Eight-Nation Alliance | |
---|---|
八國聯軍 (in Chinese) | |
Active | 10 June 1900 – 7 September 1901 (1 year, 90 days) |
Country | Austria-Hungary British Empire France Germany Italy Japan Russia United States |
Allegiance | None (individual) |
Type | Expeditionary force |
Role | To relieve a siege of various legations, suppress the Boxer Rebellion, and safeguard privileges of foreign nationals and Chinese Christians. |
Size | About 51,755 troops |
Nickname(s) | Coalition |
Engagements | Boxer Rebellion |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Second: Alfred von Waldersee (September 1900 – September 1901) First: Edward Seymour (June 1900 – September 1900) |
Eight Nation Alliance | |||||||||
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Traditional Chinese | 八國聯軍 | ||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 八国联军 | ||||||||
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The Eight-Nation Alliance was a multinational military coalition that invaded northern China in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion,with the stated aim of relieving the foreign legations in Beijing,which was being besieged by the popular Boxer militiamen,who were determined to remove foreign imperialism in China. The allied forces consisted of about 45,000 troops from the eight nations of Germany,Japan,Russia,Britain,France,the United States,Italy,and Austria-Hungary. Neither the Chinese nor the quasi-concerted foreign allies issued a formal declaration of war. [1]
No treaty or formal agreement bound the alliance together. Some Western historians define the first phase of hostilities,starting in August 1900,as "more or less a civil war", [1] though the Battle of the Taku Forts in June pushed the Qing government to support the Boxers. With the success of the invasion,the later stages developed into a punitive colonial expedition,which pillaged Beijing and North China for more than a year. The fighting ended in 1901 with the signing of the Boxer Protocol. [2]
The Boxers, a peasant movement, had attacked and killed foreign missionaries, nationals, and Chinese Christians across northern China in 1899 and 1900. The Qing government and its Imperial Army supported the Boxers and, under the Manchu general Ronglu, besieged foreign diplomats and civilians taking refuge in the Legation Quarter in Beijing (then romanized as Peking). [3]
The diplomatic compound was under siege by the Wuwei Rear Division of the Chinese Army and some Boxers (Yihetuan), for 55 days, from 20 June to 14 August 1900. A total of 473 foreign civilians, 409 soldiers from eight countries, and about 3,000 Chinese Christians took refuge in the Legation Quarter. [4] Under the command of the British minister to China, Claude Maxwell MacDonald, the legation staff and security personnel defended the compound with small arms and one old cannon discovered and unearthed by Chinese Christians, who turned it over to the allies. It was nicknamed the International Gun because the barrel was British, the carriage Italian, the shells Russian and the crew American. [5]
Also under siege in Beijing was the North Cathedral, the Beitang of the Catholic Church. The Beitang was defended by 43 French and Italian soldiers, 33 foreign Catholic priests and nuns, and about 3,200 Chinese Catholics. The defenders suffered heavy casualties from lack of food and Chinese mines that exploded in tunnels dug beneath the compound. [6]
On 14 August 1900, the allies marched to Beijing from Tianjin to relieve the Legation Quarter siege. [7]
The allied troops invaded and occupied Beijing on 14 August 1900. They defeated the Qing Imperial Army's Wuwei Corps in several engagements and quickly brought an end to the siege and also the Boxer Rebellion. Empress Dowager Cixi, the emperor and high government officials fled the Imperial Palace for Xi'an and sent Li Hongzhang for peace talks with the alliance. [8]
As allied troops moved from Beijing into the North China countryside, they executed unknown numbers of people accused or suspected of being or resembling Boxer rebels, which became the subject of an early short film. [9] A U.S. Marine wrote that he witnessed German and Russian troops raping and then bayoneting women. [10] While the allies were in Beijing, they looted the palaces, yamens, and government buildings inflicting incalculable loss of cultural relics, books on literature and history (including the famous Yongle Dadian ) and damage to cultural heritage (including the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, Xishan and the Old Summer Palace). [2] [11]
