Siege of the International Legations

The Siege of the International Legations, also known as the Battle of 8 Nations, the Battle of Peking, the 55 Days at Peking, or the 55-Day War, was a failed offensive against the foreign legations of Pekingball, coordinated by the Boxers of, and with, Qing Dynastyball The war was caused by existing anti-Western sentiments, and beliefs that China was being colonized by the "imperialist West".
Even before the siege began, the Boxer Rebellion was already in full swing, and had been ongoing for nearly a year, until the Boxers attacked the legations in mid-late June.
The end of the war would see the Qing defeated and humiliated by the Western powers, and some say their defeat at Peking contributed to the collapse of the Qing later in the century.
==Lead-Up==
===Opium Wars and the Reformist schism===
(see: Opium Wars and First Sino-Japanese War)
Tensions between the Chinese and the foreign West had exploded earlier in the 1800s in the Opium Wars, in which Qingball was forced to cede some of their clay in Hong Kongball to British Empireball. This caused relations between the British and the Chinese to sour, and with it the rest of the west. After seeing continued losses in Korea to Japanese Empireball during the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), a new rising power in the region, some Qing nobles in the Imperial Court finally realized that modernizing would help cement the undoubtable fact that Qingball clay is better than all clay, and bring the Qing to its former stature like Japanball, though these realizations would not materialize until later on, when it was far too late to save the Qing.
===The Juye Incident===
(see: Juye Incident)
Before midnight, on 1 November 1897, two German missionaries had finished the Requiem Mass, (as it was the night of All Saints' Day) and had gone to bed, when about 20 armed men, likely anti-Western Chinese nationalists, broke into the compound where the missionaries lived in and brutally murdered them, leaving many wounds in the process. This caused German Empireball to become infuriated with Qingball and demanded some clay as compensation (in this case, the Kiautschou Bay). The other powers ( Franceball, UKball, and Russiaball in particular) became envious of the Germans and demanded concessions from China too, which Qingball was forced to accept. The murders inspired the Boxers to intensify their movement, while the concessions demanded by the Westerners angered them.
===The Boxers Emerge===
Around this time, the pot of Chinese hatred for the west began to sizzle and pop, as "unfair treaties" and multiples concessions to the Western powers humiliated China. This lead to the unprecedented popularity of the Boxers, who made it very clear that they hated the foreign powers.
The Boxers also wanted to stamp out Christianity, with some even going to levels as plotting to kill foreign missionaries and Chinese converts. 
The Boxers had many beliefs, mostly anti-Western, but one of their more humorous ones was the belief that they were immune to bullets. Yes. Immune. To. Bullets. This was obviously not true and lead to many Boxer casualties in the siege, but those who did get wounded were cast as "amateur Boxers".
===The Hundred Days' Reform===
In 1898, the reformists had gotten Emperor Dezong to kickstart the Hundred Days' Reform, an attempt to modernize the country while not angering the conservatives. This plan would almost succeed, but it was futile, as conservatives led by Empress Cixi would coup d'état the government and take control, halting the reforms and suppressing it. While interestingly, Empress Cixi was not a conservative and initially supported the reforms, she started to fear that it would weaken the country and therefore her power, and so she reluctantly joined the conservatives. She would later regret this and attempt to make radical reforms in later years, but by that point it was useless as the Qing Dynasty crumbled apart, as the remnants formed Republic of Chinaball (now Taiwan).
From its explosion in popularity, the Boxers had already started an informal war against the Westerners, burning down churches and killing both Chinese Christian converts and Western missionaries, however, it wouldn't be until 1899, when the Boxer Rebellion started, until war in China broke out.
==The Boxer Rebellion (pre-Siege)==
(see: Boxer Rebellion)
===Outbreak===
In late 1899, the Boxers had initiated an uprising to end Western presence in China, often using violence to do so. The Westerners retaliated against this, but the Qing, who were better equipped than the Boxers and posed a slight threat to the great powers of Europe, were fast to join the Boxers, leading to the escalation of the conflict to encompass all China.
===Boxers expand===
By early 1900, the Boxers began to diversify and expand into many cultural regions and this may have hinted at the Boxers becoming a symbol of pan-Chinese unity against the Western powers.
