Battle of Tientsin

Battle of Tientsin
Part of the Boxer Rebellion
British and Japanese forces engage Boxers in battle.
Date 13–14 July 1900 Location Tianjin, China Result Allied victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom  United States France  Russia  German Empire  Kingdom of Italy  Austria-Hungary  Empire of Japan	Imperial China
Commanders and leaders
Anatoly Stessel Arthur Dorward Colonel Emerson Liscum † Captain A. R. Davis †	Nie Shicheng † Dong Fuxiang Ronglu
Strength
6,900	Imperial Army ~ 12,000 soldiers 10,000 Tenacious Army 3,000 Kansu Braves Boxers numbers unknown
Casualties and losses
250 killed, 500 wounded.	Unknown, but likely heavy

The Battle of Tientsin, or the Relief of Tientsin, occurred on July 13–14, 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion in Northern China. A multinational military force, representing the Eight-Nation Alliance, rescued a besieged population of foreign nationals in the city of Tientsin (Pinyin: Tianjin) by defeating the Chinese Imperial army and Boxers. The capture of Tientsin gave the Eight-Nation Alliance a base to launch a rescue mission for the foreign nationals besieged in the Legation Quarter of Peking (Pinyin: Beijing).

Tientsin, in 1900, consisted of two adjacent, but very different sub-divisions. To the northwest was the ancient high-walled Chinese city, one mile (1.6 km) on each side. To the southeast, one to two miles away (3 km), along the Hai River, was the treaty port and foreign settlements, a half-mile wide (1 km). About one million Chinese lived within the walled city or in satellite communities outside the wall. In the foreign settlements resided 700 foreign civilians, mostly European merchants and missionaries, along with tens of thousands of Chinese servants, employees, and businessmen. Among the civilians living in the foreign settlement were Herbert Hoover, a future president of the United States, and his wife Lou Henry Hoover. A low mud wall, less than 10 ft tall (3.0 m), surrounded at a distance of several hundred yards (half km) both the higher walls of the old city and the foreign settlements.

In early June 1900, in response to the growing threat of the Boxers (Militia United in Righteousness, Yihetuan), which was a militant, anti-foreign and anti-Christian peasant movement, six countries with interests in China sent 2,400 troops to Tientsin to guard the foreign settlements. Another 2,000 were with Admiral Seymour along the railway line between Tientsin and Peking, attempting to march to Peking to protect the foreign community there. The allied military force was composed of soldiers, sailors, and marines from Great Britain, the United States, Japan, France, Russia and Germany. Italy and Austria-Hungary were members of the Eight-Nation Alliance but had only a few soldiers in China. With so many nationalities among the Allied force, no overall commander was appointed. Leadership was collective.

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