More than 3,000 gold-plated bronze Buddhas, 1,400 artistic products and 4,300 bronzes in Songzhu Temple (嵩祝寺) were looted. The gold plating on the copper tanks in front of the Forbidden City palaces was scraped off by allied troops, leaving scratch marks that can be seen even now. The Yongle Dadian that was compiled by 2,100 scholars during the Ming Yongle period (1403–1408), with a total of 22,870 volumes, was partially destroyed in the Second Opium War in 1860. Later, it was collected in the Imperial Palace on Nanchizi Street. It was found and destroyed completely by the alliance in 1900. Part of the Yongle Dadian was used for the construction of fortifications. [2] [11]
The Complete Library of the Four Treasuries (or Siku Quanshu) was compiled by 360 scholars during the Qing Qianlong period. It collected 3,461 ancient books, totaling 79,309 volumes. The whole book consisted of seven sets. One set was destroyed in 1860 during the Second Opium War. Another 10,000 plus volumes were destroyed in 1900 by the Eight-Nation Alliance. The Hanlin Academy houses a collection of precious books, orphans, books of the Song dynasty, literature and history materials, and precious paintings. The Eight-Nation Alliance looted the collections. Some of these looted books remain in the custody of museums in London and Paris. [2] [11]
Forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance Relief of the Legations Troops of the Eight-Nation Alliance in 1900 (Russia excepted); left to right: Britain, United States, Australia, India, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Japan | |||
Countries | Warships (units) | Marines (men) | Army (men) |
---|---|---|---|
Empire of Japan | 18 | 540 | 20,300 |
Russian Empire | 10 | 750 | 12,400 |
British Empire | 8 | 2,020 | 10,000 |
France | 5 | 390 | 3,130 |
United States | 2 | 295 | 3,125 |
German Empire | 5 | 600 | 300 |
Kingdom of Italy | 2 | 80 | 2,500 |
Austria-Hungary | 4 | 296 | unknown |
Total | 54 | 4,971 | 51,755 |
Austria-Hungary had a single cruiser, SMS Zenta, on station at the beginning of the rebellion, based at the Russian concession of Port Arthur. [12] Detachments of sailors from the Zenta were the only Austro-Hungarian forces to see action. [13] Some were taking part in defending the legations under siege, and another detachment was involved in the rescue attempts. [13]
In June, the Austro-Hungarians helped hold the Tianjin railway against Boxer forces and fired upon several armed junks on the Hai River near Tongzhou in Beijing. They took part in the seizure of the Taku Forts commanding the approaches to Tianjin, and the boarding and capture of four Chinese destroyers by Capt. Roger Keyes of HMS Fame.
The Austro-Hungarian Navy sent the cruisers SMS Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia, SMS Kaiserin Elisabeth, SMS Aspern and a company of marines to China. Arriving in September they were too late since most of the fighting had ended, and the legations had been relieved. The cruisers and the Zenta were involved in the shelling and capture of several Chinese forts. [13] The Austro-Hungarians suffered minimal casualties during the rebellion. After the Boxer Uprising, a cruiser was maintained permanently on the Chinese coast, and a detachment of marines was deployed at the Austro-Hungarian embassy in Beijing. [13] Lieutenant Georg Ludwig von Trapp, made famous in the 1959 musical The Sound of Music , was decorated for bravery aboard SMS Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia during the rebellion. [14] [15]
At the outset of the Boxer Rebellion, Britain was engaged in the Second Boer War in South Africa. [16] Consequently, with the army tied down by the war, the British had to rely on the China Squadron and troops largely from India. The Royal Navy's China Squadron, stationed off Tianjin, consisted of the battleships Barfleur and Centurion, the cruisers Alacrity, Algerine, Aurora, Endymion, and Orlando, and the destroyers Whiting and Fame. [17]
British forces were the third-largest contingent in the alliance and consisted of the following units: Naval Brigade, 12th Battery Royal Field Artillery, Hong Kong & Singapore Artillery, 2nd Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers, 1st Bengal Lancers, 7th Rajput Infantry, 24th Punjab Infantry, 1st Sikh Infantry, Hong Kong Regiment, 1st Chinese Regiment, Royal Engineers, and other support personnel. [18] [19]
The Australian colonies did not become a unified federation until 1901. As such, several of the colonies, independently of each other, sent contingents of naval and army personnel to support the British contingent. For example, South Australia sent its entire navy: the gunboat HMCS Protector. [20] Australia was not an official member of the Eight-Nation Alliance, and its forces arrived too late to see significant action. [21]
