WI Peking foreign legations fall during Boxer Rebellion?

The besieged diplomatic quarter in Peking could've easily fallen for any number of reasons, ranging from disease, to starvation, to exhausting ammunition supplies, to the Qing soldiers (and Boxers, of course) pressing the offensive at just the right moment.

Now, there's no doubt that the Qing couldn't have beaten off the 8 Nation Alliance's relief column, but what would've been the implications of the Foreign Legations' fall? For sake of simplicity, let's say that everyone in the diplomatic quarter is massacred (whether they be foreigner diplomats/troops/civilians or Chinese Christians who took shelter there). The relief column arrives at Peking in time to find the bodies, but there are no survivors.

What would be the consequences of such an act on the resulting peace settlements/negotiations between the Alliance and the Qing? Would the Open Door Policy of spheres of influence still hold, or would the West begin an aggressive policy of imperialism in China?

edit: ah, shit. this should be in post-1900
 
I don't know exactly what it would be, but some sort of vengeful policy is likely (for this specifically, above and beyond or completing replacing any other plans to deal with China), probably one involving a lot of dead Chinese - either as an end or a means.

Wonder how this impacts Wilhelm and the "Hun" issue. It would not be entirely implausible for people to take it as extreme but appropriate rhetoric in the heat of the moment, or he might find a way to reach OTL levels of infamy over it (or some even more extreme comment) anyway.

That's a pretty scary thought. Wilhelm advocating that the "yellow beasts" be punished so that they will fear the West for a thousand years actually getting support outside the always-raving-mad crowd.
 
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I'm particularly interested in the US response. It was an election year, so McKinley was keen to dissociate himself from his opponents' accusations of an imperialist foreign policy. That was the whole reason why IOTL, the US share of reparations was largely reinvested into that Chinese education fund instead of brought home.

With a massacre of all diplomatic personnel, I'm assuming calls for vengeance might be pressed, perhaps even neutralizing the anti-imperialist lobby in Washington. Does that sound reasonable to any experts on early-20th cen American politics?
 
I'm not an expert, so take this with a grain of salt, but it sounds very reasonable. Even if no one wants to carve up China, people will howl for blood.
 
We can assume that like the Old Summer palace before it, the Summer Palace is thoroughly looted and destroyed by the Western armies as part of the punishment. We could see things such as certain leased territories being annexed on a permanent basis (Hong Kong and Macau come to mind, though for example Shanghai could be another one), while the independence of outlying areas (such as Tibet) would probably be enforced/confirmed (with new spheres of influence of course).
 
We can assume that like the Old Summer palace before it, the Summer Palace is thoroughly looted and destroyed by the Western armies as part of the punishment. We could see things such as certain leased territories being annexed on a permanent basis (Hong Kong and Macau come to mind, though for example Shanghai could be another one), while the independence of outlying areas (such as Tibet) would probably be enforced/confirmed (with new spheres of influence of course).

That makes a lot of sense, especially given that there would be some guidelines as to who-gets-what, going by existing interests, influence, and holdings. So the powers' treaty ports (or some of them) are annexed, and we create some protectorates...

-Germany gets Qingdao, Russia gets Port Arthur, other treaty ports annexed as applicable.
-Tibet gains independence as a British protectorate, the same going for Inner and Outer Mongolia as a Russian one.
-The Yangtze, Pearl, Yellow rivers and their tributaries are internationalized.
-Shanghai and its hinterland becomes an international zone governed by representatives of the powers, and open to trade and commerce of all nations.
-The powers are further assigned defined spheres of influence in which they are permitted to maintain troops and protect resident foreigners or foreign interests, and China shall accept this role.
-China shall maintain open trade relations in areas not otherwise governed by treaty to all civilized powers.

How's that? Might need a more permanent oversight group to judge enforcement of the treaty (probably based in Shanghai). It's harsh, but it doesn't totally destroy the polite fiction of Chinese independence. Presumably there could be other nods toward the concerns of the United States and other nations without concessions in China as well in terms of trade or commercial protections, but I'm not sure what that might entail.
 
Could you guys report this thread and ask that it be moved into Post-1900? The mods won't notice unless there's a couple of reports. Boxer Rebellion stuff unfortunately feels so 19th century (what with all the punitive expeditions, imperialist designs, etc) to me that I didn't think about the actual dates when creating this thread.
 
Well, technically the Boxer Rebellion began in 1899...

I wonder if, since Cixi was instrumental in pushing the Boxers against foreigners rather than Chinese Christians and allied the government to them, she could be forced to step down by the great powers. Ironically, in that case things would have actually turned better for China.
 
Hm, I hadn't even considered that. But by the end of the Boxer Rebellion, China would've been fucked up so bad that Cixi's removal from power would be without much benefit. Take her out of the picture right before the Rebellion, and then you'll get some results. Take her out of the picture before she had a chance to poison her reform-minded son, and then you'll really see some improvement.

But I think ending Cixi's rule after the Rebellion is of little use to anyone in China. By then, the damage had been done and there was no going back.

Also, IOTL, the 8 Nation Alliance did its best to preserve the Qing Dynasty and Cixi's rule, even though she did do much to ferment the Rebellion in its last days. The Alliance knew that Cixi would crack down really hard on all the surviving rebels, thus bringing China back under control. Toppling her would create a power vacuum that could throw China into internal strife, and that was something the Alliance would not tolerate. Also, the monarchies of the Alliance (Russia in particular) feared that toppling the Qing Dynasty would set some precedent for the overthrow of their own royalty.
 
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