The Eight-Nations Alliance
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THE RIFLES OF THE EIGHT NATION ALLIANCE
The Eight Nation Alliance consisted of the United States, British Empire, Germany, France, Austro-Hungary, Italy, Russia, and Japan. These rivals temporarily put aside their competition to defeat a threat to all of their interests. Each nation had adopted different standard issue rifles for their armies, and the weapons their soldiers carried were a showcase of available small arms technology. Their temporary friendship was tenuous at best. By the end of the Boxer Uprising each nation within the coalition was accusing all the others of poor performance, atrocities, and looting. By 1914 these same rifles outfitted their armies for one of the most devastating wars in history. During the summer of 1900, eight major powers assembled a military coalition to protect their influence in China. The Boxer Rebellion was a Chinese movement that had formed in response to growing foreign power in China. The Boxers wanted to end outside influence and began to attack westerners. In June, 1900 Boxers besieged the Legation Quarter of Peking, modern Beijing. They trapped a large number of foreigners and Chinese nationals inside. The Chinese government threw its support behind the Boxer rebellion, and declared war on the foreign coalition. The Allies sent a relief expedition to relieve the siege on June 10th, but it was beaten back after encountering heavy resistance. On August 4th the Allies launched a much stronger relief expedition that was able to break the siege and force and end to the short, but violent, war. The invention of smokeless powder in the 1880s in France had ushered in a new race between the major powers to update their arsenals. France went first, in 1886 they adopted the Lebel, and the trend was set. By the time of the Eight Nation Alliance, the powers brought together a slew of rifles that had been competing with one another for military contracts on both sides of the Atlantic. Prior to adopting the Krag-Jorgensen in 1892, the U.S. Army had tested over 50 designs. French soldiers carried their Lebel rifles into Peking. German troops brought the new 1898 Mauser. Austro-Hungarian soldiers marched with 1888 Mannlicher rifles, updated in 1890 to a new cartridge. Italians had their Model 1891 Carcano. the Japanese fought with a mixture of their new Type 30 Arisakas and older Murata rifles. The Russians, who would go to war with Japan in 1905, used the M91 Mosin-Nagant. Troops from around the British Empire were armed with the new magazine Lee-Enfield, and its predecessor the Lee-Metford. Soldiers from the U.S. Army were equipped with Krag-Jorgensens, while U.S. Marines were armed with Lee 1895 rifles. The various rifles utilized a number of different features. The Mausers, Mosins, and Arisakas could be reloaded quickly with 5 round stripper clips. The Lebel’s tube magazine, and the Krag-Jorgensen’s side loading gate could not accept stripper or en-bloc clips, and the British only updated the Enfield to take chargers later. The Mannlicher and the Lee-Metford both began as black powder designs, while the Murata was a hold-over from single-shot days. Some of the rifles present became the most iconic bolt action designs in history. The Lee-Enfield, Mosin-Nagant, and Mauser and their variants all had more than 10 million examples produced over their lifespan. The American Lee 1895 and Krag-Jorgsensen were both about to be replaced by the 1903 Springfield. The designers of these rifles and the men that carried them could not foresee the lasting impact they would have on firearms technology and the rest of the 20th Century. The Cody Firearms Museum holds examples of a number of these rifles in our collection including a Lee 1895, M91 Mosin-Nagant, Lebel, 1888 Mannlicher, Krag-Jorgensen, and even a Japanese Murata.
