Saturday, July 28, 1900. Paying for his opposition.

Hsi Ching-ch'eng, formerly China's ambassador to Russia, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands, was executed for his opposition to the Boxer faction in the Imperial Court.

Albert Einstein received his diploma from technical school, the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in  Zürich, Switzerland.

Last edition:

Friday, July 27, 1900. Huns.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, Boxer Rebellion, German Army, Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Louisiana (New Orleans), New Orleans Louisiana, Racism, the spoken word

Friday, July 27, 1900. Huns.

In reaction to the situation in China, Kaiser Wilhelm II delivered the "Hun Speech", comparing German troops to the Huns of the Nibelungenlied.  The speech read:

Great overseas tasks have fallen to the new German Empire, tasks far greater than many of my countrymen expected. The German Empire has, by its very character, the obligation to assist its citizens if they are being set upon in foreign lands. The tasks that the old Roman Empire of the German nation was unable to accomplish, the new German Empire is in a position to fulfill. The means that make this possible is our army.

It has been built up during thirty years of faithful, peaceful labor, following the principles of my blessed grandfather. You, too, have received your training in accordance with these principles, and by putting them to the test before the enemy, you should see whether they have proved their worth in you. Your comrades in the navy have already passed this test; they have shown that the principles of your training are sound, and I am also proud of the praise that your comrades have earned over there from foreign leaders. It is up to you to emulate them.

A great task awaits you: you are to revenge the grievous injustice that has been done. The Chinese have overturned the law of nations; they have mocked the sacredness of the envoy, the duties of hospitality in a way unheard of in world history. It is all the more outrageous that this crime has been committed by a nation that takes pride in its ancient culture. Show the old Prussian virtue. Present yourselves as Christians in the cheerful endurance of suffering. May honor and glory follow your banners and arms. Give the whole world an example of manliness and discipline.

You know full well that you are to fight against a cunning, brave, well-armed, and cruel enemy. When you encounter him, know this: no quarter will be given. Prisoners will not be taken. Exercise your arms such that for a thousand years no Chinese will dare to look cross-eyed at a German. Maintain discipline. May God’s blessing be with you, the prayers of an entire nation and my good wishes go with you, each and every one. Open the way to civilization once and for all! Now you may depart! Farewell, comrades!”

Should you encounter the enemy, he will be defeated! No quarter will be given! Prisoners will not be taken! Whoever falls into your hands is forfeited. Just as a thousand years ago the Huns under their King Attila made a name for themselves, one that even today makes them seem mighty in history and legend, may the name German be affirmed by you in such a way in China that no Chinese will ever again dare to look cross-eyed at a German.

New Orleans police and vigilantes attempted to arrest Robert Charles, which went badly, and lead to the house in which Charles being set on fire.  He was shot during the episode by Charles Noiret, a medical student at Tulane University.

Last edition:

Tuesday, July 24, 1900. Regulations for Peaceful Rule.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, Boxer Rebellion, China, Qing Dynasty, Sun Yat-sen, United Kingdom

Tuesday, June 19, 1900. China asks legations to leave.

The Chinese government delivered an ultimatum in response to the attack on the Taku Forts to eleven ambassadors in the legation quarter demanding  that all foreign residents, including diplomats, missionaries and their families leave Beijing by 4pm the following day.  The demand accompanied a promise to provide troops for a safe exit.

Last edition:

Monday, June 18, 1900. The Taku Forts surrender.

Labels: Battle of Taku Forts, Boxer Rebellion, China, Eight Nation Alliance

Monday, June 18, 1900. The Taku Forts surrender.

The Taku Forts surrendered after a sixteen hour bombardment by ships of the Eight Nation Alliance. Chinse casualties were very heavy.  One Russian ship was sunk in the engagement.  Four Chinese destroyers were captured, and recommissioned in Western navies.

Last edition:

Sunday, June 17, 1900. Invading China, drafting Roosevelt.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, Boxer Rebellion, China, Eight Nation Alliance, law, Qing Dynasty, Republican Party, Theodore Roosevelt

Easter Sunday, April 12, 1925. Metropolitan Peter of Krutitsy (Pyotr Fyodorovich Polyansky) installed as the Patriarch of Moscow.

Portable radio?

Radio in the Canadian Rockies, 1925

Metropolitan Peter of Krutitsy (Pyotr Fyodorovich Polyansky) was installed as the Patriarch of Moscow on the same day as the funeral for his predecessor, Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow. 

