Officials in the southern provinces ignored the imperial order to fight against foreigners. The supreme commander of the Chinese forces, the Manchu General Ronglu (Junglu), later claimed he acted to protect the foreigners. Chinese officialdom was split between those supporting the Boxers and those favouring conciliation, led by Prince Qing. The Empress Dowager Cixi, who had initially been hesitant, supported the Boxers and on 21 June issued an Imperial Decree, a de facto declaration of war, on the invading powers. An Eight-Nation Alliance of American, Austro-Hungarian, British, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Russian troops moved into China to lift the siege and on 17 June stormed the Dagu Fort at Tianjin. The events came to a head in June 1900 when Boxer fighters, convinced they were invulnerable to foreign weapons, converged on Beijing with the slogan "Support the Qing government and exterminate the foreigners."ĭiplomats, missionaries, soldiers and some Chinese Christians took refuge in the diplomatic Legation Quarter, which the Boxers besieged. Beginning in 1899, Boxers spread violence across Shandong and the North China Plain, destroying foreign property such as railroads and attacking or murdering Christian missionaries and Chinese Christians. In 1898 North China experienced several natural disasters, including the Yellow River flooding and droughts, which Boxers blamed on foreign and Christian influence. The rebels were known as the "Boxers" in English because many of its members had practiced Chinese martial arts, which at the time were referred to as "Chinese boxing".Īfter the Sino-Japanese War of 1895, villagers in North China feared the expansion of foreign spheres of influence and resented the extension of privileges to Christian missionaries, who used them to shield their followers. The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 18, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists ( Yìhéquán). Mutual Protection of Southeast China (from 1900)ģ2,000 Chinese Christians and 200 Western missionaries killed by Chinese Boxers in Northern China ġ00,000 total deaths in the conflict (both civilian and military included).
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