Status Updates From The Boxer Rebellion: The Dr...

Tienten had not done much better in Vice-Admiral Seymour's absence. Colonel Hoover and other allied foreigners banded together to fight off hordes of Boxer assaults and artillery, defending what they had with few forces. Despite the successful missions to obtain control of forts Tongku and Taku, the siege would prove harrowing for the defenders.

Vice-Admiral Seymour's journey to reach Peking was comprised of hardship. Some due to the lack of preparation from being in a rush to provide reinforcement and most being from the deliberate sabotage by the peasants to prevent quick travel via rail. Of the seventeen days Seymour's men were out, they saw action on fourteen of them. The decision had been made to turn back to Tientsin, leaving those at the capitol.

The rebellion has begun and it starts not with a whisper, but the blood curdling screams of foreigners being hacked and mutilated to death by the Boxers. Western diplomats are holding off in the legation quarter and have fortified their defensive postures. They hope to hold out for Vice-Admiral Seymour, but that may prove ineffective...

Many of those who had been in the know had been reading the signs - the Boxers were preparing for a purge of foreigners from China. Though these signs would be apparent among the veteran inhabitants, those who didn't understand the signs continued with their lives with a seemingly haziness attributed to the violence erupting around them.

The Boxer uprising would appear to have risen during an emphasis on old traditional beliefs, xenophobia, and rampant rumors. The Empress would identify their usefulness in driving out foreign influences without having to pay, and took advantage.

Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi seems like a formidable head of state. Western diplomats were blinded by their self supposed superiority and blind imperial ambitions not to take notice of the many factors at play that built resentment among the Chinese. Italy thinking they could enter into the scene with a complete lack in legitimate claim and failing to follow through set the stage for resistance.

Compelling narrative thus far, but unfortunately the book has had little to say about the actual Boxer Rebellion, other than a sparse account of causes in the introduction. 155 pages in, the majority of the narrative has been about the horrors and desperation of the Chinese siege on the foreign legations.