Britain provided 10,000 troops, many of whom were Indian troops, made out of units of Baluchis, Sikhs, Gurkhas, Rajputs and Punjabis. [22] [23] [24] The 1st, 4th, and 14th Sikhs; [25] 3rd Madras Native Infantry, 4th Goorkas, 22nd and 30th Bombay Native Infantry, 24th Punjab Infantry, 1st Madras Pioneers, No. 2 Company Bombay Sappers, No. 3 Company Madras Sappers, No. 4 Company Bengal Sappers, and the 1st Bengal Lancers, among other Indian units, all served during the Rebellion. [26] Numerous Indian soldiers earned the China War Medal 1900 with the "Relief of Pekin" clasp [27] for contributing to the relief of Peking and the International Legations from June 10 to August 14, 1900. [28] [26] [29]
Germany had gained a presence in China after the Juye Incident in which two German missionaries had been murdered in November 1897. The concession in Jiaozhou Bay, with the port of Qingdao, was used as a naval base for the East Asia Squadron and a trading port. The German concession was governed and garrisoned by the Imperial German Navy. At the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion in June 1900, the garrison of the concession was composed of the III. Seebataillon , with 1,126 men, a marine/naval artillery battery, about 800 men of a Kommando Detachment and sailors from the East Asian Squadron. [30]
With the increasing threat of the Boxers, a small armed group from the III. Seebatallion was sent to Beijing and Tianjin to protect German interests there while the majority of the remaining forces stayed behind to prevent attacks against Qingdao. The siege of the foreign legations in Beijing soon convinced Germany and the other European powers that more forces were needed to be sent to China to reinforce the allied forces. The first troops dispatched from Germany were the marine-Expeditionskorps which consisted of the I. and II. Seebatallions. [30]
They were soon followed by the Ostasiatisches Expeditionskorps (East Asian Expeditionary Corps), which was a force of about 15,000 of mostly volunteers from the regular Army under the command of General Alfred Count von Waldersee. It comprised initially four and later six two-battalion infantry regiments and a jäger company, single regiments of cavalry and field artillery and various support and logistics units. [30] On arrival in China, it incorporated the marine-Expeditionskorps that had preceded it to China by a few weeks. [30]
Most of the German forces arrived too late to take part in any of the major actions. [30] The first elements of the Expeditionskorps arrived at Taku on September 21, [30] after the legations had been relieved. As a result, most of the Expeditionskorps was mainly employed for garrison duties. They fought a number of smaller engagements against pockets of remaining Boxers. [31] The Expeditionskorps was disbanded and recalled to Germany in early 1901. [31]
Three battalions of marines, the II/9th, and the I and II/11th RIMa which were stationed in French Indochina were sent to China. They joined the 1st Brigade commanded by General Henri-Nicolas Frey. In July 1900, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of infantry embarked from Toulon but did not reach China until September. In October, following losses and rotations of duty, the first three battalions sent were included in the 16th regiment of marines by order of General Régis Voyron, commander in chief of the French Expeditionary Corps in China. On 1 January 1901, the 16th RIMa was renamed the 16th Regiment of colonial infantry. At the end of the campaign, it moved to a new base in Tianjin, with its headquarters in the former buildings of the Chinese admiralty. [32]
In 1898, the Italians had demanded San Mun Bay as a concession, but the Chinese refused. [33] The Italian Navy then dispatched a squadron to San Mun Bay, but no further action was taken. The squadron remained there, and in the summer of 1900, when the Boxer Rebellion broke out, detachments from Italian cruisers were sent to Beijing. Italian forces were initially made up of sailors from warships. [34] Some of them helped the French defend the Pei Tang Catholic cathedral, and another defended the European Legations in Beijing during the 55-day siege. [33] Italian sailors also took part in the attacks on the Taku forts and in capturing Tianjin. [33]
A larger contingent was later dispatched from Italy, including 83 officers, 1,882 troops, and 178 horses. The contingent included a battalion of Bersaglieri, which was formed from one company each from the 2nd Bersaglieri Regiment, 4th Bersaglieri Regiment, 5th Bersaglieri Regiment, and 8th Bersaglieri Regiment. In addition, the 24th Infantry Regiment of the Brigade "Como", volunteers from the Alpini, a battery of machine guns, and some engineers were also sent to China. [34] A battery of field guns was also supplied by the Italian Navy. [34] The total force of 1,965 officers and men, which composed the Italian expeditionary force against the Boxers, was officially referred to as the Italian Royal Troops in China. [33] In August 1900, when the larger force reached the capital, the Italians had seven cruisers and 2,543 men in the country. They were involved in numerous operations along the coast and in the interior of northern China. [33]
