Kiwi said:
Sounds like the Opium Wars?
I think he's referring to the eight allied power invasion in 1900-1901. The old Summer Palace was, however, burned in the second opium war.
The second opium war occured in 1858-1860 and only involved 4 powers, UK, US, France, and Russia. Though it was mostly an Anglo-French venture, and they all hauled away loot, with the Russians gaining the most later through Treaty of Aigun, in which Qing ceded outer Manchuria to Imperial Russia.
The British forces, lead by General Lord Elgin (James Bruce), sent 3,500 men to burn down the old Summer Palace of Beijing over French objections to conceal the looting. One only need to visit the British Museum to see where the goodies went.
The Elgins are well known for lotting priceless artifacts. The Elgin who looted and burned the old Summer Palace is James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin. His predecessor, Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, was the British resident general in Athens, which was under the Ottoman Empire at the time. That guy was responsible for looting countless Athenian stone artifacts from the Parthenon, Pediment statues, Acropolis, Erechtheum, Temple of Athena Nike, etc. They're now stored in the British Museum and known as the "Elgin Marbles".
WEN? said:
hey guys,
just asking but it is to my knowledge,not too long ago (something like 200 years) china was invaded by i think 8 countries and was beaten up bad. as we where still using the good old sword, bow and arrow the invaders were using guns. some countries that participated in the invasion were britain and i think also russia. after defeating china they burnt some very large and famous palace or something important like that to the ground and also stole most of china's very precious stuf. e.g. all the really good jewelry and the royal stuff that was important mainly britain). so if u guys know anything about this war could you please fill me in.
regards WEN?
The eight allied power invasion of China involved UK, Germany, US, France, Russia, Japan, Italy, and Austria in 1900-1901. It was mostly the result of Boxer Rebellion spinning out of control. At first, the allied powers lead by British Vice Admiral Seymour didn't take Qing military seriously and attempted to invade Beijing with only 2,000 men, they were beaten back after 20 days of fighting during June - July, 1900 by the Wuyi Army, lead by General Nieh Shih-Ch'eng. General Nieh was killed a month later, which lead to the decline and breakup of the Wuyi army. Then in August 1900 they made a more cautious advance with 20,000 men and successfully invaded Beijing.
What followed was yet another orgy of rape and pillage, except this time the worse offenders were the Germans, who killed a lot of people. The British and the French simply went on their looting spree. Under pretext of searching for boxers, they even forced their way into the Yonghe Lamasery and carted off with anything made of gold or silver. The Japanese broke into the Ministery of revenue, looted 3 million teals of silver, then burned it to the ground.
The Qing government was forced to sign the 1901 "Boxrer Protocol" to end the war. They had to execute 10 officials, pay $333 million, destroy the Taku forts, grant more concessions, etc. The Americans were nice enough to give some of the $ back as scholarships and help build Tsinghua University. The Russians occupied parts of Manchuria, which eventually lead to the Russo-Japanese war a few years after.
As for sword, bows, and arrows, you might be thinking about the boxers, or the Qing army during Taiping Rebellion of 1851-1866. Yes a lot of boxers were armed with swords and spears instead of firearms. By 1900 the Qing Imperial troops were mostly armed with firearms, but of mixed quality comparred to the better-equipped western forces. Plus, the Qing troops did not receive good training.
Back during the Taiping rebellion era (1850's), the Manchu Banner Armies were still armed with swords, spears, and bows, relying heavily on calvary for offensive power. Only elite infantry units were armed with matchlock firearms.
