The Eight-Nation Coalition invaded China, and seven countries carved up China, but only one country opposed it, and now it has become a superpower

The world has never been a beautiful fairy tale, but a dark forest where the jungle eats the strong, and for thousands of years, the continent has been a lion standing on top of the world.

During the Qing Dynasty, this lion took a nap and missed the industrial revolution, so that the mainland was opened by strong ships and cannons, and Japan, Britain, France, and the Eight-Nation Coalition took turns to loot on the land of China.

When the Eight-Nation Coalition invaded China, all seven countries wanted to carve up China, but only one country opposed it. But do you think it's for China's sake? Of course not, now it is a superpower, and it also regards China as an imaginary enemy, and it is targeted in various ways.

Which country this country is, do you know

The Eight-Nation Coalition invaded China

For more than 100 years, since the Industrial Revolution in Britain, Britain has been full of inexhaustible energy, looking for places to make money all over the world.

In the 18th century, the British sent a mission to China called Macartney, originally wanting to negotiate business, but the Qianlong Emperor did not look down on these "barbarians" at all and rejected the trade request.

The British did not give up, and secretly sent missionaries and merchants to inquire everywhere, but the news that came back to China made everyone greedy: "The emperor of China lives in the Jinluan Palace, and even the urinal is inlaid with gold edges!" ”

In fact, this is all an exaggeration, but the British believe it, thinking that China is a piece of fat meat, and they have to find a way to bite it.

How to bite it? The British came up with a trick of immorality – selling opium.

In just 20 years, from 1820 to 1840, Britain sold more than 400,000 boxes of opium to China, earning more than 300 million taels of silver.

At that time, there were more than 4 million opium smokers in China, and it was no wonder that such an army could win a war.

As soon as the Opium War broke out in 1840, the Qing army was defeated, but this was only the beginning, and later France, Russia, and the United States followed suit to take advantage of it, until the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, Japan, the former "little brother", also jumped out and bit the Qing Dynasty.

At that time, Japan had just been bombarded by the United States with artillery, and it was so poor that it immediately sent troops to attack North Korea when it saw that China was so easy to bully.

The Qing government sent the Beiyang Naval Division to meet the battle, but who would have thought that the "First Fleet in Asia," which had been built at a cost of tens of millions of taels of silver, would be completely annihilated by the Japanese fleet.

This battle made the Western powers completely clear: the Qing Dynasty was a paper tiger, and anyone could come up and step on it.

In 1900, the Boxer Rebellion broke out, and the common people were not used to seeing foreigners bullying people, so they beat them when they saw them. At first, the Empress Dowager Cixi wanted to use the Boxers to deal with the foreigners, but as a result, she annoyed the Eight Kingdoms, and they directly formed a coalition army to attack her.

Among the Eight-Nation Alliance, Japan was the most active, sending more than 8,000 people, accounting for nearly one-fifth of the total strength;

Russia sent 4,800 men, Britain 3,000, Germany 7,000 (although the main German army was still on the road and did not catch up with Beijing), the United States sent 2,100 men, France 800 people, Italy and Austria dozens each, purely to join in the fun.

Just such a few people, all the way from Tianjin to Beijing, the Qing army was defeated and retreated, the common people suffered even more, the coalition army burned and looted, and the treasures in Beijing were looted.

The bronzes of the Summer Palace and the porcelain of the Forbidden City were all moved, and those that could not be moved were smashed, and I don't know how many tons of gold and silver were robbed.

After the capture of Beijing, Britain took the lead in holding a meeting, saying that we have to divide China, and such a large place (China covered an area of 13.16 million square kilometers at that time), all countries can divide a colony.

Britain wants to occupy the Yangtze River valley, Russia wants to occupy the northeast, France wants South China, Japan has long set its sights on Taiwan and Fujian, Germany wants to establish a stronghold in Shandong, and Italy and Austria, although weak, also want a piece of the pie.

While everyone was arguing about how to divide it, the United States remained silent, and no one expected that this country, which was not a strong country at that time, would make a decision that surprised everyone.

The small abacus of the United States, which has been played for more than 100 years

When Britain put forward a partition plan, Russia, Japan, France, Germany, and other seven countries applauded, and only the United States frowned.

Why?

