Free Essays on The Boxer Rebellion

When Japan defeated China in 1895, European powers answered with an order they called, â€Å"carving up the Chinese melon.† Following the division of Africa among European powers, they turned their sights to what they saw as an extremely weak Chinese government. European powers and America began to scramble for what was called â€Å"spheres of influence.† These spheres of influence involved holding leases for all railway and public advantages in different regions of China. Russia got Port Arthur, Britain got the New Territories near the Hong Kong region, Germany got Shandong and America got nothing. America was focusing largely on Guam and the Philippines and had missed the opportunity and so insisted on the â€Å"open-door policy† in China where commercial opportunities were equally available to all Western powers. In result, the political and territorial integrity of China would stay intact. The imperial court responded to this foreign threat by giving aid to various secret societies. Traditionally, secret societies had been formed in opposition to imperial government; as such, they were certainly a threat to the Qing government. However, anti-foreign sentiment had risen so greatly in China that the Empress Dowager Ci Xi believed that the secret societies could be the leaders in a military deportation of Europeans. This policy reached its crucial period in 1900 with the Boxer Rebellion. The Boxers, or â€Å"The Righteous and Harmonious Fists,† were a religious society that had originally rebelled against the imperial government in Shandong in 1898. They practiced an animistic magic of rituals and spells that they believed made them invulnerable to bullets and pain. The Boxers believed that the expulsion of foreign devils would magically renew Chinese society and begin a new golden age. Much of their discontent, however, was focused on the economic scarcity of the 1890s. They were a passionate and confident grou... Free Essays on The Boxer Rebellion Free Essays on The Boxer Rebellion When Japan defeated China in 1895, European powers answered with an order they called, â€Å"carving up the Chinese melon.† Following the division of Africa among European powers, they turned their sights to what they saw as an extremely weak Chinese government. European powers and America began to scramble for what was called â€Å"spheres of influence.† These spheres of influence involved holding leases for all railway and public advantages in different regions of China. Russia got Port Arthur, Britain got the New Territories near the Hong Kong region, Germany got Shandong and America got nothing. America was focusing largely on Guam and the Philippines and had missed the opportunity and so insisted on the â€Å"open-door policy† in China where commercial opportunities were equally available to all Western powers. In result, the political and territorial integrity of China would stay intact. The imperial court responded to this foreign threat by giving aid to various secret societies. Traditionally, secret societies had been formed in opposition to imperial government; as such, they were certainly a threat to the Qing government. However, anti-foreign sentiment had risen so greatly in China that the Empress Dowager Ci Xi believed that the secret societies could be the leaders in a military deportation of Europeans. This policy reached its crucial period in 1900 with the Boxer Rebellion. The Boxers, or â€Å"The Righteous and Harmonious Fists,† were a religious society that had originally rebelled against the imperial government in Shandong in 1898. They practiced an animistic magic of rituals and spells that they believed made them invulnerable to bullets and pain. The Boxers believed that the expulsion of foreign devils would magically renew Chinese society and begin a new golden age. Much of their discontent, however, was focused on the economic scarcity of the 1890s. They were a passionate and confident grou...