Lessons from History

China: The Boxer Rebellion

Is it any wonder that China views the world with suspicion, when almost every major power had an army there and attacked Beijing?

“I’ll Try Sir,” a U.S. Army in Action historical painting that depicts American soldiers from the 14th Infantry Regiment scaling the walls of Peking. Credit: By H. Charles McBarron, Jr. — http://www.history.army.mil/html/artphoto/pripos/usaia.html (description)http://www.history.army.mil/images/artphoto/pripos/usaia/Sir.jpg (image), Public Domain,

Geopolitics today is shaped so much by history, yet we never seem to learn from it.

As I write there is a war under way in Central Europe, although to Russia it is a only special military operation. The words ‘duck’, ‘walking’ and ‘quacking’ come to mind.

Nevertheless, Russia is facing a huge alliance of powerful nations, albeit indirectly, and to most rational people Russia is on the wrong side of history.

But well over a century ago, China was facing a powerful alliance of eight countries (the Eight Nation Alliance), and I think that most rational people would agree that China then, unlike Russia today, was on the right side of history as it tried to emerge into a rapidly changing world. The Boxer Rebellion, although spontaneous at first, was part of the process.

Before the Boxer Rebellion

The Qing Dynasty had ruled China since 1644. Under Qing rule, China was governed by an autocratic and centralized system that aimed to maintain stability and preserve traditional Chinese values…