Peter had been identified in Tikhon's will as one of his three potential successors.  He was selected by the council of 59 bishops because "the first two were already in prison."  Peter would later suffer imprisonment himself and was executed by the barbarous Soviet state in 1937.  The Russian Orthodox Church has declared him to be a Hieromartyr.

Tikhon's funeral in Moscow was the last major public Russian Orthodox Church event and the last major religious event in the Soviet Union for over 60 years.

It should be noted that in the Orthodox East, it was not Easter Sunday, like it was in the west.  Easter for the Orthodox would fall on April 19.

France, following the UK's example, agreed that its indemnities for the Boxer Rebellion should go to railway construction in China.

Last edition:

Holy Saturday, April 11, 1925. East of the Sun, West of the Moon.Labels: 1920s, 1925, Central Asia, Easter, Exploration, Holy Week, hunting, James Simpson-Roosevelt Asiatic Expedition, Roosevelt

The United States Marine Corps in World War One (and before, and beyond).

It was the Battle of Belleau Wood that gave us the modern Marine Corps.

Just the other day I posted an item on the U.S. Second Division during World War One.

Now, there has been a United States Marine Corps since 1775, as somebody will surely point out if I do not.*  The Marine Corps claims a "birthday" only five month junior to that of the U.S. Army's, although the dates of those creations are a bit dubious in that neither organization has had a continual existence since that time.  The National Guard's is actually older, tracing back to 1636 in the form of colonial militias.  But whatever the history of those creations may be, the early Marines are not the same force that exists today in terms of its role and combat abilities.

To look at that force, you have to go back to September 21, 1917, when the 2nd Division was constituted.

The military establishment of the US was so small that when the government went to form divisions for service in France it was faced with a daunting problem, and massive internal strife. A lot of U.S. Army officers regarded the war as their show and their show alone. The Navy anticipated that the American role would really be on the North Atlantic and the concept of even forming a significant ground force in time to fight in France was an utter joke.  That joke became no laughing matter, however, when the Allies sent over delegations to the United States and the country learned, really for the first time, that in spite of Allied offensives in 1917, the Allies were on the verge of collapse and defeat.  When this became apparent, punctuated as it soon was by the Russian Revolution, it became rapidly obvious that the Army was going to have to be increased enormously in size and sent to France.

The Army, however, had only enough men to form a few divisions. And not even that many.  And on top of it, Army units were already stationed around the globe in places that the Army could not readily abandon.  Army units in the Philippines really couldn't abandon that mission. Some troops had to remain in Hawaii.  The Canal Zone had to be garrisoned, particularly during wartime.  And the Mexican border, while no longer looking like it was about to become the front-line in a war with Mexico at any moment, was still a long frontier that had to be manned and on which fighting continued to occur. The US, for that matter, still had troops in China (including Marines).

And in spite of these commitments, on April 6, 1917, when the United States declared war on Germany, it had just 127,151 men in the standing U.S. Army.  An additional 181,620 were in the National Guard.  Of that 127,151 there were a not negligible number that would have to remain overseas right where they were.  The 181,620 men in the National Guard had all been recently hardened by 1916 and 1917 border service, but even at that there were men who were not fit for continued service.

A daunting problem.

The Marines, part of the Navy, had just under 14,000 men, however.  Not a large number. . . but one that was significant in context.

They weren't, however, the force we imagine now.  They became that because of World War One.

The United States Marine Corps was modeled on the British Marines at the time of their formation.  Marines, in that context, were "soldiers of the sea", as the phrase goes, but their role was very ship oriented.  Marines in naval engagements at that time, the 1770s, filled  a role that's very well depicted in the film Master and Commander.  They formed a trained body of musket infantry for when ships were close to each other, with their targets being the sailors on the opposing ships.  They were part of the boarding parties, when that occurred.  And they formed an armed body to go ashore in small units when that was called for, which it frequently was.  It was not as if, after all, the Navy could depend upon the Army to provide infantrymen in small units for ships that were at sea for months, or in some cases even years.  A ship's commander, who had almost complete operational independence in those days, needed a body of infantrymen for any contingency that required putting men ashore, and it did fairly frequently.

 Continental Marines going ashore during the Battle of Nassau, March 1776.  They likely weren't this well dressed in reality.

