China Relief Expedition

In summer 1900, a multinational expeditionary force including U.S. troops under overall British command arrived in northern China to suppress the Nationalist, antiforeign Boxer Rebellion and break the siege of the foreign Legation Quarter, Peking (now Beijing).

In May 1900, responding to escalating violence, 450 foreign troops—including about 115 Americans—reinforced the legations in Peking. As the Ch’ing government of the Manchu dynasty moved to support the Boxers and the legations came under siege, a relief force of 2,080 troops under British Vice Adm. Edward Seymour (including a small force of American sailors and Marines) set out from Tientsin on the coast. However, it was held at bay. A larger relief force of troops from Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and America was then organized under British Gen. Alfred Gaselee. On 16 June, the United States diverted substantial forces from the Philippines to participate in this effort, including the 9th and 14th Infantry Regiments, 1st Marines, and an army artillery unit. The Sixth Cavalry Regiment came directly from America. U.S. forces, eventually numbering about 2,500 out of 18,000, were commanded by Maj. Gen. Adna Chaffee. On 3 July, Secretary of State John Hay reiterated the U.S. “open door” policy of preserving China's territorial entity.

The Battle of Peking, 14–16 August 1900—in which “Reilly's Battalion” gave covering fire to British troops advancing on the Legation Quarter—broke the 55‐day siege of the legations. The defeat of the Boxers led to the signing of the Boxer Protocols in September 1901, providing a $332 million indemnity. Most of the U.S. share was remitted to educate Chinese students in the United States.

[See also China, U.S. Military Involvement in.]

Bibliography

• Aaron S. Daggett, America in the China Relief Expedition, 1903.
• Reginald Hargreaves, Comrades in Arms, Marine Corps Gazette, vol. 48, no. 10 (1964), pp. 50–55.
• Michael H. Hunt, The Forgotten Occupation: Peking, 1900–1901, Pacific Historical Review, vol. 48, no. 4 (1979), pp. 501–29

A multinational expeditionary force under overall British command in the summer of 1900 whose aim was to put down the Boxer Rebellion and break the siege of the foreign Legation Quarter in Beijing. It succeeded on both fronts. The multimillion dollar indemnity secured by the United States from this was used mostly to educate Chinese students in the United States.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

The China Relief Expedition was the United States military term for the rescue of Americans, Europeans, and other foreign nationals in the wake of the Boxer Rebellion. The China Relief Expedition was a multi-national effort and the United States contributed troops between 1900 and 1901. At the end of the expedition, the focus shifted from rescuing non-combatants to suppressing the uprising. By 1902, at least in the city of Peking, the Boxer Rebellion had been effectively controlled.

For serving during the China Relief Expedition, the United States military created the China Campaign Medal and the China Relief Expedition Medal.

US Units involved:

6th Cavalry Regiment (United States)

9th Infantry Regiment (United States)

14th Infantry Regiment (United States)

15th Infantry Regiment (United States)

See also

• Eight-Nation Alliance
• China Relief Expedition Campaigns
• Battle of Peking

External links

• University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – Theodore E. Peiser Photographs 140 images from the later part of the 19th century to about 1907. Includes images of troops preparing to embark from Fort Lawton to China in 1900.
• U.S. Army, 1st International Relief Expedition
• The Naval History and Heritage Command, Documents of the Boxer Rebellion (China Relief Expedition), 1900-1901
• America in the China relief expedition by Aaron Simon Daggett

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