The Boxer Rebellion refers to a peasant movement that took place in China at the end of the 19th century under the slogan of "supporting the Qing Dynasty and destroying the foreign countries", a once vigorous movement, although it was ultimately defeated by the internal and external attacks of the perfidious Qing government and the Eight-Power Alliance. But the social impact it has had is significant and of far-reaching historical significance.
Boxer Movement picture book
Let's crack this topic in detail.
First, it was suppressed by the Qing court, and then used by it
In 1897, the villagers of Liyuantun in Guan County, Shandong Province, clashed with the local church over a land dispute over history. Zhao Sanduo, a plum blossom boxer in Wei County, was invited by these villagers to come to the aid. Later, Zhao Sanduo renamed Meihuaquan to Yihe Fist and formed a vigilante group against Manchu rule under the slogan of "Anti-Qing and Restoration of the Ming Dynasty".
Its rise, like some secret groups at that time, was suppressed by the Qing government, and in order to facilitate the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Rumei, the governor of Shandong, went to the imperial court, believing that the Boxer Fist belonged to the township regiment and suggested that "changing the fist to the yong was a militia regiment". In this way, the name of the "Boxer Rebellion" was officially "named" by the Qing court.
In October 1898, according to the national conditions at that time, and in order to paralyze the imperial court, Zhao Sanduo and others erected the banner of "Supporting the Qing Dynasty and Destroying the Yangs" in Jiangjiazhuang, GuanXian County (now part of Wei County, Hebei Province), but in the end they were suppressed by the Qing army and failed.
Boxer Rebellion Concept Map
Although Zhao Sanduo's "Yihe Fist" was suppressed, the "Yihe Fist" in various parts of Shandong raised the banner of "Tianxia Yihe Fist Xingqing Qing Yang", announced that in response to Zhao Sanduo, officially began the uprising. At that time, the governor of Shandong was Yuxian, who hated foreign invaders and was more sympathetic to the people's struggle against foreign religions, so he took measures against The Boxers and took measures to suppress and treat them with caresses as the mainstay. His attitude was hostile to foreign countries, and Yuxian was dismissed from his post under the pressure of the great powers. Yuan Shikai took office as the governor of Shandong, who always held a hostile attitude toward the Boxers, and after he took office, he strictly restricted the activities of the Boxers and killed the Boxer leaders such as Scarlet Lantern, The Monk of Xincheng, and Yu Qingshui.
After encountering unfavorable conditions in Shandong in 1899, the Boxers began to move to Zhili and other places. The Qing government still strictly forbade the Boxer Rebellion, and successively sent several groups of troops to participate in the suppression. It was not until Yuxian left his post that he went to Beijing to meet Empress Dowager Cixi and proposed to her to recruit the Boxers. Cixi, who completely controlled the imperial court after the coup d'état, happened to be very dissatisfied with the West's opposition to her deposing Guangxu.
So in January 1900, Cixi issued an edict defending the Boxers, despite protests from Western diplomats. The governor directly under the governor, Yu Lu, changed from suppressing the Boxers to supporting the Boxers. In addition to distributing money to the tuan people, Yulu also invited the leader of the Boxer Rebellion, Master Brother, to tianjin to gather the crowd. As a result, the boxers in Shandong poured into Zhili in large numbers.
Empress Dowager Cixi
On June 17, 1900, rampant foreign coalition forces captured The Tagukou Fort. When Cixi received this news, she received false information that foreigners were asking her to return to Guangxu. As a result, Cixi's attitude shifted to complete support for the Boxers and to wage war against the foreigners. Her purpose was to use the Boxers to resist the invasion of foreigners.
Two. After the defeat of the imperial court, it turned its face, and the internal and external attacks were suppressed
Cixi ordered GangYi, Zaiyi, Zaixun, Zailian, and Zailan to command the Boxers, and Zaixun to be the commander of the Infantry Army, and the Boxers quickly grew stronger and began to heroically declare war on the foreign coalition forces together with the Qing army. This triggered the "Eight-Power Alliance's War of Aggression against China."
In the end, because the Qing army and the Boxers used traditional equipment such as spears and large knives, while the foreign invaders had advanced weapons such as long guns and sharp guns, although our side had more personnel than the enemy, the result was that the Qing army and the Boxers still suffered a tragic defeat in the war to defend Beijing.
Japanese Painting: The Eight-Power Coalition
On the night of August 16, 1900, the Eight-Power Coalition basically occupied the entire city of Beijing. Cixi and the imperial family left immediately after the fall of Beijing and fled to Xi'an. Cixi immediately turned her face when she fled, and she put all the responsibility for the defeat of the war on the Boxers, and ordered the Qing forces everywhere to turn around and kill the Boxers.
Because the rapid development of the Boxers at that time was entirely due to the support of the Qing court, many Boxer organizations quickly withered away after the change in the attitude of the Qing court. This once vigorous peasant uprising was also completely suppressed by the internal and external attacks of the Eight-Power Alliance and the Qing Army.
Three. The social impact is great and the historical significance is far-reaching
Although the Boxer Rebellion failed, its social impact was great, and its historical significance was also very far-reaching. Its exploits at that time were mainly manifested in three aspects: that is, it prevented the imperialist powers from dividing up China; it preserved China's long-standing culture for thousands of years; and it prevented the possible outbreak of an imperialist war.
The Boxers fought against the Eight-Power Alliance
The Boxer Rebellion, with the heroic fighting of its fighters, dealt a thorough blow to the imperialist aggressors and made them dare not do whatever they wanted, thus putting an end to their crimes of dividing Up China. For, relying solely on the righteousness of the cause, and not relying on heroic battles to put it into practice, will end up with empty words and will achieve nothing.
The imperialist powers will not at all cease their madness because of the injustice of their robbery of plundering the colonies; otherwise, how could many parts of the world have become their colonies? Therefore, the Boxer Rebellion is a just struggle to prevent China from becoming a colony with the bodies and blood of the soldiers, which deserves the praise of our whole nation.
Further, if the Boxer Rebellion ever prevented the imperialist powers from dividing up China, then, in a sense, it correspondingly prevented the possible outbreak of an imperialist war waged by the imperialist powers for the partition of China's territory.
Boxer Cartoons
Since the Boxer Rebellion prevented the imperialist powers from dividing up China, then, it correspondingly preserved China's long-standing culture for thousands of years, enabling the Chinese nation, an ancient civilization, to survive in the era of the largest territorial plunder in the history of this world.
The Boxer Rebellion's response to the imperialist challenge of dividing up China proved that Chinese culture and civilization have their own survival value and power, and that the merits of China's long-standing culture and civilization for thousands of years have been preserved, and the merits of the Boxer Rebellion are immortal.
Analyzed in terms of long-term historical significance, the Boxer Rebellion marked the awakening of China's national consciousness in the modern sense, and it, together with the later Anti-201 May Fourth Movement and may thirtieth Movement of the Republic of China, was collectively known as the three major mass nationalist movements in China against imperialist aggression in modern times, of which the May Fourth Movement was mainly anti-imperialist political sovereignty aggression, while the Boxer Rebellion and the May Thirtieth Movement were anti-imperialist political, economic and cultural aggression movements, which lasted longer and had a more far-reaching impact.
Schematic of the Boxer Rebellion
In short, the Boxer Rebellion not only prevented the imperialist powers from dividing up China at that time, preserved China's long-standing culture, prevented the possible outbreak of an imperialist war and promoted the awakening of the broad masses of the Chinese people, but also became "one of the cornerstones of the great victory of the Chinese people fifty years later." What a historical significance!
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