On June 15, 1900, at the Yellow Sea where Alliance (Western Powers and Japan) ships were on high alert, and were awaiting further developments, allied naval commanders became alarmed when Qing forces began fortifying the Taku Forts at the mouth of the Peiho River, as well as setting mines on the river and torpedo tubes at the forts. For Alliance commanders, these actions threatened to cut off allied communication and supply lines to Tianjin, threatening the foreign enclave at Tianjin and Legation Quarter at Beijing, as well as Seymour’s force. The foreign alliance had had no communication with the Seymour force for several days. Alliance commanders then issued an ultimatum demanding that the Taku Forts be surrendered to them, which the Qing naval command rejected. Early on June 17, 1900, fighting broke out at the Taku Forts, with Alliance forces (except the U.S. command, which chose not to participate) launching a naval and ground assault that seized control of the forts.
(Taken from Boxer Rebellion – Wars of the 20th Century – Twenty Wars in Asia – Vol. 5)
Background By May 1900, thousands of Boxers (members of the secret society, Righteous and Harmonious Fists”) were occupying areas around Beijing, including the vital Beijing-Tianjin railway line. They attacked villages, killed local officials, and destroyed government infrastructures. The violence alarmed the foreign diplomatic community in Beijing. The foreign diplomats, their staff, and families in Beijing had their offices and residences located at the Legation Quarter, located south of the city. The Legation Quarter consisted of diplomatic missions from eleven countries: Britain, France, Russia, United States, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Japan, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Spain.
In May 1900, the foreign diplomats asked the Qing government that foreign troops be allowed to be posted at the Legation Quarter, which was denied. Instead, the Chinese government sent Chinese policemen to guard the legations. But the foreign envoys persisted in their request, and on May 30, 1900, the Chinese Foreign Ministry (Zongli Yamen) allowed a small number of foreign troops to be sent to Beijing.
The next day (May 31), some 450 foreign sailors and Marines were landed from ships from eight countries and sent by train from Taku to Beijing. But as the situation in Beijing continued to deteriorate, the foreign diplomats felt that more foreign troops were needed in Beijing. On June 6, 1900, and again on June 8, they sent requests to the Zongli Yamen, with both being turned down. A separate request by the German Minister, Clemens von Ketteler, to allow German troops to take control of the Beijing railway station also was turned down. On June 10, 1900, the Chinese government barred the foreign legations from using the telegraph line that linked to Tianjin. In one of the last transmissions from the Legation Quarter, British Minister Claude MacDonald asked British Vice-Admiral Edward Seymour in Tianjin to send more troops, with the message, “Situation extremely grave; unless arrangements are made for immediate advance to Beijing, it will be too late.” And with the subsequent severing of the telegraph line between Beijing and Kiachta (in Russia) on June 17, 1900, for nearly two months thereafter, the Legation Quarter in Beijing would be cut off from the outside world.
On June 11, 1900, the Japanese diplomat, Sugiyama Akira, was killed by Chinese troops in a Beijing street. Then on June 12 or 13, two Boxers entered the Legation Quarter and were confronted by Ketteler, the German Minister, who drove one away and captured the other; the latter soon was killed under unclear circumstances. Later that day, thousands of Boxers stormed into Beijing and went on a rampage, killing Chinese Christians, burning churches, destroying houses, and looting properties. In the next few days, skirmishes broke out between foreign legation troops, and Boxers with the support of anti-foreigner government units. On June 15, 1900, British and German soldiers dispersed Boxers who attacked a church, and rescued the trapped Christians inside; two days later (June 17), an armed clash broke out between German–British–Austro-Hungarian units and Boxer–anti-foreigner government troops.
The Belgian legation was evacuated, as were those of Austria-Hungary, the Netherlands, and Italy, when they came under Boxer attack. By this time, the Christian missions scattered across Beijing were evacuated, with their clergy and thousands of Chinese Christians taking shelter at the Legation Quarter. Soon, the Legation Quarter was fortified, with soldiers and civilians building barricades, trenches, bunkers, and shelters in preparation for a Boxer attack. Ultimately, in the Legation Quarter were some 400 soldiers, 470 civilians (including 149 women and 79 children), and 2,800 Chinese Christians, all of whom would be besieged in the fighting that followed. At the Northern Cathedral (Beitang) located some three miles from the Legation Quarter, some 40 French and Italian soldiers, 30 foreign Catholic clergy, and 3,200 Chinese Christians also took refuge, turning the area into a defensive fortification which also would come under siege during the conflict.
Meanwhile in Taku, in response to British Minister MacDonald’s plea for more troops to be sent to the Beijing foreign legations, on June 10, Vice-Admiral Seymour scrambled a 2,200-strong multinational force of Navy and Marine units from Britain, Germany, Russia, France, the United States, Japan, Italy, and Austria-Hungary, which departed by train from Tianjin to Beijing. On the first day, Seymour’s force traveled to within 40 miles of Beijing without meeting opposition, despite the presence of Chinese Imperial forces (which had received no orders to resist Seymour’s passage) along the way. Seymour’s force reached Langfang, where the rail tracks had been destroyed by Boxers. Seymour’s troops dispersed the Boxers guarding the area, and work crews started repair work on the rail tracks. Seymour sent out a scouting team further on, which returned saying that more sections of the railroad at An Ting had also been destroyed. Seymour then sent a train back to Tianjin to get more supplies, but the train soon returned, its crew saying that the rail track at Yangcun was now destroyed. Having to fight off a number of Boxer attacks, his provisions running low, realizing the futility of continuing to Beijing, and now feeling trapped on both sides, Seymour called off the expedition and turned the trains back, intending to return to Tianjin.
Aftermath For the Chinese government, the Allied attack on the Taku Forts constituted an act of war. The Qing then turned its position invariably on the side of the Boxers. Up to this point, the Qing court was unsure about its position regarding the Boxers, and Empress Dowager Cixi vacillated between the two opposing factions in her court: the ultra-conservatives who were pro-Boxer, and the reformists who were pro-foreigner. The dilemma faced by the Qing government was that despite the Boxers’ professed loyalty to the monarchy, they still could pose a threat to the monarchy, as all secret societies in the past had. But if indeed the Boxers were loyal, the Qing court could use their hatred of foreigners to rid China of foreign influences. After the allied action on the Taku Forts, Empress Dowager Cixi took a firm stand in support of the Boxers, and ordered her armies to resist the foreigners.