China's modern history is also a heavy history, under the corrupt system of the Qing dynasty, the outside world ushered in the eyes of the great powers, and in 1900, the rise of folk nationalism, and Cixi was dissatisfied with the interference of foreign ministers in their own abolition of Guangxu, began to appoint the Boxers, resulting in a sharp deterioration in the qing court and foreign relations, various factors, and finally triggered the Eight-Power Alliance's invasion of China.
In May 1900, foreign ministers, under the pretext of "protecting the embassy," demanded troops to beijing, which eventually led to the participation of eight countries in the operation. They were: the British Empire, the United States of America, the French Third Republic, the German Empire, the Russian Empire, the Empire of Japan, the Kingdom of Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
On June 6, thousands of allied soldiers stationed in the Tianjin Concession were approved by their respective governments, and the invasion war broke out, they successively captured the Dagu Fort, and then fought fiercely with the Boxers and Qing troops defending Tianjin, but in October of that year, the German commander Wadsi once again led 30,000 soldiers to China to capture Baoding Zhangjiakou and other places, the balance of the war immediately tilted to the invaders, on July 14, Tianjin fell, and then again captured Beijing, and finally in 1901, The Qing court was forced to sign the Xinugu Treaty.
During the occupation, the coalition forces also took photos in Beijing and Tianjin many times, which also became evidence of their crimes.
The above photo, I believe most readers have also seen, this is a group photo left by several countries after the success of military operations, and in order of height, but what makes people feel confused is why there are 9 people on the group photo in 8 countries?
In fact, in this photo, the invading Russian troops did not participate in the group photo, but the nationalities of the soldiers from the left were: Britain, the United States, Australia, British India, Germany, France, Austria (Austria-Hungary), Italy and Japan. At this time, Australia and India were still British colonies, and the British army took them out as separate members as a group photo object.
In terms of the number of the Eight-Power Alliance, the Japanese army is the largest, with a total number of 20,300 people, the main force is the Fifth Division, which is enough to see the urgency of the Japanese side, the second is the Russian Empire, which sent 12,000 troops, and the third is the British, in addition to 750 Marines, a large number of soldiers are composed of soldiers from the colonies.
In fact, as early as the late 19th century, with India officially becoming a British colony in 1858, Indians could often be seen in the british jurisdiction.
For example, during the Qing Dynasty, the British concession in China can often see indians as fast catchers and garrisons, in addition to indians even appeared during World War I and World War II, the British began to recruit soldiers in the Indian colonies to fight, in July 1916, bicycle troops from India participated in the Battle of the Somme. Throughout World War I, a total of 1.3 million soldiers of Indian descent served the British, most of them high caste whites.
During World War II, British Indian troops also participated in the Imphal Campaign, but the Indian army's combat effectiveness and soldier quality is not very high, and it is not valued by the British colonists, most of them are engaged in logistical tasks, it is worth mentioning that Japan and Nazi Germany also supported an anti-British colonial force called "Free India", and even a "Nazi Indian Army", but it did not have much effect, and eventually it was not solved.
I also hope that the lessons of this period of history will be remembered by future generations.