In addition, the Boxers also mistakenly believed that their spiritual powers, developed through physical exercises and martial arts, made them immune to small arms and artillery fire.23
When tensions between foreigners and the Boxers finally broke out into full-scale warfare, the overwhelming numerical strength of the Boxers, combined with a supportive Chinese government, forced the foreigners to seek protection at the Peking Legation Quarter where they were under siege for fifty-five days. While the major powers took measures to strengthen their respective legation garrisons in Peking and sent quick reaction forces to Tientsin, no one was ready for the size and intensity of the Boxer Rebellion. Due to the support of Empress Cixi, the Boxers quickly seized the initiative from the foreign powers and quickly came close to destroying all foreign military garrisons and massacring the resident foreign population. The situation in China was so severe that it temporarily brought all the world’s major powers together to crush the Boxer Rebellion. The international fleet that was hastily assembled and sent to seize the Taku Forts that protected the entrance of China’s Yellow River was a complicated operation. Having to overcome linguistic and operational differences in the deployment of an army composed from over a half dozen nations, the great powers strained their military resources in a common effort to break China’s coastal defenses near Peking with a massive amphibious assault. Despite nationalistic rivalries and differences among the coalition forces, the international fleet managed to successfully coordinate their naval gunfire support and carefully land their troops to attack and defeat the Chinese garrison in the Taku Forts. The ability for the international force to successfully accomplish its mission and open the way for the relief of the Peking Legation Quarter in Peking was ironically based on the collective amphibious experiences of the participating powers. Having been involved in several amphibious operations in Venezuela, the Upper Nile, the Philippines, Manchuria, Panama, North Africa, and the Balkans, these same armies now worked in a tenuous alliance.24 Both the Peking Legation Quarter and the Tientsin garrisons held out against the Boxers and Empress Cixi’s imperial armies, which actively supported the Boxers. While fierce fighting raged in Peking and Tientsin, a second relief force was organized, and soon a large naval and ground force composed of eight nations approached the Taku Forts by the Peiho River near Tientsin. During this time, both Secretary of the Navy Long and the Adjutant General’s Office in Washington, DC, sent telegraph messages requesting that more ground and naval forces be sent to take part in the international relief force in China. General Arthur MacArthur, Military Governor of the Philippines, voiced his concerns when he responded via telegraph to his superiors in Washington: “Force in Philippines has been disseminated to limitation of safety; concentration slow to avoid evacuation of territory now occupied, which would be extremely unfortunate.”25 Despite the shortage of ground and naval forces left in the Philippines, additional reinforcements were sent to China to supplement the relief force. The situation in China was desperate, and the international community feared that the foreign garrisons in Peking and Tientsin would be overwhelmed and massacred. Facing the Boxers and the Chinese Imperial Army, the Eight-Nation Alliance managed to coordinate its naval gun support to neutralize the guns of the Taku Forts and allow the multinational landing force to conduct an amphibious assault in order to seize control of the forts and open the entrance of Peiho River. Once the Chinese garrison was driven out of the fortifications, the Eight-Nation Alliance landed the rest of its ground forces unmolested and pushed into the interior to relieve Admiral Seymour’s forces, which were trapped in Tientsin. While American and alliance forces fought their way through Tientsin, First Lieutenant Smedley Butler described the assault against Tientsin in detail:
Chinese bombs were exploding about us, and Chinese snipers on both sides of the river [in Tientsin] were pouring a steady stream of bullets in our direction. The sky flashed with fiery zigzags. Our artillery was also keeping up a heavy bombardment [on the city]. The British were hammering at the stone wall with the guns they used to defend Ladysmith in South Africa during the Boer War. It took many men to drag around these clumsy guns mounted on boiler plate wheels. But they did real damage with their shells. We cheered every time one of their projectiles crashed in the native city.26
After bitter fighting to take the city and relieving Admiral Seymour’s trapped forces, the multinational force began a second relief expedition in Peking. With about eighteen thousand men, the relief force fought its way through a series of battles until the combined force of Boxers and the Chinese Imperial Army was crushed and driven from the city. However, the occupation of Peking and certain areas in China by the various foreign powers created a power vacuum that potentially set conditions for the possible collapse of the Qing Dynasty and civil war. Fortunately, peace was concluded with the major powers in which China not only had to pay an extraordinarily heavy indemnity, but was also required to exile all surviving Boxers from China.
Despite talks of possibly dividing China into permanent spheres of influence, the United States decided to stick to the Open Door Policy of 1898, in which all nations enjoyed equal access to the China market. America’s involvement until 1898 was more or less that of a bystander nation; however, the U.S. military’s growing capabilities, especially in regard to power projection through amphibious warfare, finally gave the Americans creditability as a world power. America’s ability to project hard power into the Asia-Pacific as a result of the Spanish-American War, the Philippine-American War, and now the Boxer Rebellion allowed Secretary of State John Hay to negotiate from a position of strength in influencing the other major powers over the fate of China. The last thing the United States wanted was to watch China get carved, like Africa and Asia, into various colonial possessions, resulting in American commercial interests being blocked out in the process. In order to save China and prevent the major powers from using the country as another potential battleground, Secretary Hay proposed the Open Door Policy that balanced between maintaining Chinese sovereignty while leaving the country open for commercial trade for all the major powers.27
Unfortunately, once Empress Cixi returned to power and the relief forces withdrew, Russia disregarded the Open Door Policy and began to once again encroach on Chinese sovereignty by investing heavily in developing Manchuria, constructing railroads and industries, and moving large military forces into the area. While the United States did little to stop Russian ambitions, both Great Britain and Japan viewed these moves as a threat to peace in the Asia-Pacific Region. In order to deter further Russian aggression and contain its expansion, the Anglo-Japanese Alliance was formed as a counterbalance to continue maintaining a balance of power in the region.
Despite the alliance, Russia continued pursuing its ambitions in China and became progressively more aggressive toward Japan to where Japanese political and military leaders felt that Russia was a clear and present danger to Japanese security. This would essentially be used from a geopolitical standpoint for Japan to begin secretly preparing for a confrontation with the Russians that would eventually lead to the Russo-Japanese War. While tensions began to build, Russia was supremely confident in defeating Japan, while the Japanese understood that they needed to win a quick and overwhelming victory and saw amphibious warfare as an essential part in protecting Japan and finally driving the Russians out of Northeast Asia.
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