The Conversion Of British Foreign Policy In China Before And After The Boxer Movement

Briton is considered as a typical country that adopts "isolation" as their diplomat policy. This isolation based on its "confidence" ensured that its large colonies and established an extensive empire. After the 1940s Briton had gained its superiority in China through the rights of the treaty and the control of the custom. It also aimed at the pacific region and influenced the international relationship in this region for a long time.By the end of the 19^th century, with comedown of the Briton empire, the dominance of Briton over China was challenged by other western countries. And the crisis of the Far East during 1900-1901 worsen the circumstance for Briton. The union of Russia, France and Germany made Briton lose its advantage in the Far East, China's problems were solved according to the interest of these three countries. Under such condition, In order to preserve its interests in the northeast Asia, Briton began to seek a party to cooperate, and the crisis of the Far-East accelerated their alignment, which is a symbol of the end of "Splendid isolation".On the surface, the conversion of British foreign policy maintained the peace in the Far East, the independence and complete territory of China. They also claimed to protect the equal chances of business of different countries in China. In fact, however, the real intentions of the alignment were preserving the special position and advantageous interests of Briton in China and withstanding Russia's expanding power and the trend of monopolizing economic interests. Isolation or Alliance, Preservation or partition differed only in methods and means. What ever it was named, it could not change the characteristic of invasion. The British foreign policy is practical and flexible. The imperialists were only trying to preserve the Manchu government to suppress the anti-war of Chinese people. In this way, they could realize the dream of robbing and controlling China.In this thesis, I fix my attention on the international relationship in China of all imperialists during the period before and after the Boxer Movement, and analyze the conversion of British foreign policy.