The March of Time - 20th Century History
- Thread starter Karelian
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Fascinating TL so far! I'm a little surprised the Japanese are showing so much restraint. I would have thought there would be more internal pressure for the Japanese to do, well, anything. Not a criticism, more thinking out loud
Later history may make it less obvious, but in OTL Japan was really reluctant and cautious to commit forces to Asian mainland after the debacle of Tripartite Intervention. Now they are content on using limited amount of troops in maintaining their sphere of influence next to Taiwan, and watching events unfold in China with their economy still unstrained by sizeable military expeditions.
It took both the murder of shokishi Sugiyama Akira (and the Western attitude that it wasn't such a big deal compared to the outrage they raised when von Ketteler got himself killed a bit later) and a lot of British cajoling and promises to cover expenses of the expedition to get Japanese forces moving and joining to an effort which was widely seen as a purely Western scheme. And even then it wasn't a foregone conclusion.
Here the initial window of opportunity to send troops passed when Westerners were still fighting in the coast and Germany and Russia both committed substantial forces to the region. This was something that in OTL made Japanese military leadership really uncomfordable - remember that Japan hastily withdraw the bulk of her forces from China as quickly as possible after Germans had arrived.
Really. I would have thought that Japan wanted to be at least a token player on the team, by way asserting peer status with the western states.
Japan already is - roughly on the same scale as Austria-Hungary and Italy. Sailors from heavy cruiser Kasagi and gunboat Atago were part of the 1st attempt to seize the Taku forts in summer, and Japanese delegation guards took part to the defense of Tientsin and Peking consessions.
In 1900 Japanese financial and political interests in China were strongly focused to the coastal Treaty Ports next to Taiwan (which they are guarding with troops in TTL) and to Manchuria, not in the areas of main Boxer disturbances. Hence sending a large army to Taku and acting as a Asian policeman for Westerners was akin to "pulling chestnuts from the fire for someone else", as Yamagata Arimoto formulated his position towards the matter of intervention in OTL. He and other leading genrō politicians have great ambitions and are not shy on resorting aggressive military action when they see it suitable for their interests, but for now they prefer to wait and see how the situation develops.
Yangtse viceroys are currently very uneasy about their situation - they're basically keeping a lid on a kettle that is about to boil over.
Luckily for the smallfolk the longer conflict has created a situation where more civilians have fled from the city before the actual battle when compared to OTL.
Chapter 13: Negotiations to end the Boxer War in winter 1900-1901
Areas of Boxer activity and main battles of the Tientsin-Peking campaign in 1900.
Negotiations to end the Boxer War in winter 1900-1901
"...The solitude and desolation were the same in and outside the city. There was nothing except rubble everywhere.The city of Peking, which was full of splendid buildings in the past, is now a wildness..."
The fire that consumed the grand palaces of Forbidden City burned for days. As soldiers of the 8-Nation Alliance looted and pillaged the Chinese capital, the recently repaired telegraph connections between Peking and rest of the world were extremely active. After the attackers had reached the empty ruins of the Legations quarter and found them destroyed and abandoned, were now turning the city upside down in their attempts to search and rescue all foreigners who were still alive within the city. Soon the Allied leadership had a vague idea what had happened after the Legations had fallen. After overrunning the Legation defences, the regular Chinese troops led by General Rong-lu had seemingly been ordered to take as many alive prisoners as possible. In reality this included mostly women and children, as most of the men defending the Legations had resisted the assault at the barricades - most of the male prisoners had been captured after being wounded in the fighting. The Boxer bands, on the other hand, had operated without such restraints. The atrocities they had committed at Beitang Cathedral and French quarter of the Legations made the Western press write shocking headlines and stories about the Peking Massacre and the “cruel and bloodthirsty nature of heathen Chinamen” in general. Another fact that greatly alarmed the Alliance was the fact that many high-ranking diplomatic families were reportedly taken away as hostages, when the court fled Peking.
