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, causing approximately 900 soldiers, sailors, marines, and civilians from various nations, along with about 2,800 Chinese Christians, to seek 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 effectively ended the Boxer movement and increased foreign influence and intervention in China.
Legation Quarter
The Legation Quarter was approximately .5 mi (0.80 km) long and .75 mi (1.21 km) wide. It was located in the area of the city designated by the Qing government for foreign legations. In 1900, there were eleven legations located in the quarter, as well as a number of foreign businesses and banks. Ethnic Chinese-occupied houses and businesses were also scattered about the quarter.
The twelve or so Christian missionary organizations in Peking were not located in the Legation Quarter, but rather dispersed around the city. In total, about 500 citizens of Western countries and Japan resided in the city. The northern side of the Legation quarter was near the Imperial City, where the Empress Dowager Cixi resided. The massive Tartar Wall which ringed the entire city of Peking bordered the south. The eastern and western sides of the Legation Quarter were major streets.
Rising tensions
By 1900, foreign powers had been chipping away at Chinese sovereignty for over six decades. After Chinese defeats in the Opium Wars and Tonquin War, the Qing government was forced to sign several "unequal treaties" with the Western powers, granting them the right to free trade in the previously isolationist nation, and granted extraterritoriality for subjects of Western nations. Japan obtained similar privileges after its victory in the First Sino-Japanese War. Anti-Japanese and anti-Western sentiments helped lead to the formation of the Yihetuan, whose stated goal was to drive foreigners and foreign influence, including Christianity, out of China.
Boxer movement
Authorities differ as to the origin of the Boxers, but they became prominent in Shantung (Shandong) in 1898 and spread northward toward Peking. They were an indigenous peasant movement, related to the secret societies that had flourished in China for centuries and that had, on occasion, threatened Chinese central governments. The Boxers were named—probably by American missionary Arthur H. Smith—for their acrobatic rituals, which included martial arts, twirling swords, prayers and incantations.
The Boxers believed that, with the proper ritual, they would become invulnerable to Western bullets. The religious and magical practices of the Boxers had "as a paramount goal the affording of protection and emotional security in the face of a future... that was fraught with danger and risk." The Boxers had no central organization but appear to have been organized on the village level. They were anti-foreign and anti-missionary. Their slogan was "Support the Qing! Destroy the Foreigner!"
Boxers attack Christians
In early 1900 near Peking, Boxers burned Christian churches, murdered Chinese Christians and intimidated Chinese officials who stood in their way. Two missionaries, Protestant William Scott Ament and Catholic Bishop Favier, reported to the diplomatic ministers (Ambassadors) about the growing threat. American Minister Edwin H. Conger cabled Washington, "The whole country is swarming with hungry, discontented, hopeless idlers."; requesting a warship to be stationed offshore of Tientsin, the nearest port to Peking, he reported, "Situation becoming serious."
On May 30, the diplomats, led by British Minister Claude Maxwell MacDonald, requested that foreign soldiers come to Peking to defend the legations and the citizens of their countries. The Chinese government reluctantly acquiesced, and the next day more than 400 soldiers from eight countries disembarked from warships and traveled by train to Peking from Tientsin. They set up defensive perimeters around their respective missions.
On June 5, the Boxers cut the railroad line to Tientsin, and Peking became isolated from other foreign settlements. On June 11, a Japanese diplomat, Sugiyama Akira, was murdered by soldiers of Gen. Dong Fuxiang, and the next day the first Boxer, dressed in his finery, was seen in the Legation Quarter. The German Minister, Clemens von Ketteler, and German soldiers captured another Boxer.
In response, that afternoon thousands of Boxers burst into the walled city of Peking and burned most of the Christian churches and cathedrals in the city, murdering many Chinese Christians and several Catholic priests. The Boxers accused Chinese Christians of collaborating with the foreigners. American and British missionaries and their converts took refuge in the Methodist Mission and American marines repulsed an attack there by the Boxers. Soldiers at the British embassy and German legations shot and killed several Boxers. The siege was called by the New York Sun "the most exciting episode ever known to civilization."
Dilemma of the Chinese government
In mid-June 1900, the Chinese government was still indecisive about the Boxers. Some officials—Ronglu, for example—counseled the Empress Dowager Cixi that the Boxers were "rabble" who would be easily defeated by foreign soldiers. On the other side of the question were anti-foreign officials who advised cooperation with the Boxers; "The Court appears to be in a dilemma," said Sir Robert Hart, "If the Boxers are not suppressed, the Legations threaten to take action—if the attempt to suppress them is made, this intensely patriotic organization will be converted into an anti-dynastic movement."
The event that irrevocably pushed the Chinese government to the side of the Boxers was the attack by foreign warships on the Taku Forts on June 17. The attack was made to try to maintain communications with Tientsin and aid an army under the command of Adm. Edward Seymour in its attempt to march to Peking during the Seymour Expedition and reinforce the Legations.
