Boxer Rebellion (1898–1900)
A violent antiforeign revolt that occurred in north and
northeast China between 1898 and 1900, launched by “the
Righteous Harmony Fists” (Yihequan in Chinese) or Boxers.
A secret society that originally emerged in Shandong
Province, the Boxers represented rural Chinese nativist
resentment against increased Western enterprise and missionary activity, which it saw as posing a fatal threat to traditional Chinese village life. With peasants and lower classes as
the backbone of membership, the Boxers detested the weakkneed policy that the Qing (Manchu) government pursued
toward foreign powers. The organization deemed Chinese
martial arts and traditional superstitious rituals as the means
to terminate foreign presence and influence in China. Pressed
by foreign powers, the Qing court austerely suppressed the
antiforeign terror committed by the Boxers under the slogan
“Oppose the Qing Dynasty, Exterminate the Foreigners.” In
1900, the main forces of the Boxers shifted to Hebei Province,
especially the Beijing and Tianjin regions, and undertook as
their the strategy “Uphold the Qing, Exterminate the
Foreigners.” This attitude won the support of conservatives in
the Qing nobility and officialdom then under the ruling
Empress Dowager Cixi, who seized the opportunity to rid
China of foreign powers through this rebel group. With the
Qing government’s connivance and acquiescence, the Boxers
launched a large-scale rebellion against railroads and telegraph lines that stood as symbols of Western imperialism,
burned churches, and massacred foreign diplomats, missionaries, Chinese Christians, and other Chinese with foreign ties.
The uprising culminated in a siege of foreign diplomatic
legations in Beijing. To protect their interests and citizens,
foreign powers including the United States dispatched an
international expeditionary force to China in June 1900 and
broke the siege in August. They forced the Qing government
to accept the Protocol of 1900, which banned antiforeign
activities in China and allowed foreign troops to be stationed
in Beijing to protect the diplomatic legation and in 12 other
major cities along the railroad from Beijing to Shanghai
Guan Pass. In addition, it called for China to pay for the damages caused by the Boxers.