The fact that during rest of the autumn and winter the Chinese civilian population in and around Peking were subjected to Allied "punitive expeditions" received far less attention, as the leaders of the civilized world were now debating and negotiating their official demands and policies regarding the future of China. As autumn turned to winter, the crisis in China kept straining the diplomatic relations of the major powers, especially because of the actions and attitude of Russia. In retrospect the Russian stance towards Chinese issues in late 1900 were simply a continuation of their earlier policy towards the Ch'ing Empire. While being among the first imperialist power to seize territory from China, Russia had always viewed themselves as protectors of Chinese sovereignty against Western powers. Right now the current situation in China outright terrified the Russian leadership, as the the tsarist government's greatest concern - dissolution of China - was now looking like a real possibility. The war that had begun as a suppression of a local revolt had severely disturbed China, and the regency of empress dowager that the Russian China experts had always counted on as the stablest element in Chinese society was now gone. Their prime objective was therefore to ensure the return of the Ch'ing court to Peking as soon as possible, in order to avoid a situation where the powers would be unable to find a negotiated solution and would be forced to assume responsibility of a joint occupation of northeastern China - let alone for governing and policing the whole country with her increasingly hostile population of 400 million. Russian diplomats saw this as a recipe for disaster, and sought to avoid it at all costs. Despite this official noble reason for their attitude, the Russians were also playing their own geopolitical game. With the Imperial Woman dead, Russia had only one friend and ally among the Chinese leadership left. Keeping Li Hung-chang as a central part of the peace negotiations was now central to Russian strategy that aimed to downplay the importance of other Yangtse viceroys.
Death of ambassador de Giers was actually a boon to the Russian diplomacy in Peking in winter 1900.
Another important factor in the Russian negotiation position was their leading diplomat. After Mikhail de Giers, who had promoted a cautious course against Boxers prior the crisis and had thus been widely despised and distrusted among the diplomatic body in Peking had died in the storming of Peking Legations. As the nearest suitable replacement, Ambassador Alexander Izvolsky arrived from Japan to conduct diplomacy in Peking. Widely considered as one of the best Russian diplomats, he was in good terms with Muraview and agreed on his policy of calming down the tense international situation in the Far East, instead of provoking further antagonism. Russian representatives were following this diplomatic course of action when they approached both the southern Chinese administration and the exiled court, and confidentially stated that Russia would set a tone of moderation in a possible peace conference to forestall excessive demands by the other powers. These approaches were also stated alongside offers to withdraw Russian troops, diplomats and citizens to Tientsin at the earliest suitable opportunity. In south Li Hung-chang, governor-general at Canton and a venerable elder statesman felt that there were still little prospects of peace.
As one of the most travelled and experienced diplomat among the southern viceroys, he reminded his colleagues that the foreign powers did not consider themselves to be officially at war with China, as they claimed that their expeditionary forces were present merely to suppress the Boxer rebels. Yet the situation on the ground had changed considerably since the time the foreigners had made these claims. Now southern China was outside the control of the internationally recognized official government of China. It was also a fact that the court had in fact severed diplomatic relations and initiated hostilities against the 8-Nation Alliance with a declaration of war - which the southern viceroys had dismissed as an illegal order and promptly ignored. Meanwhile the exiled court, led by Prince Tuan and Prince Kang-i advocated a long drawn-out war of attrition from their support areas in remote Sian, citing the increasing disagreements among the foreigners as a sign that persistent resistance would allow them to triumph from the safety of interiour. This was also a sign of their desperation, as they were firmly aware that the southeastern provincial leaders were trying to shift the foreign attention to punishing and defeating the pro-Boxer court as the only reliable way out of the war.
Meanwhile the foreign representatives argued about the best course of action. The Germans demanded stern punishment, and the British supported the Germans in their own attempt attempt to check Russian advances in China with their aid. The Russians courted Li, their old contact among the southern viceroys, to safeguard their remaining influence among Chinese leadership and to secure concessions in Manchuria. The Russian policy made the Japanese to ramp up their support to Qin Wang revolutionaries, especially in Japanese-occupied Amoy, where their old client Sun Yat Sen had strong support. The French, joining up forces with Russians, played a twin policy of stating that they did not desire a break-up of China and entertained no secret designs for it. On the same time news of Beitang Massacre had been the last straw that made the French government of Waldeck-Rousseau to adopt desperate measures to sooth the public outrage over the events in China. As a result Paul Doumer received permission to send troops from Indochina to Yunnan with the task of guarding the safety of French missionaries and their families. Auguste François, the French Consul in Yunnan, promptly resigned as a protest.
