Atrocities committed by the Eight-Power Allied Forces (1900)

During the later period of the Qing Dynasty, China entered one of the darkest periods of its long history. It was humilitated repeatedly by Western imperial powers, forcing her to cede territories, pay "indemnities", and grant them economic concessions. While most Western historians recognize the tremendous injustice done to the Chinese nation during that period, some would argue that the Chinese mainly suffered economically in the hands of Western imperial powers. With the exception of Opium Wars, some naively believe that the Western powers did not commit too many "real" atrocities in China.  

But one just has to look at the action of the "Eight-power Allied Forces", a conglomeration of 20,000 soldiers from Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United States, and the atrocities they committed after they captured the cities of Tianjin and Beijing.

http://www.china.org.cn/e-8guo/4/0.htm

'On August 4, 1900, approximately 20,000 Allied Forces marched toward Beijing from Tianjin, They defeated the Chinese troops in succession and captured Beijing on August 14. After they entered the city, the Allied Forces plunged into a massacre. There were countless occurrences of bloodshed, looting and rape. A Frenchman published a book entitled The End of Peking after he returned to France. He wrote: "The solitude and desolation were the same in and outside the city. There was nothing except rubble everywhere?shy;.The city of Peking, which was full of splendid buildings in the past, is now a wildness."'

http://www.uglychinese.org/peking.htm#SaiJinhua

'Three days open ransacking and pillaging ensued ... Imperial Library ... would be looted by the allied forces. Japanese were said to have looted 3 million taels of silver from Manchu "household ministry" ... Allied Forces burnt down all houses with boxer altar, shot Chinese wherever spotted, raped women and imposed incest among family members, ransacked palaces and buildings, and burnt down treasures that could not be transported out of China. ... Residencies of Manchu kings were ransacked by French, Japanese and allied forces as well ... Chinese losses were estimated to be around 100 million taels of silver and more.

War Not Over With The Fall Of Peking
Ransacking and pillaging never stopped till the evacuation the second year. Both legation officers and allied forces participated in the "massacre contest" [as Japanese did during Nanking Rape] ... (i) (A)llied forces killed 1700 "boxers" at King Zhuang-wang Residency; ii) that French had driven a crowd of Chinese into an alley where they shot to kill for 15 continuous minutes; and iii) that allied forces massacred the Chinese who were hired to bury the dead bodies.  
In Peking, allied forces swelled to a total of 100,000 as a result of German reinforcements. German Emperor [Kaizer] Wilhelm II and Alfred Graf von Waldersee, in order to loot China further, declared that war was not over with the fall of Peking ...

Boxers' turmoils, concluded by the 'Xin Chou Treaty' or the 'Boxer Protocol of 1901' on Sept 7th of 1901 (solar calendar) with 11 (not 8) countries, would cause China a loss of 450,000,000 taels of silver which was to accrue to 982,000,000 taels with interests included throughout the installments for 39 years. (In 1943, 'Boxer Protocol' was nullified after a total payment of 670 million taels of silver.) The damages to China's spirits were unsurpassed in history, and the Chineses people had to endure 39 years of hardship and disasters"