The Free Nations RegionBoard

20th June (121 years ago): Boxer Rebellion begins in China

In response to widespread foreign encroachment upon China’s national affairs, Chinese nationalists launch the so-called Boxer Rebellion in Peking. Calling themselves I Ho Ch’uan, or “the Righteous and Harmonious Fists,” the nationalists occupied Peking, killed several Westerners, including German ambassador Baron von Ketteler, and besieged the foreign legations in the diplomatic quarter of the city.

By the end of the 19th century, the Western powers and Japan had forced China’s ruling Qing dynasty to accept wide foreign control over the country’s economic affairs. In the Opium Wars, popular rebellions, and the Sino-Japanese War, China had fought to resist the foreigners, but it lacked a modernized military and suffered millions of casualties. In 1898, Tzu’u Hzi, the dowager empress and an anti-imperialist, began supporting the I Ho Ch’uan, who were known as the “Boxers” by the British because of their martial arts fighting style. The Boxers soon grew powerful, and in late 1899 regular attacks on foreigners and Chinese Christians began.

On 20 June 1900, the Boxers, now more than 100,000 strong and led by the court of Tzu’u Hzi, besieged the foreigners in Peking’s diplomatic quarter, burned Christian churches in the city, and destroyed the Peking-Tientsin railway line.

In response to reports of an invasion by the Eight Nation Alliance of American, Austro-Hungarian, British, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Russian troops to lift the siege, the initially hesitant Empress Dowager Cixi supported the Boxers and on 21 June issued an Imperial Decree declaring war on the foreign powers. Diplomats, foreign civilians, and soldiers as well as Chinese Christians in the Legation Quarter were besieged for 55 days by the Imperial Army of China and the Boxers. Chinese officialdom was split between those supporting the Boxers and those favoring conciliation, led by Prince Qing.

The Eight-Nation Alliance, after being initially turned back, brought 20,000 armed troops to China, defeated the Imperial Army, and arrived in Beijing on 14 August, relieving the siege of the Legations. Uncontrolled plunder of the capital and the surrounding countryside ensued, along with summary execution of those suspected of being Boxers.

Due to mutual jealousies between the powers, it was agreed that China would not be partitioned further. In September 1901, the Boxer Protocol provided for the execution of government officials who had supported the Boxers, provisions for foreign troops to be stationed in Beijing, and 450 million taels of silver—approximately $10 billion at 2018 silver prices and more than the government's annual tax revenue—to be paid as indemnity over the course of the next 39 years to the eight nations involved.

Denolia wrote:

Shaking smh my head the Jovian Cult is clearly surperior. Does your cult-subject contain clouds larger than entire planets? I thought not, libservative.

Pluto the dog cult

Pls were lonely

Soap tips wrote:

Yeah what he said but change 'libertarian' to 'holy'
You can find the google form in my dispatch

AH BUT IS YOUR POLITICAL PARTY ON THE OFFICIAL LIST? *french laugh* DIDN'T THINK SO!

Soap tips wrote:

WAIT WHAT
Heaveria Narvatus
Obets
DO SOMETHING

im totally posting this on discord

Sparsdan wrote:

what's the matter?

THE HOLY PARTY ISNT IN THE OFFICIAL LIST OF PARTIES
WHY

Obets wrote:

What makes you think I can do something?

WELL I DONT KNOW
AHHHHH

People of nolan wrote:

Well, Soap tips, you needed members to become an official party.
But I don't think anyone's joining.

H-how many?

People of nolan wrote:

More than one to become a minor, more than three to become a mainstream.

...
S**T
S**T
SH********T

21st June 1788 (233 years ago): U.S. Constitution ratified

New Hampshire becomes the ninth and last necessary state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, thereby making the document the law of the land.

By 1786, defects in the post-Revolutionary War Articles of Confederation were apparent, such as the lack of central authority over foreign and domestic commerce. Congress endorsed a plan to draft a new constitution, and on 25 May 1787, the Constitutional Convention convened at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. On 17 September 1787, after three months of debate moderated by convention president George Washington, the new U.S. constitution, which created a strong federal government with an intricate system of checks and balances, was signed by 38 of the 41 delegates present at the conclusion of the convention. As dictated by Article VII, the document would not become binding until it was ratified by nine of the 13 states.

Beginning on December 7, five states—Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut—ratified it in quick succession. However, other states, especially Massachusetts, opposed the document, as it failed to reserve undelegated powers to the states and lacked constitutional protection of basic political rights, such as freedom of speech, religion, and the press. In February 1788, a compromise was reached under which Massachusetts and other states would agree to ratify the document with the assurance that amendments would be immediately proposed. The Constitution was thus narrowly ratified in Massachusetts, followed by Maryland and South Carolina. On 21 June 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the document, and it was subsequently agreed that government under the U.S. Constitution would begin on 4 March 1789. In June, Virginia ratified the Constitution, followed by New York in July.

On 25 September 1789, the first Congress of the United States adopted 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution—the Bill of Rights—and sent them to the states for ratification. Ten of these amendments were ratified in 1791. In November 1789, North Carolina became the 12th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Rhode Island, which opposed federal control of currency and was critical of compromise on the issue of slavery, resisted ratifying the Constitution until the U.S. government threatened to sever commercial relations with the state. On 29 May 1790, Rhode Island voted by two votes to ratify the document, and the last of the original 13 colonies joined the United States. Today the U.S. Constitution is the oldest written codified constitution in operation in the world.

Denolia wrote:

Y’know, the current poll makes me remember that they recently, or probably, found out what the appendix is for. Apparently it’s like a bunker for beneficial gut bacteria, so that while the body routinely cleans out the system, bacteria that is beneficial can stay around and repopulate.

Looked it up - the "recently" is 2007 :p