An Interesting Story of a Photograph, Eight Nation Alliance

This photograph shows soldiers of the Eight-Nation Alliance in 1900, left-to-right: Britain, United States, Australian, British India, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Japan.

This was a British propaganda photo where the British requested the heights in order to reflect racial/ethnic supremacy. The British requested an American slight shorter than the Brit they were sending. However the Americans deliberately sent someone taller than the Brit. After all, the United States were a continent sized nation while Britain was a tiny island. So the British used a huge hat to overcompensate. This photo is fascinating because it captures a significant amount of racial/ethnic views of the world at that time. White Anglos at the top (British, Americans and Australians) and everyone else positioned accordingly with the non-white Japanese at the low end. The Indian was put ahead of the continental Europeans as a small insult – “our dog is superior to you…”.

What is "Eight Nation Alliance" ?

The Eight-Nation Alliance was an international military coalition set up in response to the Boxer Rebellion in the Qing Empire of China. The Alliance consisted of the United States, British Empire, Germany, France, Austro-Hungary, Italy, Russia, and Japan. During the summer of 1900, they assembled a military coalition to protect their influence in China. The Boxer Rebellion was a Chinese movement that had formed in response to growing foreign power in China. The Boxers wanted to end outside influence and began to attack westerners. In June, 1900 Boxers besieged the Legation Quarter of Peking, modern Beijing. They trapped a large number of foreigners and Chinese nationals inside. The Chinese government threw its support behind the Boxer rebellion, and declared war on the foreign coalition. The Allies sent a relief expedition to relieve the siege on June 10th, but it was beaten back after encountering heavy resistance. On August 4th the Allies launched a much stronger relief expedition that was able to break the siege and force and end to the short, but violent, war.