===The Seymour Expedition===
(see: Seymour Expedition)
In the spring of 1900, the Boxers started to threaten the Peking Legation Quarter, and fearing for the worst (due to the Boxers strict anti-western policy), Edward Seymour, a naval officer hailing from the great British Empireball, launched a failed attempt to supply the legations at Peking with soldiers in the case of a Qing offensive (which later did happen).
The plan was to use the already existing railroad from the costal city of Tianjin to Peking in order to transport an army of sailors and seamen (not the choice of soldiers I would've gone with but I guess I just don't have the military genius that Seymour did). They found out the railroad was severed by the Boxers, and so they marched onwards. Initially, Seymour had met little resistance, passing General Schicheng's army (who were friendly) along the way.
This tranquility would not last, however, because as Seymour's men marched to Peking, the Chinese mobilized for a defense. Seymour's men were also harassed by Boxer assaults on their position. In one battle, the Boxer's suffered about a hundred losses while Seymour's men lost 5. Although this battle clearly favored Seymour and his men, the expedition would not go so well.
The Kansu Braves (a Muslim army originally founded to suppress the Dungan revolts) were led by Dong Fuxiang to take back its rightful clay halt and reverse Seymour's expedition towards the capital. After a bloody encounter with Fuxiang's men, Seymour was forced to reverse the expedition and retreat, however, the Boxers had already cut their retreat route in advance, leading to a clash with the Boxers, turning Langfang into a bloody machine gun battle. It was reported that 4 rifle shots were needed to stop a single Boxer's advance, and that rifles were completely obsolete as machine guns were the only way to successfully win.
Fuxiang's men had worked together with the Boxers (who had previously hated their clay) to fight Seymour's men. During the battle, the Boxers would use their courage to make bold melee assaults, as firecrackers imitated the sound of gunfire, mentally stressing Seymour's men.
Seymour was defeated by the Qingball forces, who now believed that they were unstoppable. Seymour, instead of boating across the Hai river and walking back to Tianjin (the much shorter route), instead decided to walk along the Hai and walk 30 miles. I would criticize Seymour, but since he did serve in the Navy as a pretty high officer, like I said, I don't have the military genius of Seymour.
Seymour's men were out of food, supplies, and ammo, but then, as they were nearing Tianjin, they came across the Hsi-Ku fort, which was, noticeably, Qingball's clay, was practically undefended. They took it with ease, and plundered its supplies, which provided relief to the struggling soldiers. This, of course, angered Qingball, so they sent forces to encircle the fort, so the relief force was now in need of relief. I'm starting to think Seymour might not be the brightest of people...
Whilst the Qing did break through some of the defenses temporarily, they were repelled eventually. Eventually, some Chinese people siding with Seymour alerted the 8-Nation alliance who escorted Seymour's men back to Tianjin with no Chinese resistance. The Seymour Expedition failed miserably with 62 men dead and 232 wounded.
The worst part was, by this point, conflict had broken out in Peking.
==Siege==
(see: Siege of the International Legations)
===Baron Von Kettler===
(see: Death of Clemens Von Kettler)
On July 19th, there was a dilemma. After Qingball had been attacked at the Taku Forts, and after the Seymour Expedition, they had been furious, and ordered the residents of the legations to leave within 24 hours. The legations refused to move, and replied to the Qing that they could not make a decision. The next day, after not getting a response back, Baron von Kettler, who was from Germanyball, was impatient with the Qing, so he went to the Qing Foreign Minister. He was killed by a Qing officer, and when the news of his death had come to the legations from his heavy injured assistant, who had allegedly witnessed his death, the Legations started to fortify and defend themselves, marking the start of the siege.
===Besieged===
The foreign powers started to box in and fortify for the attack, using all available resources and also the labor of the Chinese Christian converts, many of whom were destitute. Claude MacDonald became the head of defense. The Austrians and Italians abandoned their legations due to it being in a un-defendable position. The Qing led attacks into the cathedral, with Chinese Christian converts defending it.
The Qing's actual military leader, Ronglu, was both anti-Boxer and anti-Siege, who sent many offers of ceasefires, which were unsuccessful due to misunderstandings and lack of adequate communication. The Qing set fire to the buildings, including the Hanlin Academy, which possessed any irreplaceable and priceless manuscripts from ancient antiquity. Japanese Empireball troops and Qingball troops entered combat on the Fu, and the British sent reinforcements to the Japanese, who were led under Gorō Shiba. The French Legation was held despite intense pressure from the Qing by French and Austrian troops.
The French were doing what they did best and kept a steady defense on, and faced the most intense fighting.
