Eight-Nation Alliance
Encyclopedia : E : EI : EIG : Eight-Nation Alliance
The Eight-Nation Alliance (Traditional Chinese: }) was an alliance of 8 nations (Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) which put down the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900. The military contingent from the United States was called the China Relief Expedition.
At the end of the campaign, the imperial government was forced to sign the humiliating Boxer Protocol of 1901.
Leading Factors
At the end of the 1800's due to foreign involvement within China, and the Empress Cixi's passive approval, resentment towards the foreigners was on the rise. Social differences and the technology gap encouraged these sentiments. These resentments grew to the extent that action against foreign companies, personnel, and even items such as violins, automobiles, phone lines etc. was carried out. Diplomats were assassinated, businesses vandalized and items were set on fire in the streets.
Although the Qing government formally condemned these violent actions, they failed to prosecute the people that carried out the crimes, and it is thought that they encouraged them from behind the scenes.
Citing the necessity of protecting their citizens, these eight foreign countries sent troops to quell the rebels. Some other informal motives, apparently, were the opportunity of further access to the Chinese market and exploitation of the Chinese.
Events
Troops of the eight countries arrived, entered and occupied Beijing August 14th, 1900. the Empress, Emperor and the higher officials left the Forbidden Palace for Xian, and sent Li Hongzhang for peace talks.
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.