French domestic politics more or less forced them to go ahead with their thinly veiled invasion of Yunnan. This move changed the geopolitical balance in China, and further strained the relations between the major powers, much to the dismay of mr. Delcassé.
In the actual negotiations held in the Spanish legation in Peking, the US representatives stated that their State Department wanted the note embodying the French proposition to the final protocol to be represented to the Chinese negotiators as soon as possible with details to be worked out later. German and Russian representatives objected, stating that the conference should first reach agreement on principles. As agreements concerning the prohibition of arms and weapon material imports were easy to reach, and after agreeing on this issue Ambassador Izvolsky requested each minister to cable his government and ask for cessation of military operations since negotiations were now in progress. German negotiators objected, and nearly everyone agreed on their notion that the matter needed further study and it would be premature to declare ceasefire at this point.
The negotiations taking place in Peking were held in a spirit of secrecy and mistrust, as reports of upheld discussions were repeatedly leaked out to Chinese delegations. Russians had manoeuvred Li, their key ally among the southern Chinese leaders, back to Peking while trying to give the court the impression of conciliation. Meanwhile the Russians sought to present their military activity in Manchuria as a temporary occupation and protection of the dynasty against internal rebellion, but this approach seemed less and less justified as winter months passed and the Boxer War winded down. Other powers were also increasingly suspicious when Russia stated that negotiations regarding Manchuria should not be undertaken as a part of general peace agreement until China had a "completely independent and responsible government." This meant that as long as the reactionary court held the Emperor away from Peking, Russians would keep their forces in Manchuria. Russians were not the only negotiators who sought to approach both factions of the Chinese administration. Western diplomats who were paranoid about other Powers making separate treaties outside the official and general peace agreement between powers and "China" - which at this point was represented by two diplomatic entities which were increasingly at odds with one another. Thus they attempted to keep up the impression they were still officially negotiating with a unified China as a unified international alliance in a spirit of cooperation and and mutual trust, while every major power was unofficially warning the Chinese to refrain from trying to make separate peace with their rivals.
German diplomats notified the representatives of Ch'ing court and Yangtze viceroys that they should not enter any individual agreements of a territorial or financial character with any Power before they could have knowledge of obligations towards all the Powers, and arrangements concerning these obligations had been accepted. The representatives of the United States made similar approaches, stating their "dislike for private negotiations and sense of the impropriety, inexpediency and even external danger to the interests of China of considering any private territorial or financial agreements, at least without the full knowledge and approval of all the Powers now engaged in negotiations." Meanwhile the Japanese consuls in the south were keeping in close contact with the Yangtze viceroys, hoping thereby to counteract Li Hung Chang's pro-Russian influence. The British representative Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice stated that the British government was of the opinion that China should enter no agreement with individual Powers which might permanently affect her territorial, political, financial or commercial status. Japan had her own goals, which she implied only indirectly by stating that in the spirit of Ōkuma Doctrine Japan would support the territorial integrity of "the postwar government of China" on all circumstances. As Japan was viewing both the coast of Taiwan and Korea as her security perimeter, Japanese leaders felt that Russia and France were both trying to expand their influence at the expense of Japan. As the combined threat of Russian and French fleet made Japan unable to meet this challenge militarily, Japanese diplomats approached Germany and Britain for support in winter 1900. Germany felt that it was not on her interests to risk an outright war over China, but German diplomats privately implied that Germany was willing, in case of war, to embarrass the Franco-Russian alliance by "benevolent neutrality" in the Far East.