Marines also formed the commander's police force against his own crew, something we don't think of much now but which was necessary then.  Sailors in 18th and early 19th Century navies were incredibly tough and independent bodies of men whose allegiances were often passing.  Unlike later navies of the steel and steam age, in the age of sail sailors were uniformly of that odd port culture that existed around the globe.  Most navies included men who were drawn from all over. The United States Navy, as an example, was integrated at the time in the enlisted ranks, and even slightly in the officer ranks, and included men who hailed from other countries as well as from American ports.  All that mean that experienced sailors, who were in demand for their skills, and who tended to regards ports as homes rather than nations, were liable to become disenchanted with military service and cause problems, even serious problems, for their officers.

Marines from every nation formed the officers bulwark against that.  Marine units were small and cohesive and kept apart from a ship's crew as much as possible.  In the case of the early United States Marines, the service was the most segregated in the regular establishment (the Navy was not segregated, as noted, and while the Army was, there were always odd exceptions in the Army).  That's not pleasant to contemplate, but it is the case.  The creators of the early Marine Corps wanted a racially cohesive separate body on teh theory that if they had to use it against the crew this mean that they were that much more likely to be loyal to their officers than to anyone else.

And so the Marines were first formed in 1775.  They were disestablished after the Revolution. But they were shortly brought back in.  And they've been in existence ever since.

 U.S. Marines, 1864.

Be that as it may, however, up until the Spanish American War their role remained the traditional one.  You can find exceptions, they were at Harper's Ferry for example, but they truly are exceptions. They filled the role that they were first created to fill.

Starting around the turn of the prior century, however, and a little before that, that began to slowly evolve.  As the steam and steel navy came in, the ability to project power, and to stay in touch with the US, increased.  The Navy had always been used that way to some extent, but you no longer saw individual ships sail off to distant lands and, frankly, do something weird.  Ship commanders didn't engage in local punitive expeditions in Korea anymore, for example, or get into naval battles in Japanese rivers.

But the Navy did start flexing American muscle in the Gulf.

 Marines with new khaki uniforms. These had probably just been issued prior to this 1898 photograph.  Prior to this they would have worn blue uniforms much like the Army had, with this pattern of campaign hat which the Army also wore.  Bending up the brims of the hats was particularly common for Marines.  As these Marines are all fairly young, there's a good chance that at least one of them would have still been in service during World War One, which if true would mean that he would likely have seen combat all over the globe by that time.

The change from sail to steam, and from wood to steel, had an impact on the Marine Corps that would be only slightly less substantial than the impact of the same on the Navy, and indeed it was because of the impact on the Navy that the role of the Marine Corps significantly changed.  Even in the waning days of sail it had often been the case that naval vessels were dispatched to far distant regions of the globe and basically left to the complete discretion of their commanders.  With steam, however, vessels moved more rapidly, and less independently, and greater operational control came in.  By the same token, however the ability to project power with a navy hugely increased, but not int he same fashion for every naval power.

For nations with empires, like the United Kingdom, the role of the navy greatly expanded, but the role of their marines did not.  This is at least in part because if colonial nations needed to project ground power, they usually had it nearby or at least within a transportable distance.  Contrary to what some might expect, the British Army prior to World War One was quite small, but it was widely dispersed around the globe.  The French army, in contrast, was large, but it also had a global deployment.  The U.S. Army, up until the Spanish American War, was deployed entirely in the United States and its few overseas territories as well as . Even after the Spanish American War this did not change greatly, although it did change a bit, particularly in regards to the Philippines, which the US found itself engaged in a guerilla war and occupation in, following its capture during that war.

So, given this, the Marines started to fill another role. With the only real way for the US to project power around the globe, the Marines, part of the Navy, started to become the US's rapid reaction, small scale, intervention force.  They became particularly active in deploying throughout the Caribbean Basin and Central American whenever the US decided it needed to show the flag, which it quite often felt it needed to.  They became so associated with intervening in Central America in this period, and became such effective fighters in that context, that they remain legendary as a nearly unbeatable force in that region.  But it even meant that part of the Marine Corps would find itself more or less permanently stationed in Asia, in China specifically, following the Boxer Rebellion.

Marines in  China, 1900.

Deployment to China was a groundbreaking change in the role of the Marines.  For the first time they were assigned to an open ended land based mission that separated them from ships on a continual basis and guaranteed that they'd be seeing land based action continually.  The Army actually shared the role, something that is commonly missed, and so this also formed the first instance in which the role of the Marines came to over shawdow that of the Army even where they were both present.

The Banana Wars, a series of Central American and Caribbean interventions, would really cement that image. These interventions, which commenced following the Spanish American War and went on into the early 1930s, meant that joining the Marines meant you would see combat.

