Cause and effects of the Boxer Rebellion

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Cause and effects of the Boxer Rebellion

Causes

  • Western Imperialism- placed China in a series of 'unequal treaties', foreigners treated local people as inferiors
  • Sino- Japanese war in 1894 acquired 4 treaty ports from the Chinese
  • British control over Hong Kong during the 'scramble for concessions'
  • Foreign devilspercieved as sabotaging the Chinese people- series of Harvest failures and a mixture of droughts and floods
  • Subjected to false religions of the West

Effects

  • Theywanted to reclaim their independence of Western control
  • Strarted their attacks on foreign Christians, Chinese Christians and Chinese workers for foreigners in Shandong province
  • Thousands were massacred as the Boxers advanced to Beijing
  • The capital was reached in 1900 where Cixi announced the Qing's support for the Boxers and declared war on foreign nations in China
  • Cixi could not develop an adequate army to challenge a international army of 20000, Boxers crumbled and Cixi fled
  • China had to pay reperations of $450 million and have a number of military bases destroyed

Overall summary

It is understandable to why the Boxers rebelled, there was a compound of religious, cultural and national frustration. Within 11 years the Dynasty collapsed in the face of a publican revolt however it took a civil war and an involvement in two world wars to remove foreign involvement in China. Overall, it crippled the Qing even more with a debt from reparations which contributed to it's fall in 1911.

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