On the same time Britain was reviewing her Far Eastern Policy with a new memorandum of Under-Secretary Francis Bertie. He stated that a situation where either France or Russia attacked Japan over the disagreements of spheres of interest in China would most likely lure ever-opportunistic German government in as well, and such a new Triplice would both crush Japan force Britain to the wall regarding the future of China. However, even if Japan fought a victorious war against Russia, Russia would still remain sufficiently strong to impose a check on Japan in the Far East. Hence Britain would gain, since the two countries would from then on counterbalance and “tie down” each other to this part of the world. Bertie thus recommended telling Japan that should a war broke out between Russia and Japan, England and Germany would seek to keep it a limited one and would remain neutral, so long as no third Power intervened. Thus spurred on by the actions of Russia and France, Britain wearily approached Germany in the spring of 1901. The early talks mentioned a secret treaty, firmly focused on the Far East and aimed at neutralizing France there.[1]
While the powers schemed and negotiations lagged on, ultimately the Alliance diplomats agreed on several main points, which were delivered to the Chinese delegations in January 1901. For starters, the powers demanded death penalty for twenty officials, including Princes Chuang and Tuan, Kang-i, Yü-hsien, Li-Ping-heng, Hsu T'ung and generals Nieh Shih-ch'eng, Tung Fu-hsiang and Jung-lu. Next thing everyone had agreed was indemnity of a total of 500 million taels, levied with payment to be completed in 39 years with 5 percent annual interest, and with maritime customs, native customs and salt tax as security. Chinese foreign service was also be reorganized into proper Foreign Office. Other clauses were agreed on by the military leaders who had been delegated to discuss the matters as their own delegation. They came up with a list of demands that included a two-year ban of arms and ammunition imports, of razing the Taku forts, as well as the matter of garrisoning the entire route between Peking and Tientsin. As the Chinese delegations received the terms, their reactions were mixed. To the court this was a virtual death-sentence, and they rejected it outright. To Li Hung Chang and southern viceroys the terms were equally terrifying - accepting them would condemn their cause in the face of the revolutionary organizations, while rejecting them would only increase the international tension in the Far East.
1: Such an approach was made in OTL as well.
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I don't think there would be negotiations with the Imperial government after this. Unless Rong-lu can show that he protected a large share of the captives, and they are released safely...
What I expect is rage, and a demand that the miscreants be hunted down to the end. The members of the Imperial Court could escape only by fleeing dispersed into the countryside.
Prudential fears of the fall of the Empire would be wiped away - if this is what the Empire brings, why preserve it? That would certainly be the popular feeling in Western countries: Britain, France, Germany, the U.S.
Good analysis of the overall situation.
Rong-lu is trying to do just what you described. After he couldn't stop the Legations from being seized after Empress Dowager died, he did the little damage control he could and opted to seize most of the survivors to his own custody and protection. The problem is that Prince Tuan is opposed to any kind of settlement with the Powers, and Rong-lu was removed from the decision-making higher ranks of the court at summer as in OTL. Together with Chuang and Kang-i, Tuan thus controls the exiled court. And while the man is arch-conservative and anti-foreign enough to hate trains with a passion, he is no fool. His spies tell of growing discord among his enemies, both Han and foreign barbarian alike.
Now his best course of action seems to be to wait it out. He calculates that despite their current rage, at the end of the day the foreigners will have no other options but to cut a deal and see the Emperor returned to power. And with the Emperor and foreign hostages at his pocket, he calculates that his current seat of power is untouchable.
And why is he acting so stubbornly? Because for him this is ultimately much more than a question of his own personal safety - Tuan is married to niece of Empress Dowager, and his son Pujun is the designated heir to the throne. Admitting that he miscalculated and made a catastrophic mistake would mean the burial of his hopes of seeing his son on the Throne.
Cartoons and newspaper headlines from the day show how terrifying and repulsive the prospect of Western hostages at the mercy of Chinese was to the public.
But in terms of realpolitik the situation is different. None of the Powers wants to see their rivals gain territorial compensation at the expense of others, and the recent war is still far from concluded despite the fact that Boxer thread has largely dissipated. It is too early to start dividing the spoils of war when General Nieh and Tung still have troops in the field and the basically outlawed court remains at large.
At south, below the facade of stability presented by the southern viceroys, the situation is also far from secure. Japanese actions in Amoy and French aspirations in Yunnan are putting the viceroys to a difficult position, especially as they are far from united in their opinions about what to do next. Foreign envoys and southern viceroys are thus trying to find a common ground before the revolutionaries grow impatient enough to start stirring up further trouble in Yangtze valley.
He tried. But those he saved have been taken hostage by Tuan.
And he's wrong.
Hostages are one thing. A massacre is another. If Rong-lu, acting as an Imperial general, protects some substantial number of the Western civilians in Peking, and then delivers them safely to the relief force, he re-establishes the good faith of the Imperial government.
That hasn't happened. All whites in Peking have been murdered or are hostages (and the numbers of each are not clear). This was by action of the Imperial government, which has done nothing to offset these crimes.
