- ^ "Documents of the Boxer Rebellion (China Relief Expedition), 1900–1901". Naval History & Heritage Command. United States Navy. 13 March 2000. Archived from the original on 2 February 2013. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
- ^ a b "The Boxer Rebellion and the U.S. Navy, 1900–1901". U.S. Naval History & Heritage Command. Archived from the original on 2 January 2013. Retrieved 20 January 2013.
- ^ "U.S. Army Campaigns: China Relief Expedition". United States Army Center of Military History. United States Army. 19 November 2010. Archived from the original on 7 September 2011. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
- ^ Plante, Trevor K. (1999). "U.S. Marines in the Boxer Rebellion". Prologue Magazine. 31 (4). United States National Archive. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
- ISBN 0-7006-1357-9.
- ISBN 0-19-505976-X.
References
- Bassett, Richard (2015). For God and Kaiser: The Imperial Austrian Army, 1619–1918. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-17858-6.
- Bodin, Lynn (1979). The Boxer Rebellion. Chris Warner (illustrator). Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 0-85045-335-6.
- Carr, Charmian (2006). Forever Liesl: My the Sound of Music Story. Pan Books. ISBN 0-330-45100-6.
- de Quesada, Alejandro; Dale, Chris (2013). Imperial German Colonial and Overseas Troops 1885–1918. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78096-165-1.
- ISBN 978-0-8032-1708-9.
- Harrington, Peter (2001). Peking 1900: The Boxer Rebellion. Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 1-84176-181-8.
- Ion, Hamish (2014). "The Idea of Naval Imperialism: The China Squadron and the Boxer Uprising". British Naval Strategy East of Suez, 1900–2000: Influences and Actions. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-76967-3.
- Klein, Thoralf (2008). "The Boxer War-the Boxer Uprising". Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence. ISSN 1961-9898.
- Paoletti, Ciro (2008). A Military History of Italy (illustrated ed.). Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-275-98505-9.
- Smith, Shirley Ann (2012). Imperial Designs: Italians in China 1900–1947 (illustrated ed.). Lexington Books. ISBN 978-1-61147-502-9.
- Sondhaus, Lawrence (1994). The Naval Policy of Austria-Hungary, 1867–1918: Navalism, Industrial Development, and the Politics of Dualism. Purdue University Press. ISBN 1-55753-034-3.
- Thompson, Larry Clinton. William Scott Ament and the Boxer Rebellion. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009.
- Xu, Guangqiu (2012). "Eight Foreign Armies Invasion of China". In Li, Xiaobing (ed.). China at War: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1598844153.