Boxer Rebellion - Summary:
Beginning in 1899, the Boxer Rebellion was an uprising in China against foreign influence in religion, politics, and trade. In the fighting, the Boxers killed thousands of Chinese Christians and attempted to storm the foreign embassies in Beijing. Following a 55-day siege, the embassies were relieved by 20,000 Japanese, American, and European troops. In the wake of the rebellion, several punitive expeditions were launched and the Chinese government was forced to sign the "Boxer Protocol" which called for the rebellion's leaders to be executed and the payment of financial reparations to the injured nations. Boxer Rebellion - Dates: The Boxer Rebellion began in November 1899, in the Shandong Province and ended on September 7, 1901, with the signing of the Boxer Protocol. Boxer Rebellion - Outbreak: The activities of the Boxers, also known as the Righteous and Harmonious Society Movement, began in the Shandong Province of eastern China in March 1898. This was largely in response to the failure of the government's modernization initiative, the Self-Strengthening Movement, as well as the German occupation of the Jiao Zhou region and the British seizure of Weihai. The first signs of unrest appeared in a village after a local court ruled in favor of giving a local temple over to the Roman Catholic authorities for use as a church. Upset by the decision, the villagers, led by Boxer agitators, attacked the church. Boxer Rebellion - The Uprising Grows: While the Boxers initially pursued an anti-government platform, they shifted to an anti-foreigner agenda after being severely beaten by Imperial troops in October 1898. Following this new course, they fell upon Western missionaries and Chinese Christians who they viewed as agents of foreign influence. In Beijing, the Imperial court was controlled by ultra-conservatives who supported the Boxers and their cause. From their position of power, they forced the Empress Dowager Cixi to issue edicts endorsing the Boxers' activities, which angered foreign diplomats. Boxer Rebellion - The Legation Quarter Under Attack: In June 1900, the Boxers, along with parts of the Imperial Army, began attacking foreign embassies in Beijing and Tianjin. In Beijing, the embassies of Great Britain, the United States, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia, and Japan were all located in the Legation Quarter near the Forbidden City. Anticipating such a move, a mixed force of 435 marines from eight countries had been sent to reinforce the embassy guards. As the Boxers approached, the embassies were quickly linked into a fortified compound. Those embassies located outside of the compound were evacuated, with the staff taking refuge inside. On June 20, the compound was surrounded and attacks began. Across town, the German envoy, Klemens von Ketteler, was killed trying to escape the city. The following day, Cixi declared war on all of the Western powers, however her regional governors refused to obey and a larger war was avoided. In the compound, the defense was led by the British ambassador, Claude M. McDonald. Fighting with small arms and one old cannon, they managed to keep the Boxers at bay. This cannon became known as the "International Gun," as it had a British barrel, an Italian carriage, fired Russian shells, and was served by Americans. Boxer Rebellion - First Attempt to Relieve the Legation Quarter: To deal with the Boxer threat, an alliance was formed between Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Great Britain, and the United States. On June 10, an international force of 2,000 marines was dispatched from Takou under British Vice Admiral Edward Seymour to aid Beijing. Moving by rail to Tianjin, they were forced to continue on foot as the Boxers had severed the line to Beijing. Seymour's column advanced as far Tong-Tcheou, 12 miles from Beijing, before being forced to retreat due to stiff Boxer resistance. They arrived back at Tianjin on June 26, having suffered 350 casualties. Boxer Rebellion - Second Attempt to Relieve the Legation Quarter: With the situation deteriorating, the members of the Eight-Nation Alliance sent reinforcements to the area. Commanded by British Lieutenant General Alfred Gaselee, the international army numbered 54,000. Advancing, they captured Tianjin on July 14. Continuing with 20,000 men, Gaselee pressed on for the capital. Boxer and Imperial forces next made a stand at Yangcun where they assumed a defensive position between the Hai River and a railroad embankment. Enduring intense temperatures which led to many Allied soldiers falling out of the ranks, British, Russian, and American forces attacked on August 6. In the fighting, American troops secured the embankment and found that many of the Chinese defenders had fled. The remainder of the day saw the Allies engage the enemy in series of rearguard actions. Arriving at Beijing, a plan was quickly developed which called for each major contingent to assault a separate gate in the city's eastern wall. While the Russians struck in the north, the Japanese would attack to the south with the Americans and British below them. Deviating from the plan, the Russians moved against the Dongbien, which had been assigned to the Americans, around 3:00 AM on August 14. Though they breached the gate, they were quickly pinned down. Arriving on the scene, the surprised Americans shifted 200 yards south. Once there, Corporal Calvin P. Titus volunteered to scale the wall to secure a foothold on the ramparts. Successful, he was followed by the remainder of the American forces. For his bravery, Titus later received the Medal of Honor. To the north, the Japanese succeeded in gaining access to the city after a sharp fight while further south the British penetrated into Beijing against minimal resistance. Pushing towards the Legation Quarter, the British column dispersed the few Boxers in the area and reached their goal around 2:30 PM. They were joined by the Americans two hours later. Casualties among the two columns proved extremely light with one of the wounded being Captain Smedley Butler. With the siege of the legation compound relieved, the combined international force swept the city the next day and occupied the Imperial City. Over the next year, a second German-led international force conducted punitive raids throughout China. Boxer Rebellion - Aftermath: Following the fall of Beijing, Cixi sent Li Hongzhang to begin negotiations with the alliance. The result was the Boxer Protocol which required the execution of ten high-ranking leaders who had supported the rebellion, as well as payment of 450,000,000 tael of silver as war reparations. The Imperial government's defeat further weakened the Qing Dynasty, paving the way for its overthrow in 1912. During the fighting, 270 missionaries were killed, along with 18,722 Chinese Christians. The allied victory also led to further partitioning of China, with the Russians occupying Manchuria and the Germans taking Tsingtao.
