The Boxer Rebellion began in China in 1900.

By the late 1800s, Cixi, empress dowager of China’s Qing Dynasty, led a nation that had effectively been subjugated by foreign powers. Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan and Russia all exerted increasingly great economic control over their own sections or “spheres of influence” within China. A secret society known as the Fists of Righteous Harmony began to form in the late 1800s in Shandong province, where people were starving because of a severe drought. Their goal was to remove all foreigners from China, and their means were violent. Known by foreigners as “Boxers” because of their practice of martial arts, the group soon began to grow in size as the Empress lent them her support. By early 1900, thousands of Boxers were making regular attacks on foreigners and Chinese Christians. On this day in 1900, the Boxers, then numbering over 100,000, attacked the foreign diplomatic compound outside of the Forbidden City. Diplomats from all over the world and their families were besieged and surrounded. For almost two months, the Boxers kept the diplomats trapped in their compound, mounting frequent attacks and killing at least 76 people. On August 14, an international force, including American soldiers, freed the compound and then fought their way into Beijing. The Empress escaped the capital disguised as a peasant woman. After the fall of Beijing, the partitioning of China by various foreign powers was halted. Instead, all foreign powers that had participated in the campaign were granted highly favorable trading terms with China in an “Open Door” policy proposed by American Secretary of State John Hay. Foreign troops were permanently stationed in China, and China was ordered to pay $333 million dollars as a penalty for the rebellion.

EDSITEment
China’s history is filled with episodes of foreign invasion. One of the seven wonders of the world, the Great Wall of China, was built to help protect China from invading neighbors. Students learn about China through a study of the Great Wall in Following the Great Wall of China (6–8).

Xpeditions
Students learn more about contemporary relations between China and other Asian nations in Crossing Boundaries: The Environment, Disease, and Conflict in Asia (9–12).

EconEdLink
In Lemonade and Cookies (6–12), students learn about the comparative advantages held by China and several other nations in modern international trade.