The Boxer Rebellion was an anti-foreigner uprising in Qing China, which took place from November of 1899 through September of 1901. The Boxers, known in Chinese as the "Society of Right and Harmonious Fists," were ordinary villagers who reacted violently against the increasing influence of foreign Christian missionaries and diplomats in the Middle Kingdom. They formed a spiritualist/martial arts movement, and believed themselves impervious to bullets.
The Empress Dowager Cixi and other Qing Dynasty officials were unsure how to react to the Boxers, but ended up supporting them with Imperial Troops.
More than 230 foreign men, women and children were killed by the Boxers, before a coalition force of 20,000 troops from Japan, the U.K., Germany, Russia, France, Austria, the U.S. and Italy marched to Beijing and defeated the Chinese troops and Boxers. Thousands of Chinese converts to Christianity also died at the hands of their neighbors during the violence.
See a Boxer Rebellion timeline, look through a photo essay of the Boxer Rebellion and learn about western attitudes toward the Boxer Rebellion through editorial cartoons from magazines.
"The diplomatic quarter in Beijing was besieged for almost two months during the Boxer Rebellion."
