The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Rebellion, was a peasant movement that took place in the late Qing Dynasty at the end of the 19th century. The slogan of this movement was "anti-Qing and restoration", but later, with the development of the situation, it began to support the Qing Dynasty in resisting the West, renamed "Tiger God Camp", and the slogan was also changed to "Fu Qing and Destroy the Yang". This movement can be said to be vigorous, dealing a heavy blow to the reactionary rule of the Qing court and hastening its demise, and also smashing the arrogant plan of the imperialist powers to divide China with the change of slogan.
In January 1900, Cixi issued an edict to safeguard the Boxers, and the Qing court changed from the original suppression of the Boxers to the support of the Boxers, and also paid money to the people of the Regiment, resulting in a large number of Boxer members entering Beijing. The foreigners in Beijing felt that they were not safe, and took the opportunity to mobilize sailors and marines to defend the embassy area, and Cixi also sent Dong Fuxiang's Gan army into the city to ensure their own safety.
At that time, Cixi wanted to depose the Guangxu Emperor, and was opposed by the foreigners and did not dare to put it into action, which made her hold a grudge, and the foreigners always wanted to take advantage of the fire and looting and swallow up the Qing Empire in the name of demanding that the Qing court eliminate the Boxers. After entering Beijing, the Boxer Rebellion developed rapidly, attracting more and more Qing soldiers to join, and the xenophobic forces led by Zai Yi also gained the upper hand in the Qing court.
Originally, Cixi and the foreigners had a period of time to discuss peace, but I don't know who spread the news that the foreigners wanted to force her to step down and support the comeback of the Guangxu Emperor, and suddenly became angry and simply declared war on her. Cixi gave hundreds of thousands of taels and repaid them to the Boxers, asking them to attack the concession in Tianjin, besiege the embassy in Beijing, and post a reward in Beijing to kill foreigners. Today, some netizens call this "Cixi declared war on the 11 countries", in fact, the situation at that time was not like this, the Qing court's declaration of war edict did not nominate to declare war on He Guo, nor did it send the declaration of war to foreign envoys, and during the war, the Qing Dynasty and the great powers always maintained diplomatic relations. Therefore, some people think that the Qing court's declaration of war is vain and is just a mobilization order.
As everyone knows, on August 14, 1900, Cixi and Guangxu abandoned Beijing and fled, and on September 7, 1901, with the signing of the "Xinugu Treaty" as the final outcome - China has since completely degenerated into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, bringing unprecedented disasters to the country and people at that time.
Less well known is that the Boxer Rebellion also caught the attention of ottoman Turks, when the sultan and caliph of the Ottoman Empire was Abdul Hamid II. Abdul Hamid II reigned from 1876 to 1909, during which the Ottoman Empire's internal rule was crumbling, ethnic contradictions arose, and because of the Russo-Turkish War, Turkey's international status plummeted, becoming a veritable "sick man of Europe". But Abdul Hamid II still believes that the real threat to Turkey is not Russia but the West. "Our aim is to keep those European countries busy with Far Eastern affairs to ensure that they don't interfere with Turkey," he said. ”
Despite his defeat in the war against Russia, Abdul Hamid II remained a real dreamer, not only taking the opportunity to dissolve parliament, stop the constitution, and impose dictatorship, but also promote pan-Islamism in an attempt to make himself the spiritual leader of the vast number of Muslims in order to increase the capital of confrontation with the West. When he heard about the Boxers, he sent a "persuasion mission" to China to prevent the Chinese Muslim population from participating in the Boxer Rebellion. "China has as many as 70 million Muslims, enough to serve as a political weapon against the Western world and to show the world the political power of caliphate radicalism," he said. ”
However, not all dreams could be realized, and when Abdul Hamid II, the "persuasion group", came to Beijing just in time for Cixi and Guangxu to flee from Beijing, and the officials left behind by the Qing Empire looked at the foreigners who were dressed and dressed completely different from Chinese after a long journey, did not know what they were talking about, and actually regarded them as "crazy people", perfunctorily sent them away.
Today, it is not known what this "persuasion group" reported to Abdul Hamid II upon his return, but only that Abdul Hamid did not give up on the matter. In 1901, the Qing court was forced to sign the Humiliating Treaty of Xinugu with eight countries and 11 countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain, and the Boxer Rebellion was over, but Abdul Hamid II's "persuasion group" came again - in 1901, he let a leader named "Hasson Fear" lead a "delegation" to come to China again, or used the name of the caliph to "order" Muslims in China to form a political weapon against the Western world.
The Qing court adopted an attitude of ignoring this group of people, who were perhaps afraid of returning to China and would not be able to make a difference, so they simply stayed and did not leave. In 1908, they also opened a school in Beijing, and it is said that its building is still in the courtyard of the Niujie Mosque in Beijing. However, their "advice" was extinguished with the dethronement of Abdul Hamid II by the Young Turks on April 27, 1909. (Author's Note: This article refers to the relevant master's thesis of Mr. Song Jiansheng of Shanghai Jiao Tong University)