The Road to Revolution

in China

POLITICAL CHANGE

The Boxer Rebellion (ca. June 13- August 15, 1900): local anti-Christian riot that originated in Shandong and spread to Tianjin. The disturbance resulted in a siege on the foreign diplomatic compounds Beijing when its leaders received Qing sanction. An international expeditionary force eventually quelled the riot and lifted the siege. Western reporters, who covered events, coined the term “Boxers”.

Yihe Quan (“Righteous and Harmonious Fists”) Rebels: 70% peasantry of Shandong region, 30% itinerants and artisans, including peddlers, rickshaw men, barbers, dismissed soldiers and salt smugglers.

Boxer Protocol (1901): another unequal treaty that ended Sino-foreign hostilities and provided for reparations to the affected foreign powers.

Anti-Chinese agitation in the US:

1. Race riot in LA in October 1871, 19 Chinese killed.

2. 1885 Rock Spring, Wyoming mining camp poor white miners attacked Chinese "strike-breakers" with at least 28 deaths, 15 wounded, the expulsion of several hundred, and property damage of nearly $150,000.

3. October 24, 1886 Seattle’s Chinatown was burned, while the angry mob killed five before forcing 200 Chinese aboard ships bound for San Francisco. On November 3 a mob of 300 expelled the Chinese in Tacoma. The Washington governor appealed to the federal government for assistance to restore law and order. On November 7 President Cleveland responded by sending the U.S. military to Seattle and Tacoma to suppress the riots. For a contemporary news cartoon from the 1886 Seattle Anti-Chinese Riot, see http://immigrants.harpweek.com/ChineseAmericans/Illustrations/096AntiChineseRiotMain.htm

Anti-Chinese Exclusion Law of 1882: suspended the immigration of Chinese "laborers" for 10 years and denied all Chinese US citizenship. The act was renewed in 1892 for another 10-year period. In 1902 the ban on Chinese immigration was made indefinite. In 1943, however, public response to China as a wartime ally prompted Congress to repeal ban on Chinese immigration and naturalization. The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 replaced national origin quotas with hemispheric quotas, allowing more Asians to immigrate to the U.S.

US President Grover Cleveland (1837-1908)

Rights Recovery Movement (between 1904 and 1907): popular movement to purchase control of foreign-owned railway lines and other infrastructure. This movement would politicize many in China’s youngest generation at the turn of the century.

Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925): political radical, "theorist," and leader of the Chinese Kuomintang (Nationalist Party), known as the "Father Of Modern China."