When Americans Ruled Beijing
On August 14, 1900 a motley crew of around 18,000 soldiers and sailors from eight different Western powers and Imperial Japan took Beijing (Peking) by storm, ending a 55-day siege of the international Legation Quarter by the Imperial Chinese Army and the Militia United in Righteousness, otherwise known in English as the Boxers. The capture of Beijing all but ended what was known as the Boxer Rebellion. The rebellion, fueled by economic hardship and the growing encroachment on Chinese territory by imperial powers — the Boxers’ battle cry was “Support the Qing, exterminate the foreigners” — however, did not officially end until the signing of the Boxer Protocol on September 7, 1901. The official title of the document, capturing the number of countries involved, was “Austria-Hungary, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, United States, and China—Final Protocol for the Settlement of the Disturbances of 1900.” In between the conquest of Beijing on August 14-15 and the signing of the protocol on September 7 the following year, the city was occupied and administered by the Eight-Nation Alliance. On August 14, 1900 a motley crew of around 18,000 soldiers and sailors from eight different Western powers and Imperial Japan took Beijing (Peking) by storm, ending a 55-day siege of the international Legation Quarter by the Imperial Chinese Army and the Militia United in Righteousness, otherwise known in English as the Boxers. The capture of Beijing all but ended what was known as the Boxer Rebellion. The rebellion, fueled by economic hardship and the growing encroachment on Chinese territory by imperial powers — the Boxers’ battle cry was “Support the Qing, exterminate the foreigners” — however, did not officially end until the signing of the Boxer Protocol on September 7, 1901. The official title of the document, capturing the number of countries involved, was “Austria-Hungary, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, United States, and China—Final Protocol for the Settlement of the Disturbances of 1900.” In between the conquest of Beijing on August 14-15 and the signing of the protocol on September 7 the following year, the city was occupied and administered by the Eight-Nation Alliance.
Knowledge Graph
Examples
1 Exactly a century ago - on September 7, 1901, the invading troops sent by Britain, Germany, The United States, France, Tsarist Russia, Japan, Italy and Austria forced the Chinese Qing government to sign the Protocol of 1901. To commemorate the occasion, China Foundation for Human Rights Development and the First Historical Archives of China jointly have published a pictorial album entitled The Eight-Power Allied Forces Through Foreigners' Camera.
2 September 7, 2001 marks a special day for China and even some developed countries. On this day one century ago, namely, September 7, 1901, the Eight Power Allied Forces formed by Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, Austria and Italy forced the Qing Government to sign the most insolent and unequal Protocol in human civilization. That year was the Year of Xinchou in Chinese lunar calendar, so the Protocol, officially the Protocol of 1901, is historically known as the Protocol of Xinchou. Photos in this illustrated book present a true picture of this period of history.
3 The Eight-Nation Alliance captured Peking in August 1900, thus successfully subduing the rebellion, which officially ended with the Boxer Protocol in September 1901.