Foreign Military In China Pre Ww2

I personally like the story of the Boxer Rebellion. Very interesting.

Ah, the Boxer Rebellion. What could be considered the Chinese version of the Zulu War.

Dont forget the Opium Wars now either. Or were those somewhere else...

Yeah sure ...but both the Boxer and the Opium have been covered fairly extensively by historians which is why I am more "into" the other stuff.

The Beijing Military Museum displays on the Opium Wars are rather intriguing to look at as a Brit - always good to "see ourselves as others see us" .

Quite outrageous nowadays looking back at a nation starting a conflict over a drug trade isn't it? :P

Originally Posted by Snaykew

Quite outrageous nowadays looking back at a nation starting a conflict over a drug trade isn't it?

Well a lot of things were different then. For one thing the use of opium in Europe wasn't considered bad, so no one saw the problem with selling it. Having empires was not frowned upon, it was considered the "in thing".

I wonder if in 150 years time people will decry our exploitation of the environment, for example. Not to mention the vast global arms trade, etc.

It's what I meant. Looking back and seeing what they considered ok and stuff.

I think American forces were in China from the start of WWI.

Yes indeed - US Marines in Shanghai defending US business interests there.

Grahamsh, I was just wondering about foreign navies in China during this period in general. I know that Germany had an East Asiatic Squadron pre-WWI, and England did as well, and that there were lots of foreign gunboats on China's main rivers, but I was wondering if you could hook me up with some sweet info and tell me a little about the naval situation in China, both at sea and on the rivers, during this time. Please?

Originally Posted by Finn McCool

Grahamsh, I was just wondering about foreign navies in China during this period in general. I know that Germany had an East Asiatic Squadron pre-WWI, and England [UK tee hee G ] did as well, and that there were lots of foreign gunboats on China's main rivers, but I was wondering if you could hook me up with some sweet info and tell me a little about the naval situation in China, both at sea and on the rivers, during this time. Please?

Right....let me see what info I have with me (plenty in books and files back home in UK ) or refs I can find on web.

What period are you talking about, can you define a time span ?

Originally Posted by Finn McCool

Grahamsh, I was just wondering about foreign navies in China during this period in general. I know that Germany had an East Asiatic Squadron pre-WWI, and England did as well, and that there were lots of foreign gunboats on China's main rivers, but I was wondering if you could hook me up with some sweet info and tell me a little about the naval situation in China, both at sea and on the rivers, during this time. Please?

OK having had a rummage about, the Imperial German Navy had its 'East Asia Squadron' based Tsingtao at outbreak of WW1. It consisted of :

SMS Gneiesnau (heavy cruiser)
SMS Scharnhorst (heavy cruiser)
SMS Emden (light cruiser)
SMS Leipzig (light cruiser)
SMS Nuremberg (light cruiser)
Kaiserin Elizabeth (Austro-Hungarian cruiser)
SMS Iltis (gunboat)
SMS Jaguar (gunboat)
SMS Tiger (gunboat)
SMS Luchs (gunboat)
SMS Lauting (minelayer)
SMS Otter (river gunboat)
SMS Tsingtao (river gunboat)
SMS Vaterland (river gunboat)
S-90 (torpedo boat)
Taku (torpedo boat)

You/others can no doubt Google and find out more about these ships if you're interested

I've got a book about the UK Yangtze river patrol and will put some stuff up on this when I get a chance.

no they are not german, thats a chinese division armed with Sdkfz 222 and complete german uniform


chinese soldier with german gas protection uniform

Chiang Kai-shek's son Chiang Wei-kuo got military training in germany and a nice nazi uniform aswell

German expeditionary corps being send to china in 1911


German Navy Soldiers in Bejing


General Graf von Waldersee taking command of the combined european forces (63.000men, 24.000 of them german)


Soldiers with conquered Boxer flags


beheading of the revolutionary chinese by jap military (dark look into future)

German Soldiers on the great wall


Postcard


German troops in front of the chinese kaiser's palace in bejing


Chinese prince sung gives "letter of being sorry" (lol?) to the german kaiser willhelm II


Signing peace of bejing in 1901