Boxer Movement and the Eight-Nation Alliance

The Boxer movement: why it began

The Boxer movement grew in north China, first in Shandong province. Its members called themselves the Yihetuan ("Righteous and Harmonious Fists"). Foreigners called them Boxers because they practised martial arts, and many believed that these exercises and rituals would protect them from bullets.

• Hunger: floods and then drought left many farmers without food.
• Foreign presence: after the Opium Wars, foreign traders, missionaries and railway builders spread into the north. Some people thought the railways took away work from carters and boatmen.
• Conflicts: disputes between Christian converts and their neighbours often went to court, and villagers felt the foreign missions protected their own people unfairly.
• Weak state: China had lost wars (including the one with Japan in 1894-95) and owed large debts, so many felt humiliated.

At first the Boxers attacked foreigners, Chinese Christians and symbols such as railways and telegraph lines. In 1900 the Qing government, under Empress Dowager Cixi, chose to support them.

The siege and the Eight-Nation invasion

In June 1900 Boxer bands entered Beijing. For 55 days they and some Qing troops besieged the legation quarter, where foreign diplomats, their families and many Chinese Christians were sheltering. Around 21 June the Qing court declared war on the foreign powers.

Eight countries formed the Eight-Nation Alliance: Britain, the United States, Russia, Japan, France, Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary. Their forces took Tianjin, then marched on Beijing and entered it on 14 August 1900. The Empress Dowager and the emperor fled to Xi’an. Foreign troops looted parts of the city, and many Chinese civilians suffered in the fighting and the revenge that followed.

The Boxer Protocol (1901)

After months of talks the Boxer Protocol was signed on 7 September 1901. Its main terms:

• Indemnity: China had to pay 450 million silver taels over 39 years (more than 900 million with interest).
• Foreign guards: powers could keep troops in Beijing and along the railway to the coast.
• Forts: the forts at Dagu near the coast were torn down.
• Legation quarter: it became a zone under foreign control.
• Punishment and bans: some officials were punished and anti-foreign groups were banned.

The payments drained the treasury and raised taxes, and China’s position as a country under heavy outside pressure became deeper. Many Chinese concluded that the Qing government could not protect the country, which pushed more people towards reform and revolution.

Try it

Open the 3D and on step 4 count the coins: each coin is one year of the 39-year payment. Predict first: if 450 million taels were paid in equal parts, about how many million each year? Divide, then check the answer in practice question 6.

Key formulas and definitions

• Key terms: Yihetuan = Boxers; legation = a country’s embassy; indemnity = money a defeated side must pay; protocol = a signed agreement.
• Dates: 1899-1900 Boxers spread; June 1900 siege and war declared; 14 Aug 1900 Beijing taken; 7 Sep 1901 Protocol.
• Numbers: 8 powers; 55 days of siege; 450 million taels; 39 years.

Worked examples

Common mistakes

• Thinking the Boxers were a Qing army. They began as a farmers’ movement; the court only backed them later.
• Mixing up the siege (June to August 1900) with the Protocol (September 1901).
• Saying nine or ten countries joined. It was eight.
• Saying China won anything. China had to sign a heavy settlement.