Realpolitik is over. Who is ever going to trust the Imperial government again? They are treacherous murderers - all of them, as far as any Westerner can see. No deals. Rescue the hostages, and destroy the criminals.
To make matters even more complicated Rong-lu has his cadre of loyal troops, and he has no intention of handing his prisoners over. Tuan may think that he still has forces to command and a war to lead - but Nieh and Tung are basically conducting their campaign ignoring Tuan, and no one can thus enforce court commands Rong-lu doesn't want to comply with. Such as handing the prisoners over.
He realizes quite well that this is his best shot to survive this disaster.
And has in fact declared war against the Powers, who in OTL chose to ignore this. This time they don't really have this option - but right now no one wants to deal with the logical consequences of dismantling the Empire, since dividing the spoils is prone to bring even more discord among the Alliance.
The powers have already demanded their heads on a plate - aside from the hapless Emperor himself, of course. The court reactionaries have therefore dug themselves into a deep pit. Now the diplomats at Peking are trying to figure out a solution that would satisfy the need of a suitably harsh vengeage, while still creating a postwar situation that would the Powers to exploit China without having to directly occupy and administer the whole area. Since the Boxer War has already proven how impractical and outright impossible such a solution would be, finding someone to serve as proxy for their policies is pivotally important.
Meanwhile the Southern viceroys are trying to play the foreign barbarians against one another, and the literati reformer-revolutionaries are trying to keep their more radical comrades from agitating the commoners too much. No one is happy with the way things are headed, but finding a way out seems increasingly difficult.
Chapter 14: Rising Phoenix, Hidden Dragon
Rising Phoenix, Hidden Dragon
"Thus, what enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge. Now this foreknowledge cannot be elicited from spirits; it cannot be obtained inductively from experience, nor by any deductive calculation. Knowledge of the enemy's dispositions can only be obtained from other men. Hence the use of spies..."
The Chinese New Year was a spectacle in Singapore in 1901, and the earsplitting crackle of fireworks easily drowned the sound of gunshots echoing from the chambers of K'ang Yu-wei. As the unseen assassin slipped away to the side alleys on the eve of February 19th 1901, the death of a key leader of the failed Hundred Days Reform movement marked the beginning of a wave of assassinations and paranoia that swept through the ranks of Chinese revolutionaries.
But as shocking news of the death of the Emperor himself arrived from Shanxi, other viceroys were quick to suspect that Yüan Shih-k'ai was behind at least some of the recent assassinations. Having betrayed the Son of Heaven and K'ang once before, it was in his interest to have them removed from the scene. Ultimately these two murders were not probably even connected to one another in the first place. As cunning as Yüan was, he wasn't the only one who benefitted from the death of the Emperor. Notoriously cunning palace eunuchs had their own loyalties, and the Empress Dowager had privately stated that she'd hate to see the current Emperor outlive her.
Perhaps it was indeed the final will of the Imperial Woman, an order of revenge carried out after months of secret preparation amidst the chaos of court exile. Perhaps it was some clique in the court, or one of the other southern viceroys. Maybe the republican revolutionaries were to blame? No one knew for sure, but one thing was certain: Without the powerless Emperor as a bargaining chip, the position of the court-in-exile suffered a devastating loss.
K'ang, in his part, had been widely despised as an eccentric fool among the ruling elite even when he was still in an official position and had no lack of enemies among the southern viceroys. Whatever the truth may have been, the death of Kuang-hsü threw the situation in China back to turmoil after the relatively peaceful winter months. Back in Peking, representatives of the Eight-Nation Alliance faced a situation where the last hopes of putting the blame on renegade nobles and restoring the current Ch'ing Emperor as a figurehead leading a compliant puppet regime that would pay the bill of the war had died along the Emperor.
The following surrender of General Jung-lu largely solved the issue of hostages, and the civilians returning from the custody of the General (which included most of the Russian delegation in Peking) told that after the initial chaos and flight from Peking their captors had treated them well, considering the circumstances. But while defeated Rong-lu meekly put himself at the mercy of the victors, the rest of the Boxer leadership chose a different course of action. Prince Tuan, his son Pujun (the Ch'ing heir presumptive) and Empress Dowager Longyu fled from the court together with a small group of entrusted guardsmen and servants. The war Westerners had expected to win quickly entered into a strange new state - the enemy had seemingly disappeared.