 Marines boarding for deployment in Nicaragua in 1912.

All but forgotten now in the United States, and bitterly remembered in Central America, the wars were US efforts to influence the affairs of developing Central American nations. The wars also had a distinctive economic aspect to them. Navy and Marine Corps affairs, the Army was left out of them.

Sailors in Nicaragua in 1912.

These interventions were numerous, and even detailing them now would make for a much more expansive post than anyone would be interested in reading. Suffice it to say, however, their continual nature is impressive.

Marines in Haiti, 1915.

Just prior to World War One this role expanded out to include intervention in the Mexican Revolution prior to the Army doing the same in the Punitive Expedition.  In 1914 the Marines were put ashore in Vera Cruz, Mexico, and occupied the town in a direct, but limited, intervention in the Mexican War.

Marines and Sailor raising U.S. flag at Vera Cruz, 1914.

So when the United States went to form divisions of regular soldiers to be deployed to France, taking Marines and adding them to the 2nd Division made a lot of sense. They were extremely tough and very experienced infantry.

And they served in that role extremely well. An experienced body of men, they more than lived up tot their reputation.

Bain News Service photograph of U.S. Marines in France, June 6, 1918.  Note that these "Soldiers of the Sea", assigned to the U.S. 2nd Division, are wearing a stripped down uniform and are marching without their service coats, something that in June 1918 you will would not be likely to find in regards to soldiers of the U.S. Army.  The Marine Corps expanded for World War One, but even more than the Army it contained a high percentage of pre war enlistees, many who were rather salty.

 

The Marines became an integral part of the 2nd Division during World War One, even contributing to the division two of its divisional commanding officers.  It came out of World War One with its reputation as a potent ground force assured.

After the war, the Marine Corps returned to its former role, but its reputation was for ever changed. While the Marines continued on in the Banana Wars and in China, they also began to plan for the future.

 

Marines in Nicaragua, 1932.

And planning for the future, in the eyes of the Marines, meant building and expanding on the ground role they'd played in World War One. That meant, in their view, developing a seaborne landing capacity that was nearly independent in some ways from the Navy, although obviously not completely.  Between World War One and World War Two, the Marines, with the cooperation of the Navy, took amphibious landing to a new height, making it nearly a unique American deal.  The lessons and equipment they developed in this period would end up being used by the Army as well when World War Two came to include the United States and, ironically, the largest amphibious landing of all time, Operation Overlord, would not include a single landing Marine.  But the war in the Pacific certainly did, and in a major way.

Marines fighting on Iwo Jima during World War Two.

It was World War Two, of course, that gave us the fully modern Marine Corps.  Ironically, perhaps, the Marines of World War Two were distinct from that of World War One in that by the wars end most of them were wartime volunteers, not the salty professionals that made up the Great War Marines. They were molded around that example, however, and by the wars end the wartime Marines closely resembled that of the "Old Breed" that made up the core of the pre war Marine Corps.

Following World War Two the Marine Corps refused to accept what the Army, Navy and Air Force did and assume that all future wars would be nuclear wars with little ground action. They couldn't accept that, as that would mean no future for the Marine Corps. They continued to hone their seaborne abilities and expanded very early to include airborne assault.  Their saving example at Inchon during the Korean War guaranteed that they'd have a prime place in the post World War Two military, which they've preserved ever since.

The soon to be killed Lieutenant Baldomero Lopez scaling the seawall at Inchon.  Mere minutes after this photo was taken, Lopez intentionally dropped on a live grenade to save fellow Marines.

_________________________________________________________________________________
*The 1775 body was actually the Continental Marines. The United States Marine Corps did not come into existence, under that name, until 1798, at which time, which re established a corps of marines.

Tuesday, July 24, 1900. Regulations for Peaceful Rule.

Chinese revolutionaries signed the  Regulations for Peaceful Rule, a petition for help from the United Kingdom.  While the Boxer Rebellion was actually going on, the petition hoped for a parliament served by an advisory body of foreign ambassadors.

Sun Yat-sen was one of the signatories.

The push pin (thumb tack) was patented.

Last edition:

Monday, July 23, 1900. Various forbidden acts.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, 1903, Colonialism, Ethnicities, Monarchy, Racism, Serbia, W.E.B. DuBois

Saturday, July 21, 1900. The murder of Fr. Alberic Crescitelli (1郭西德).

