1. I hereby share some background knowledge in response to a tweet referring to the Yihetuan Movement (Boxer Rebellion ), the Reparations of 1901 (Gengzi Indemnity) which amounted to obscene historical revisionism.
2. After the #OpiumWars (1st 1840-42, 2nd 1860-62), foreign missionaries relied on the privileges granted by #unequaltreaties, forcibly grabbing a large number of lands and houses and going all out to extend the influence of the #church in #China.
3. Any time conflicts arose between believers and civilians in China, they unconditionally showed partiality to their believers, in defiance of the Chinese law. The rivalry between foreign churches and Chinese civilians became increasingly testy.
4. In 1898, an anti-church and anti-aggression movement known as Yihetuan (Boxer Society of Righteousness and Harmony) arose in Shandong province. Germany was expanding its presence by building churches and railways there. The Yihetuan was ruthlessly suppressed by the Qing army.
5. In 1900, the Chinese Year of Gengzi, the Yihetuan marched on Beijing and rapidly grew in numbers. Empress Dowager Cixi was afraid the further oppression of Yihetuan would endanger her regime and exploited it against foreign forces.
6. Hence, she pretended to give her recognition to the Yihetuan as a patriotic movement, and the Yihetuan entered Beijing and Tianjin in succession.
7. The development of the Yihetuan caused panic among foreign forces. At first, they compelled the Qing govnt to suppress it. But later, when they found that the Qing govt had lost its control over the situation, they decided to dispatch troops to quash the movement themselves.
8. In June 1900, an allied army of eight countries, namely Austria-Hungary, Britain, the USA, Germany, France, Tsarist Russia, Japan, Italy declared war on the Qing govnt for its alleged ant-Western tendencies and marched on Beijing. The Qing govnt declared war on these powers.
9. But due to the hesitation of the Qing govnt, and the loose organization and backward combating ways and weapons of the Yihetuan, the occupant troops defeated the combined Qing and Yihetuan forces, and Beijing fell into the hands of the foreign allies in August the same year.
10. Empress Dowager Cixi, taking Emperor Guangxu with her, fled to Xi'an, in Shaanxi Province. In order to sue for peace before the powers, the Qing govnt then betrayed the Yihetuan, calling them "bandits", and joined the foreign forces in suppressing them.
11. In 1901, the foreign powers forced the Qing govnt to sign the "Boxer Protocol of 1901", another unequal treaty. The Qing govnt had to pay 450,000,000 taels silver to the eight invading nations and for their loss in the war. The reparations were to be paid within 39 years.
12. The population of China was 450 million then, literally each and every Chinese having to pay 1 tael silver. The reparations also went to six other “victim” nations: Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Sweden & Norway.
13. With both principal and interest calculated, the sum totaled more than 980,000,000 taels. In addition, there were also local reparations at a provincial level, which amounted to more than 20,000,000 taels. So the total reparations exceeded 1,000,000,000 taels.
16. In sum, the Boxer Protocol and Genzi Indemnity was an important part of the hundred years of national humiliation of China, which heavily influenced the mindset of the Chinese people.
17. Credit to Common Knowledge about Chinese History (Revised Edition), 2015; CHINAPEDIA, Enrich Professional Publishing, 2014
