The Boxer Rebellion Quotes

“analyses of the siege show that the Chinese could have overrun the Legations if they wanted to, but there was no strategic value in doing so. The siege of the Legations was actually a hostage crisis, and keeping the hostages alive gave the Chinese government a potential bargaining card should the Boxers succeed in getting the Western powers bogged down, as happened with Seymour’s expedition.”[cxxxvii]”
― Charles River Editors, The Boxer Rebellion: The History and Legacy of the Anti-Imperialist Uprising in China at the End of the 19th Century

“that the Boxer Rebellion was simply a peasant revolt. But this distinction is essentially a fallacy, because peasants who revolt are seeking ‘a new and more human social order’, whether such social order is embedded in a modern revolutionary outlook or not.”
― Charles River Editors, The Boxer Rebellion: The History and Legacy of the Anti-Imperialist Uprising in China at the End of the 19th Century

“a reenactment of the outrage over the kowtow incident that soured early Chinese-British relationships, the British expressed their anger over the fact that, in the Viceroy’s letters, the empress’s name was written in larger letters than Queen Victoria’s.[li]”
― Charles River Editors, The Boxer Rebellion: The History and Legacy of the Anti-Imperialist Uprising in China at the End of the 19th Century

“exchange for the illegal drug, the British demanded silver, which in turn was used to purchase tea and other Chinese goods. By 1838, the East India Company no longer had to send any silver laden ships - it could rely entirely on the selling of opium to purchase tea.”
― Charles River Editors, The Boxer Rebellion: The History and Legacy of the Anti-Imperialist Uprising in China at the End of the 19th Century

“For much of the 18th century, the East India Company was forced to ship boatloads of silver to China rather than manufactured goods, resulting in a deficit in trade and a strain on the economy. The East India Company, which had its own naval and military force, was also in debt from wars being fought to control trade in India. To stop this debt from increasing, the East India Company, which still had a monopoly on trade in the region, began smuggling opium into Guangzhou (opium had been illegal in China since 1729). By 1793, the East India Company had created a monopoly on the purchase of opium in Bengal, India, thereby cutting out the Bengali merchants from the trade. The opium produced in Bengal was then sold in Calcutta”
― Charles River Editors, The Boxer Rebellion: The History and Legacy of the Anti-Imperialist Uprising in China at the End of the 19th Century

“Furthermore, the superior attitude the Chinese court had regarding its culture was reflected in the lack of demands for British products. In fact, the Cohong demanded that silver should be used for trade rather than other English products. These restrictions imposed by the Qing court, as well as British demand for tea, would provide some of the underlying causes of the Opium Wars between the two sides.”
― Charles River Editors, The Boxer Rebellion: The History and Legacy of the Anti-Imperialist Uprising in China at the End of the 19th Century