The larger part of the approximately 2,000 Italian soldiers and officers who fought in the campaign against the Boxers were recalled from Beijing after the end of the conflict. Italy obtained a 151-acre (61 ha) concession area in Tianjin and the right to occupy the Shanhai Pass fort. [35] [33] A small naval squadron and a naval garrison were maintained in China to protect Italian interests there. [33]
Japan provided the largest contingent of troops; 20,840, as well as 18 warships. Of the total number, 20,300 were Imperial Japanese Army troops of the 5th Infantry Division under Lieutenant General Yamaguchi Motomi; the remainder were 540 naval rikusentai (Marines) from the Imperial Japanese Navy.[ citation needed ]
At the beginning of the Boxer Rebellion, the Japanese had only 215 troops in northern China stationed at Tianjin, nearly all of whom were naval rikusentai from the Kasagi and the Atago, under the command of Captain Shimamura Hayao. [36] The Japanese were able to contribute 52 men to the Seymour Expedition. [36] On 12 June the advance of the Seymour Expedition was halted some 30 miles from the capital, by mixed Boxer and Chinese regular army forces. The vastly-outnumbered allies withdrew to the vicinity of Tianjin and had suffered more than 300 casualties. [37]
The army general staff in Tokyo had become aware of the worsening conditions in China and had drafted ambitious contingency plans, [38] but the government, in the wake of the Triple Intervention five years earlier, refused to deploy a large contingent of troops unless it was requested by the western powers. [38] Three days later a provisional force of 1,300 troops, commanded by Major General Fukushima Yasumasa, was deployed to northern China. Fukushima was chosen because he spoke English, which let him communicate with the British commander. The force landed near Tianjin on 5 July. [38]
On 17 June naval Rikusentai from the Kasagi and Atago had joined British, Russian and German sailors to seize the Taku forts, near Tianjin. [38] The British, in light of the precarious situation, were compelled to ask Japan for additional reinforcements since the Japanese had the only readily available forces in the region. [38] Britain at the time was heavily engaged in the Boer War, and so much of the British Army was tied down in South Africa. In addition, deploying large numbers of troops from its garrisons in India would take too much time and weaken internal security there. [38]
Overriding personal doubts, Foreign Minister Aoki Shūzō calculated that the advantages of participating in an allied coalition were too attractive to ignore. Prime Minister Yamagata likewise concurred, but others in the cabinet demanded that guarantees from the British in return for the risks and costs of the major deployment of Japanese troops. [38] On 6 July the 5th Infantry Division was alerted for possible deployment to China, but no timetable was set for its deployment. On 8 July, with more ground troops urgently needed to lift the siege of the foreign legations at Beijing, the British ambassador offered the Japanese government one million pound sterling in exchange for Japanese participation. [38]
Shortly afterward, advance units of the 5th Division departed for China, bringing Japanese strength to 3,800 members of the 17,000-strong allied force. [38] The commander of the 5th Division, Lieutenant General Yamaguchi Motoomi, had taken operational control from Fukushima. Japanese troops were involved in the storming of Tianjin on 14 July, [38] and the allies later consolidated and awaited the remainder of the 5th Division and other coalition reinforcements. The siege of legations was lifted on 14 August; the Japanese force of 13,000 was the largest single contingent, making up about 40% of the approximately 33,000-strong allied expeditionary force. [38]
Japanese troops involved in the fighting had acquitted themselves well although a British military observer felt that their aggressiveness, densely-packed formations, and overly aggressive attacks cost them excessive and disproportionate casualties. [39] For example, during the Tianjin fighting, the Japanese suffered more than half of the allied casualties, 400 out of 730, but made up less than one quarter (3,800) of the force of 17,000. [39] Similarly at Beijing, the Japanese accounted for almost two thirds of the losses, 280 of 453, but constituted slightly less than half of the assault force. [39]