The Qing were having an identity crisis as there was a dilemma on the Qing conduct in the conflict, mostly due to the fact that the Boxers, whom were not on good terms with the Qing, were involved, and many did not fear the West so much as the Boxers. A general feeling of the incompetence of the Qing court began to arise as the conflict dragged out despite the Qing outnumbering the Westerners, causing multiple truces between the Westerners and the Qing in which the Qing would offer gifts to them. The gifts were relatively not as useful in regards to the other benefit of the periodic truces, the fact that these truces allowed for them to reorganize, regroup, restock, and catch a break.
The Qing had kept an assault on the Tartar wall, and the German Empireball troops were forced to retreat, causing great danger to the American positions, also on the walls.
From late June through early July, the Chinese attempted an assault on the Americans to kick them off the Tartar with the German Empireball troops, but before that could happen, the Americans, along with the British, launched a surprise attack at 2 in the morning, taking the Chinese off guard while they were sleeping. 20 Chinese were killed and even more were captured, and the Chinese started to give up after seeing this defeat.
The Chinese, however, struck once again in mid July, and their morale improved. They managed to detonate a bomb beneath the French Legation, and forced them to withdraw from the legation, with a dug-up bombproof structures being the last safe refuge.
On July 14, the Chinese were willing to put down their arms, but this was nothing more than a lie, as two days later gunfire was exchanged.
On July 17, however, genuine communication attempts between the Chinese and the besieged Westerners were made and there was an armistice. Later into the month, on July 28, a Chinese boy smuggled in a letter saying that a relief force was coming to them.
===Relief of the Siege and the Race to Peking===
The relief force had started their march to Peking on August 4, at Tianjin, where an incredibly diverse group of soldiers numbering 22 thousand in total were determined to relieve the siege. The soldiers began to push up north and defeat the Qingball troops at both the Battle of Pietsang and the Battle of Yangcun. They managed to reach Tongzhou by August 12, just 14 miles from Peking. The harsh heat and the exhaustion of moving that fast and engaging in relentless battles with the Qing meant that by the time they were at the gates of Peking the quality and quantity of their relief force had greatly eroded. Realizing this, on August 13, the relief force came to a halt to rest and resupply.
Meanwhile, on the same day, August 13, the Chinese broke the armistice by firing artillery onto the British legation, with the foreign powers at their doorstep, however they did not do much as they faintly heard the sound of a machine gun, a sign that the end was coming for the Chinese. The next day the different armies of each of the nations entered a race to see who would relieve Peking first and take the glory of doing so.
As they entered into Peking, each national army would take up strategic positions on different sides of the walls, whilst the Americans was planned to attempt the first assault on the actual Legations themselves, however they were beaten by the Russians.
After a quick yet bloody battle near the gates, an American trumpeter named Calvin P. Titus had volunteered to scale the walls of Peking, and the rest followed suit. They shot at the Qing troops and then climbed down into the Inner parts of Peking.
The Qing resistance varied depending on the national armies that were engaging; for example, the Japanese fought fierce resistance against the Chinese, whilst the British had pretty much none and managed to ease through.
After seeing that all hope was lost, the Chinese went for one last stand, firing at the foreigner's lines, until retreating out of the city.
And just like that, all major fighting had ceased. Of course, there were exceptions, such as Fuxiang's Gansu Muslims, who still occupied a little bit of the city and occasionally engaged with foreign troops, but the Siege, for the many trapped and traumatized foreigners who had seen combat in the siege, was over.
==Aftermath==
In the early morning of August 15, Empress Cixi and members of the Imperial Court had fled Peking, whilst aides of the Empress had stayed to negotiate peace with the foreigners. The Qing had left Peking ravaged, as they destroyed Churches, burned entire neighborhoods into the ground, including a university. Peking would have to work extensively to fix the damages caused by the Siege. But for now, the Qing would have to work on undoing the mess.
The Siege was a huge embarrassment for the Qing and showed the flaws of the Qing government. It destabilized the Qing and they would not live to see the end of the next 2 decades, as in 1912, they would fall and become the Republic of Chinaball, and later the People's Republic of Chinaball.
With all being said, it was a destructive and usually overlooked conflict that just showed how hard the Qing had fallen from grace due to the Century of Humiliation.
China had a lot of days ahead of them, but this would leave a scar in the Qing for the rest of their days.
Category:Wars
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