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Photo Album Published to Commemorate Protocol of 1901
A photo album titled "The Eight-Power Allied Forces Through Foreigners' Cameras" was published Friday in Beijing, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Protocol of 1901.
In 1900, the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded China, and occupied Beijing, then the capital of the Qing Dynasty. They raped, plundered and slaughtered to their hearts' content, almost reducing the city to rubble.
On September 7, 1901, they forced the Qing regime to sign the Protocol of 1901, demanding an indemnity of 450 million taels of silver, while the Qing government only had 80 million taels of silver in annual revenue.
The pictures collected in the album were mainly taken by foreigners. One third of them, which are made public for the first time, were taken by a British officer who participated in the invasion of China as a member of the Allied Forces.
Chen Jun, who lives in Britain, bought the photos from Christie 's auction house in London in 1996, and later donated them to the First Historical Archives of China.
The album was jointly published by the China Foundation for Human Rights Development and the First Historical Archives of China.
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