Fr. Alberic Crescitelli (1郭西德) was executed by Boxers in China.  He was beatified as one of the Martyr Saints of China.

Last edition:

Friday, July 20, 1900. Still alive.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, Boxer Rebellion, China, China (Beijing), Telegraph

Friday, July 20, 1900. Still alive.

China's minister to the United States, Wu Ting-fang, delivered a telegraphed message from U.S. Ambassador to China Edwin H. Conger to United States Secretary of State John Hay confirming that the foreign envoys in Beijing were still alive.

The message was in cipher.  John Hay wasn't fully convinced and sent back a message asking for Conger's sisters name as confirmation, which he rapidly sent.

Last edition:

Thursday, July 19, 1900. Métro

Labels: 1900, 1900 Olympics, 1900s, France (Paris), Olympics, Railroads

Tuesday, July 17, 1900. Time Out.

A temporary truce was called between the Chinese Army and the Eight National Alliance in Beijing which allowed for food and the transmission of information to occur.

Last edition:

Monday, July 16, 1900. Leaving for Munich.

Labels: 1900, 1900 Olympics, 1900s, Communists, Germany, Germany (Munich), Olympics, Vladimir Lenin

Sunday, July 15, 1900. Spreading violence in China.

Boxers and Imperial Chinese soldiers began the siege of Tchou-kia-ho (Zhujiahe) in Qin County of Hebei Province, China.  

It had a large Christian population.

Chinese residents of the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk were slaughtered by Russian troops.  

Last edition:

Saturday, July 14, 1900. Taking Tianjin.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, Arizona (Prescott), Boxer Rebellion, Eight Nation Alliance, Imperial Japanese Army

Saturday, July 14, 1900. Taking Tianjin.

Tianjin was captured by Allied forces after a three-day battle, with the advancing parties lead by Japanese Colonel Kuriya.

A fire swept through the business district of Prescott, Arizona.

Last edition:

Thursday, July 12, 1900. McKinley learns he's running for a second term.

Labels: 1900, 1900 Election, 1900s, Old Age, the spoken word, William McKinley

Monday, July 9, 1900. The Taiyuan Massacre

Shanxi Province Governor Yu-Hsien ordered captive foreign missionaries and their families to be executed. 46, 34 Protestants and 12 Catholics, were.

Catholic missionaries came to Shanxi in 1633, and Protestant churches were established in 1865.

Queen Victoria signed the Act to Constitute the Commonwealth of Australia proclaiming that five of the six colonies (Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales, Tasmania and Queensland) and "if Her Majesty is satisfied that the people of Western Australia have agreed thereto", a sixth would "unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland."

Last edition.

Saturday, July 7, 1900. Martyrs of China.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, Apostolic Christianity, Boxer Rebellion, Catholic, China, Christianity, religion

Saturday, July 7, 1900. Martyrs of China.

Bishop Antonino Fantosati and Father Joseph Gambaro were tortured and killed by Boxer rebels.  They were both canonized as party of the Martyrs of China.

Last edition:

Friday, July 6, 1900. Warren Earp killed.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, Arizona, Boxer Rebellion, Crime, Eight Nation Alliance, The Frontier West

Friday, July 6, 1900. Warren Earp killed.

The Eight Nation Alliance was forced to retreat from Tianjin.

Warren Earp, youngest brother of the famous Wyatt Earp, was shot and killed at the Headquarters Saloon in Willcox, Arizona. Earp, who had a local reputation as a bully, was shot by Henry Hooker's range boss,  Johnny Boyett, with whom he did not get along. Boyett was apparently not that good of shot as the fatal shot was the fifth one fired at close range.  Earp was unarmed.

Last edition: 

Thursday, July 5, 1900. Democratic nominees and a Canadian VC.

Labels: 1900, 1900 Election, 1900s, Adlai E. Stevenson, Australia, Boer War, British Army, Canadian Army, cavalry, Democratic Party, Heroes, William Jennings Bryan

Sunday, July 1, 1900. A battle in Peking and a royal wedding.

The Chinese army drove off German and American defenders within the legation area but failed to exploit their advantage before the situation was recovered.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, married Sophie Chotek von Chotkova at Reichstadt in Bohemia.

Last edition:

Tuesday, June 26, 1900. Prejudice and Equality.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, Animals, British Empire, Bull Fighting, Colonialism, Czar Nicholas II, Finland, Hindi language, India, Juarez Mexico, Mexico, Mexico (Juarez), Russia, Sports, Urdu language