1. Homer Lea was an American author of works on geopolitics who became a military advisor and general in the army of Sun Yat-sen.
15 Facts About Homer Lea
1. 2.
Homer Lea's mother died before his third birthday on May 13,1879.
3.
Homer Lea's mother's previous husband was Silas Soule, who was a Captain in the Union Army that refused to participate in the Sand Creek Massacre.
4.
Homer Lea attended East High School and Los Angeles High School and accompanied friends on camping trips in the San Bernardino Mountains, in spite of his physical hindrances.
5.
Homer Lea aspired to be a great soldier and somehow managed to get an appointment to West Point, though he was dismissed for health reasons.
6.
Homer Lea was later admitted to Stanford University, where in addition to military history and politics, he became enamored with China and Chinese culture.
7.
At 23, with the Boxer Rebellion underway in China, Homer Lea travelled to the Far East and offered his services to Kang Youwei, a former prime minister of China who was attempting to restore power to the confined Guangxu Emperor.
8.
Homer Lea convinced Kang to make him a lieutenant general and give him command of a small volunteer force.
9.
Homer Lea offered pursuit of the retreating Imperial Army, but his rag-tag soldiers were no match for the Imperial forces and he was repulsed.
10.
Homer Lea therefore dispatched Lea along with Prince Ch'i-ch'ao to the United States to raise funds.
11.
Homer Lea returned to China in 1904 at the head of the Second Army Division, but this military campaign was unsuccessful and he was forced to return to the United States for health reasons.
12.
Once in the US, Homer Lea was instrumental in training the Chinese Imperial Reform Army, using American soldiers as instructors.
13.
Homer Lea was an author of two works on geopolitics: The Valor of Ignorance predicted the rise of Japanese militarist aggression and a Japanese empire in the Pacific, while The Day of the Saxon, commissioned by British Field Marshal Lord Frederick Roberts, predicted the rise of a greater German Reich based on national supremacy and ethnic purity.
14.
Homer Lea's books remain little known today, though they were cult classics in the first half of the twentieth century.
15.
Homer Lea planned to write a third book called The Swarming of the Slav predicting a Russian move to dominate Europe, but he died before he could complete it.