Russia supplied the second largest force, after Japan, with 12,400 troops consisting mainly of garrisons from Port Arthur and Vladivostok. [40] On 30 November 1900, Admiral Yevgeni Ivanovich Alekseyev compelled the Chinese military governor of Shenyang, Zeng Qi, to sign an agreement that effectively ended Chinese sovereignty over Manchuria and placed it under Russian control. [41]
In the United States, the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion was known as the China Relief Expedition. [42] The United States was able to play a major role in suppressing the Boxer Rebellion largely because of the presence of American forces deployed in the Philippines since the U.S. annexation after the Spanish–American War in 1898. [43] Of the foreigners under siege in Beijing, there were 56 American sailors and Marines from the USS Oregon and USS Newark. [43] The main American formations deployed to relieve the siege were the 9th Infantry and 14th Infantry regiments, elements of the 6th Cavalry regiment, the 5th Artillery regiment, and a Marine battalion, all under the command of Colonel Adna Chaffee. [44] [45] Herbert Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover were living in the foreign compound during the siege when Mr. Hoover was working for the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company. Mr. Hoover helped erect barricades and formed a protective force of the able-bodied men. Mrs. Hoover helped set up a hospital, nursed the wounded, set up a dairy, took part in the night watch, took tea to sentries and carried a Mauser .38 semi-automatic pistol. [46] [47]
The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, was an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist, and anti-Christian uprising in North China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, known as the "Boxers" in English due to many of its members having practised Chinese martial arts, which at the time were referred to as "Chinese boxing". It was defeated by the Eight-Nation Alliance of foreign powers.
The China Relief Expedition was an expedition in China undertaken by the United States Armed Forces to rescue United States citizens, European nationals, and other foreign nationals during the latter years of the Boxer Rebellion, which lasted from 1898 to 1901. The China Relief Expedition was part of a multi-national military effort known as the Eight-Nation Alliance to which the United States contributed troops between 1900 and 1901. Towards the close of the expedition, the focus shifted from rescuing non-combatants to suppressing the rebellion. By 1902, at least in the city of Beijing (Peking), the Boxer Rebellion had been effectively controlled.
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Edward Hobart Seymour, was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer he served in the Black Sea during the Crimean War. He then took part in the sinking of the war-junks, the Battle of Canton and the Battle of Taku Forts during the Second Opium War and then saw action again at the Battle of Cixi during the Taiping Rebellion.
Clemens August Freiherr von Ketteler was a German career diplomat. He was killed during the Boxer Rebellion.
The 4th Marine Regiment is an infantry regiment of the United States Marine Corps. Based at Camp Schwab in Okinawa, Japan, it is part of the 3rd Marine Division of the III Marine Expeditionary Force.
The foreign concessions in Tianjin were concession territories ceded by the Qing dynasty to a number of European countries, the United States and Japan within the city of Tianjin. There were altogether nine foreign concessions in old Tianjin on the eve of World War II. These concessions also contributed to the rapid development of Tianjin from the early to mid-20th century. The first foreign concessions in Tianjin were granted in 1860. By 1943, all the foreign concessions, except the Japanese concession, had ceased to exist de facto.
France Silva was the first United States Marine of Mexican-American and Hispanic heritage to receive the Medal of Honor. He received the Medal of Honor for his meritorious conduct in China during the Boxer Rebellion.
The Peking Legation Quarter was the area in Beijing (Peking), China where a number of foreign legations were located between 1861 and 1959. In the Chinese language, the area is known as Dong Jiaomin Xiang, which is the name of the hutong through the area. It is located in the Dongcheng District, immediately to the east of Tiananmen Square.
The Battle of Peking, or historically the Relief of Peking, was the battle fought on 14–15 August 1900 in Beijing, in which the Eight-Nation Alliance relieved the siege of the Peking Legation Quarter during the Boxer Rebellion. From 20 June 1900, Boxers and Imperial Chinese Army troops had besieged foreign diplomats, citizens and soldiers within the legations of Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, Spain and the United States.