But as captured minor princes and renegade generals (Rong-lu received the scant mercy of being allowed to commit suicide instead of being executed) were being hanged, famine plagued the Chinese civilians in Zhili and some areas were being virtually depopulated as the locals fled from the terror of foreign "punitive actions" where suspected Boxers were being randomly rounded up among the locals and promptly executed on the spot. Yet the fighting continued. Armed bands belonging to General Nieh's fittingly-named Tenacious Army were still on the field, as they kept retreating westwards, away from the reach of the large armies the Powers had transported to China.
Yüan Shih-k'ai kept his forces on the border of Zhili, and south from him the Yangtze viceroys were cautiously viewing the growing ranks of the rural militias organized by Baobanghui and other revolutionary organizations. In Amoy Japanese arms were still being smuggled in from Taiwan, boosting the strength of the republican rebels led by Sun Yat-sen and his pro-Japanese allies. Meanwhile the Russian forces in Manchuria and French expedition to Yunnan were both engaged to goose chases against Chinese irregular militias and brigand bands led by cunning local leaders such as the Manchurian honghuzi chief Chang Tso-lin, and costs of the war kept stacking up with no end in sight. The situation was frustrating, and for a while it seemed like the major powers would find themselves stuck on a similar quagmire as the United States in the Philippines and Britain in South Africa.
By the summer this impasse was finally solved due rapidly changing circumstances. The first condition for a settlement was met when British diplomatic approaches towards Berlin achieved surprising success. Freiherr Oswald von Richthofen, German State Secretary of Foreign Affairs and his British colleague Landsdowne had been both been appointed to their positions in October 1900, and they were closely watched by their superiors, as the "old wizards" of cabinet diplomacy were still quite active behind the scenes. Especially von Holstein, the venerable 'monster of the labyrinth' of German diplomatic corps who had been taught by Bismarck himself was keenly following the negotiations.
Therefore it is understandable that von Richthofen first greeted the diplomatic approaches of Landsdowne rather cautiously. The resulting Yangtze Agreement, signed on 26th of October 1900[1], must therefore be seen as primarily as a testament of influence von Holstein still held in German foreign office, and his primary policy goal of seeking and promoting all possible agreement between Britain and the Triple Alliance to secure German interests through the globe. The German commitment to support Britain against Russia in the Far East wasn't a foregone conclusion, but mainly a reaction to French invasion of Yunnan and growing Japanese influence in south China. The events in East had made the new German Chancellor Eulenburg more compliant toward von Holstein's view that the advances that the situation in China offered in Europe outweighed the negative influences this might have on German-Russian relations. In their final joint communique both countries agreed on maintaining pre-war status quo regarding concessions and territory, and they publicly demanded other powers to adhere this approach.[2]
This put the French, Russian and Japanese delegations into a surprising situation, and their desire to avoid trouble with Berlin and London was a factor in their willingness to reach an agreement. For Japan evacuating the small contingent of troops dispatched to Amoy was an easy decision, as they left behind a well-supplied force of republican revolutionaries with deep gratitude towards Japanese aid and goodwill. But while the French and Russian authorities discussed their responses to British-German initiative, the Chinese factions went forward with their own plans for the future of China.
Being left as the only organized governmental organization still in control of major Chinese territory, the southern viceroys kept their own council and sought to present a unified front against foreign powers despite their mutual distrust. And while the viceroys had the control of the remaining armies, the reform-minded literati were in charge of the mid- and low-level bureaucracy and administration. Against these negotiation positions the southern revolutionaries referred to their already proven capabilities in controlling and agitating the peasant armies that had sprung up in the region. Seeing that they all had strengths of their own and need for mutual support, the three factions thus entered to negotiations regarding their common future with a certain sense of mutual respect, and with many mutual goals they were all eager to promote.
Constitutionalism was a term that meant a bit different things to all of them, but it was still something they viewed as a desirable common goal and rallying point. The question of leadership was another key issue, and here the conservative reformers were able to convince the viceroys that for the time being the best course of action would be to quickly establish a new official government with a credible figurehead, while leaving the actual control to the existing structures - the viceroys themselves. Together they were able to get their way despite the protests of radical minority among the revolutionaries, especially because majority of Baobanghui protestors had initially been mobilized to promote the same idea the viceroys and literati were now proposing as a solution to China's problems. When the matter of constitutional monarchy was agreed upon, it only took a little consideration among the viceroys to find a suitable candidate as the new Son of Heaven. He resided in the Shandong Province, in his ancestral family residence in sacred Qufu.
