LAUSR

ABSTRACT In March 1899, about one year before the Boxers’ siege at the diplomatic quarter in Beijing (June 1900), the Kingdom of Italy presented an ultimatum to the imperial government of China, aiming to the occupation of Sān Mén bay (in the Chinese province of Zhèjiāng). The unsuccessful attempt was not considered of significant political relevance at that time. However, diplomats have suggested and subsequently historians have commented that those events convinced the imperial Chinese government to change the strategy towards the Western colonial Powers and finally to support the Boxers’ rebellion against the foreigners and the Christian religion. This article is based on the original diplomatic documents, mainly available at the historical archive of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome. Those primary sources reveal the most controversial aspects of that forgotten episode of diplomatic history.