The Battle of the Taku or Battle of Dagu Forts was a short engagement during the Boxer Rebellion between the Chinese Qing dynasty military and forces belonging to the Eight Nation Alliance in June 1900. European and Japanese naval forces captured the Taku forts after a brief but bloody battle with units of the Qing dynasty. Their loss prompted the Qing government to side with the Boxers while the Chinese army was ordered to resist all foreign military forces within Chinese territory. Allied powers remained in control of the forts until the end of the Boxer Rebellion in September 1901.
The Battle of Tientsin, or the Relief of Tientsin, occurred on 13–14 July 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion in Northern China. A multinational military force, representing the Eight-Nation Alliance, rescued a besieged population of foreign nationals in the city of Tianjin by defeating the Chinese Imperial army and Boxers. The capture of Tianjin gave the Eight-Nation Alliance a base to launch a rescue mission for the foreign nationals besieged in the Legation Quarter of Beijing and to capture Beijing.
The Battle of Yangcun was a battle during the march of Eight-Nation Alliance forces from Tianjin to Beijing during the Boxer Rebellion. The Alliance forces defeated the Qing and were able to continue their march towards Peking.
The Gansu Braves or Gansu Army was a combined army division of 10,000 Chinese Muslim troops from the northwestern province of Kansu (Gansu) in the last decades of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). Loyal to the Qing, the Braves were recruited in 1895 to suppress a Muslim revolt in Gansu. Under the command of General Dong Fuxiang (1839–1908), they were transferred to the Beijing metropolitan area in 1898, where they officially became the Rear Division of the Wuwei Corps, a modern army that protected the imperial capital. The Gansu Army included Hui Muslims, Salar Muslims, Dongxiang Muslims, and Bonan Muslims.
The Seymour Expedition was an attempt by a multinational military force to march to Beijing and relieve the Siege of the Legations and foreign nationals from attacks by Qing China's government troops and the Boxers in 1900. The Chinese army and Boxer fighters defeated the Seymour armies and forced them to return to Tianjin (Tientsin). It was followed later in the summer by the successful Gaselee Expedition.
The Battle of Beicang, also rendered as the Battle of Peitsang, was fought August 5, 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion, between the Eight Nation Alliance and the Chinese Qing dynasty army. The Chinese army was forced out of its prepared entrenchments and retreated to Yangcun. The Japanese contingent led the Alliance attack; with contingents also being present from Russia, Britain, America and France.
The siege of the International Legations was a pivotal event during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, in which foreign diplomatic compounds in Peking were besieged by Chinese Boxers and Qing Dynasty troops. The Boxers, fueled by anti-foreign and anti-Christian sentiments, targeted foreigners and Chinese Christians, leading to approximately 900 soldiers, sailors, marines, and civilians from various nations, along with about 2,800 Chinese Christians, seeking refuge in the Legation Quarter. The Qing government, initially ambivalent, ultimately supported the Boxers following international military actions. The siege lasted 55 days, marked by intense combat and a brief truce, until an international relief force arrived from the coast, defeated the Qing forces, and lifted the siege. The failure of the siege and the subsequent occupation of Peking by foreign powers significantly weakened the Boxer Rebellion, leading to its eventual suppression and resulting in increased foreign influence and intervention in China.
The Battle of Langfang took place during the Seymour Expedition during the Boxer Rebellion, in June 1900, involving Chinese imperial troops, the Chinese Muslim Kansu Braves and Boxers ambushing and defeating the Eight-Nation Alliance expeditionary army on its way to Beijing, pushing the Alliance forces to retreat back to Tientsin (Tianjin).
The Gaselee Expedition was a successful relief by a multi-national military force to march to Beijing and protect the diplomatic legations and foreign nationals in the city from attacks in 1900. The expedition was part of the war of the Boxer Rebellion.
The Italian concession of Tianjin was a small territory (concession) in central Tianjin, China, controlled by the Kingdom of Italy between 1901 and 1943, officially ceded to China in 1947.
The Italian Expeditionary Corps in China was an expeditionary force the Kingdom of Italy sent to China in the summer of 1900 to assist in the efforts of the Eight-Nation Alliance to put down the Boxer Rebellion. It began to return to Italy in 1901, but some of its elements operated in China until 1905. The Italian participation in the campaign against the Boxers allowed Italy to obtain the Italian concession of Tientsin in 1901.