Global InformationBoxer Rebellion information
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| Part of the century of humiliation | |||||||
 A company of members of the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, 1901 | |||||||
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 Mutual Protection of Southeast China(post 1900) |
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| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 義和團運動 | ||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 义和团运动 | ||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Militia united in righteousness movement | ||||||||||||||
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| Manchu name | |||||||||||||||
| Manchu script | ᠴᡳᠣᠸᠠᠨ ᠰᡝᡵᡝ ᡝᡥᡝ ᡥᡡᠯᡥᠠ ᡳ ᡶᠠᠴᡠᡥᡡᠨ | ||||||||||||||
| Möllendorff | ciowan sere ehe hūlha i facuhūn | ||||||||||||||
The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist, and anti-Christian uprising in North China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, a group known as the "Boxers" in English due to many of its members having practised Chinese martial arts, which at the time were referred to as "Chinese boxing". It was defeated by the Eight-Nation Alliance of foreign powers.
After 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. In 1898, North China experienced several natural disasters, including the Yellow River flooding and droughts, which Boxers blamed on foreign and Christian influence. Beginning in 1899, the movement spread across Shandong and the North China Plain, destroying foreign property such as railroads, and attacking or murdering Christian missionaries and Chinese Christians. 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."
Diplomats, missionaries, soldiers, and some Chinese Christians took refuge in the Legation Quarter, which the Boxers besieged. The Eight-Nation Alliance comprising 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. Empress Dowager Cixi, who had initially been hesitant, supported the Boxers and on 21 June issued an imperial decree that was a de facto declaration of war on the invading powers. Chinese officialdom was split between those supporting the Boxers and those favouring conciliation, led by Prince Qing. The supreme commander of the Chinese forces, the Manchu general Ronglu, later claimed he acted to protect the foreigners. Officials in the southern provinces ignored the imperial order to fight against foreigners.
The Eight-Nation Alliance, after initially being turned back by the Imperial Chinese military and Boxer militia, brought 20,000 armed troops to China. They defeated the Imperial Army in Tianjin and arrived in Beijing on 14 August, relieving the 55-day Siege of the International Legations. Fighting over the capital and the surrounding countryside ensued, along with summary execution of those suspected of being Boxers in retribution. The Boxer Protocol of 7 September 1901 provided for the execution of government officials who had supported the Boxers, for foreign troops to be stationed in Beijing, and for 450 million taels of silver—more than the government's annual tax revenue—to be paid as indemnity over the course of the next 39 years to the eight invading nations. The Qing dynasty's handling of the Boxer Rebellion further weakened their control over China, and led to major governmental reforms.
- ^ a b Harrington (2001), p. 29.
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