Duke Kong had many good qualities. As a seventy-sixth generation descendant of Confucius, his lineage was certainly considered royal enough. He was also a figure known internationally, as many Western ambassadors had visited the famous temple where his family resided before the Boxer War.[3] Accustomed to grand ceremonies and a firm traditionalist by virtue, Duke Kong politely accepted the offer of the viceroys. In his new role he took on the heavy responsibility of carrying the millenia-old tradition of the cosmological kingship of the Son of Heaven to 20th century.
When the Emperor Sūhuá declared himself as the first Emperor of the new Fèng (奉)[4] Dynasty in Nanjing on 3rd of May 1901, all foreign observers realized they were witnessing a grand historical event. The proclamation marked the virtual end of the Boxer War. The 8-Nation Alliance was now forced to face the fact that the Chinese dynasty that had declared war against them had lost control of their empire in the turmoil, and was now being replaced by a new political entity that was in a middle of organizing itself and hard-pressed to keep the energetic public in control.
Ending centuries of Manchu rule over China was never going to be a bloodless affair, but the new government showed great restraint and ruthless determination in putting down Manchu units that attempted to oppose the new dynasty, while on the same preventing locals from attacking Manchu civilians and their property. In the end Ch'ing fell because the local elites saw no reason to prefer it over the new alternative, and abandoned the old dynasty in favour of local and provincial power. Rebellious peasants and commoners understood the situation in more traditionalist terms: Ch'ing had lost the Mandate of Heaven, and thus it had to fall.
For Western powers the new situation meant that there simply wasn't any good or even realistic alternatives left: the new southern regime was the only game in town. By placing itself under British and Japanese tutelage from the start, the emerging new Chinese government was also successfully driving a wedge between the key members of the faltering Alliance.
Chinese diplomacy led by venerable old Li Hung-chang was shrewd - by naming the Ch'ing dynasty as the prime culprit of the Boxer War, the new regime aligned itself to the same side with the Alliance. This in turn put the Westerners into a situation where their official policy of pretending to defend the now globally discredited dynasty against internal rebellion was lost the last vestiges of its credibility. After the Anglo-German detente regarding China and the US and Japanese commitment to Open Door, France and Russia were being politically isolated in their territorial ambitions.
This did not mean that the Western powers would be content on letting the Chinese "off the hook" just like that. The war had been expensive and humiliating experience to West and the public mood in European capitals was that someone had to pay. As a first step towards a general settlement of the Boxer War the Powers started by establishing diplomatic relations with the new Chinese government.
1: OTL treaty was signed 16th of October - here the signatories wait for the fall of Peking to come into agreement.
2: As per OTL.
3. British consul supported him as the new Emperor in OTL in a case Ch'ing Empire would disintegrate.
4. The name of the new dynasty refers to the official nature of the regime, and the goal of restoring proper morals to China. It also refers to their new imperial symbol, the mythological fènghuáng-bird.
A draft version of the new imperial flag, featuring an ascending fènghuáng on a red background.
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Now then, with Boxer War winding down it's time for another vote. What would you like to read about next?
A: Chinese cultural and political life in early Fèng era
B: Effects of the Boxer War in Great Power relations and international diplomacy
As usual, both topics will be covered in future updates, but the order of these updates is up to you to decide.
A: Chinese cultural and political life in early Fèng era
B: Effects of the Boxer War in Great Power relations and international diplomacy
As usual, both topics will be covered in future updates, but the order of these updates is up to you to decide.
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Do A. I desperately need that information to better enjoy your expertly crafted TL. And B is something that will be interesting anyway, so it can wait a bit.
I'll have to echo DrakonFin's opinion. The TL started with China, let's at least see the situation through first.
I will admit to being incredibly curious as to how the situation will affect Great Power relations, with the Franco-Russian and Anglo-German split and the possible reprecussions of it all, but I'll still vote A. I can wait a bit and I do find Chinese history in the period to be fascinating, though sources in my country are incredibly hard to find.
I suppose that's what you get when even Italy had more interest in China. A colonial power Austria-Hungary was not.