At that time, the United States had just fought the Perfect Spanish War, and although it occupied the Philippines, it was still a "small transparent" in the international community, and its strength was far inferior to that of Britain and France, which were old powers.

If the United States really divides according to the British plan, the United States is far away from China, and what it can get is definitely leftovers, and maybe it will be divided into a concession in Shanghai or Guangzhou, and it will not reap much benefit.

And the United States has calculated the score: there are more than 400 million people in China, and the common people everywhere are rebelling against the foreigners. Suppressing the uprising every day is too cost-effective to be cost-effective.

There is also a more important point that the United States wants to establish an image of "justice".

At that time, the European powers were fighting with each other every day, and the United States, as an American country, had to have a different routine if it wanted to get involved in international affairs.

Other countries are grabbing territory, but the United States jumped out to oppose it, saying, "We can't carve up China, we must maintain China's territorial integrity, and how good it would be for everyone to do business together."

This sounds beautiful, but in fact there is a hidden mystery -- the United States has the world's largest industrial production capacity, and there is no need to rely on the colonies to make raw materials, as long as China opens its market, American goods will continue to be sold in energy, and it will make much more money than farming and collecting rent.

Therefore, the United States has put forward an "open door" policy, which means that all countries must open their spheres of influence in China to the United States, and tariffs and trade treatment must be the same.

The great powers pondered for a while and felt that instead of fighting for partition, it was better to blackmail the Qing government together.

In the end, everyone forced the Qing government to sign the "Xinqiao Treaty", and the compensation alone was 450 million taels of silver, which is equivalent to one or two for each Chinese, plus interest, a total of 980 million taels, which had to be repaid for 39 years.

The United States received 34 million taels, accounting for 7.3% of the total reparations, although it was not the most, but the United States later played a "smart" operation - to refund part of the reparations.

In 1908, the United States said that "Gengzi's indemnity is too much", and returned the overcharged more than 10 million taels, but instead of directly giving money, it was used for education, and built Tsinghua Preparatory School for studying in the United States (later Tsinghua University), which funded a group of Chinese students to study in the United States every year.

On the surface, it seems to be doing good deeds, but in fact, it is fighting ideological warfare. These international students went to the United States to receive Western education, such as Hu Shi and Qian Xuesen.

The United States is calling this trick of "boiling frogs in warm water", and through education and infiltration, it will cultivate the future Chinese elite, so that they will feel that the United States is good, and they will favor the United States when they take power in the future.

As everyone knows, the United States made a windfall in the two world wars, Europe was in ruins, but the United States became stronger and stronger, becoming a superpower.

Looking back at the 1900 decision, it has to be said that the United States played too finely.

At that time, they opposed the partition not because they did not want to take advantage, but because they knew that they did not have the strength to grab a large piece of territory, so it was better to change the way and use economic and cultural means to infiltrate, which could not only make money, but also establish a reputation, and avoid the trouble of directly managing the colonies.

In contrast, Britain and France later became independent colonies and their strength plummeted, Japan suffered a crushing defeat in World War II, and the United States relied on the "open door" policy to make money in China for more than 100 years, and to this day, it is still enjoying the dividends of that year.

Some people may say that the United States returned the compensation money to run education, isn't it quite conscientious?

It can only be said that people who think this way are too naïve, just look at what the United States did later.

In 1946, China signed the Sino-American Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation with the Kuomintang, turning China into a dumping ground for American goods; After the reform and opening up, it infiltrated through various foundations and NGOs to carry out color revolutions; Even now it is suppressing Chinese companies and preventing China's development.

All this, in fact, has been foreshadowed since 1900 - the United States has never been a "savior", everything is for its own interests.

Looking back at history, the invasion of China by the eight-nation coalition is an eternal pain for the Chinese, but it also makes us see clearly a truth: A weak country has no diplomacy, and if it is backward, it will be beaten.

At that time, the United States opposed partition, not because it pitied China, but because it calculated its own interests; Now that the United States has become a superpower, it has relied on countless precise interest calculations.

Now that China is developing strongly, the United States is trying all kinds of ways to prevent our development, and the "tariff war" that has caused a stir is the best example in front of us.

Between countries, there are no eternal friends, only eternal interests, and only when they are strong can they keep their own land and not let history repeat themselves.