On June 19, the Empress Dowager sent a diplomatic note to each of the legations in Peking informing them of the attack on the Taku Forts and ordering all foreigners to depart Peking for Tientsin within 24 hours. Otherwise, said the note, "China will find it a difficult matter to give complete protection." Upon receipt of the note, the diplomats convened and agreed it would be suicidal to leave the Legation Quarter and travel to the coast in an unfriendly countryside.
The next morning, June 20, Baron von Ketteler, the German Minister, proposed to take up the matter with the Zongli Yamen, the Chinese Foreign Ministry, but he was murdered by a Manchu officer, Capt. En Hai of the Hushenying, while en route to the meeting. With this, the Ministers informed all their citizens in Peking to take refuge in the Legation Quarter. Thus began the 55-day siege.
Siege
The British, American, French, Italian, German, Japanese, and Russian military guards each took responsibility for the defense of their respective legations. The Austrians and Italians abandoned their isolated legations. The Austrians joined the French and the Italians collaborated with the Japanese. The Japanese and Italian force established defense lines in the Fu – a large mansion and park where most of the estimated 2,812 Chinese Christians taking refuge were housed. The American and German Marines held positions on the Tartar Wall behind their legations.
The 409 foreign soldiers had the job of defending a line that snaked through 2,176 yd (1,990 m) of urban terrain. The great majority of foreign civilians took refuge in the British Embassy, the largest and most defensible of the International Legations, despite the burning of Peking University in an effort to damage the British Legation, which was only a few feet away.
A census of civilians counted 473 foreign civilians in the Legation Quarter: 245 men, 149 women, and 79 children. About 150 of the men volunteered to participate, to a greater or lesser extent, in the defense. The civilians included at least 19 nationalities, of which British and Americans were the most numerous. Large numbers of Chinese Christians were conscripted for labor, especially for building barricades.
The British Minister Claude MacDonald was selected as the commander of the defense, and Herbert G. Squiers, an American diplomat, became his chief of staff. The guards of the different countries, however, operated semi-independently, and MacDonald could only suggest, not order, coordinated action. The guards were not well armed, and only the American Marines had sufficient ammunition. The defenders had three machine guns, and the Italians had a small cannon. An old cannon barrel was found in the Legation Quarter and from it a serviceable artillery piece was constructed that the Americans called "Betsy" and others called "the International".
The foreigners ransacked the Legation Quarter for food and other supplies. Food and water were adequate, although the foreigners without private food stocks subsisted on a steady diet of horsemeat and musty rice. However, the Chinese Christians, especially the Catholics, had a much harder time of it and were starving by the end of the siege; the Protestant missionaries took care of their converts, but the Chinese Catholics were mostly neglected. Medical supplies were scarce but a sizeable number of doctors and nurses, mostly missionaries, were present.
American missionaries took over management of most necessities for life in the Legation Quarter, including food, water, sanitation, and health. MacDonald appointed Methodist Missionary Frank Gamewell as chief of the Fortifications Committee. Gamewell and his crew of "fighting parsons" were acclaimed for their defensive works surrounding the British Legation.
About three miles distant from the Legation Quarter, a similar siege took place at the Beitang or North Cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church. 33 priests and nuns, 43 French and Italian soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Eugène Darcy, and more than 3,000 Chinese Christians held off the Chinese army and Boxers. In addition to Boxers, the cathedral was also attacked by Metropolitan Banner Manchus. Manchu Prince Zaiyi's Manchu bannermen in the Tiger and Divine Corps led attacks against the Catholic cathedral church. Manchu official Qixiu also led attacks against the cathedral.
Chinese advances
For several days after June 20—the official beginning of the siege—neither the foreigners inside the Legation Quarter nor the Chinese soldiers outside it had any coherent plan for defense or attack. The number of Chinese soldiers ringing the legations is uncertain but numbered in the thousands. On the west were the Gansu Muslim soldiers of Dong Fuxiang, and on the east were units of the Peking Field Army. The overall commander of the Chinese forces was Ronglu—who was anti-Boxer and disapproved of the siege. Chinese policy equivocated between belligerence and conciliation during the 55-day siege. Several attempts by Ronglu to bring about a ceasefire failed because of suspicions and misunderstandings on both sides.
The Chinese first attempted to massacre the foreigners in the Legation Quarter by using fire. For several days at the beginning of the siege they set fires in the buildings around the British Legation. On June 23, most of the buildings of the Hanlin Academy, the national library of China, and its books, many irreplaceable, burned. Both sides blamed the other for its destruction. The Chinese Army then turned its attention to the Fu, the refuge for most of the Chinese Christians, and the domain of Lt. Col. Gorō Shiba, the most admired military officer in the siege. Shiba, with his small group of Japanese soldiers, mounted a skillful defense against the Chinese, who advanced behind walls built ever-closer to the Japanese, threatening to surround them in a vise-like approach. British soldiers were often detailed to reinforce the Japanese during attacks and all admired Shiba's work.
The most desperate fighting took place near the French Legation, where 78 French and Austrians and 17 volunteers were under assault in convoluted urban terrain, in which the front lines were only 50 ft (15 m) from each other. The French also feared that Chinese sappers were digging tunnels to undermine their positions, which did happen.