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Subject: June 20, 1900
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2005 13:24:15 EDT

1900 Boxer Rebellion begins in China
In response to widespread foreign encroachment upon China's national affairs,
Chinese nationalists launch the so-called Boxer Rebellion in Peking. Calling
themselves I Ho Ch'uan, or "the Righteous and Harmonious Fists," the
nationalists occupied Peking, killed several Westerners, including German
ambassador Baron von Ketteler, and besieged the foreign legations in the diplomatic
quarter of the city.
By the end of the 19th century, the Western powers and Japan had forced
China's ruling Qing dynasty to accept wide foreign control over the country's
economic affairs. In the Opium Wars, popular rebellions, and the Sino-Japanese
War, China had fought to resist the foreigners, but it lacked a modernized
military and suffered millions of casualties. In 1898, Tzu'u Hzi, the dowager
empress and an anti-imperialist, began supporting the I Ho Ch'uan, who were
known as the "Boxers" by the British because of their martial arts fighting
style. The Boxers soon grew powerful, and in late 1899 regular attacks on
foreigners and Chinese Christians began.
On June 20, 1900, the Boxers, now more than 100,000 strong and led by the
court of Tzu'u Hzi, besieged the foreigners in Peking's diplomatic quarter,
burned Christian churches in the city, and destroyed the Peking-Tientsin railway
line. As the Western powers and Japan organized a multinational force to
crush the rebellion, the siege of the Peking legations stretched into weeks, and
the diplomats, their families, and guards suffered through hunger and
degrading conditions as they fought to keep the Boxers at bay. On August 14, the
international force, featuring British, Russian, American, Japanese, French, and
German troops, relieved Peking after fighting its way through much of
northern China.
Due to mutual jealousies between the powers, it was agreed that China would
not be partitioned further, and in September 1901, the Peking Protocol was
signed, formally ending the Boxer Rebellion. By the terms of agreement, the
foreign nations received extremely favorable commercial treaties with China,
foreign troops were permanently stationed in Peking, and China was forced to pay
$333 million dollars as penalty for its rebellion. China was effectively a
subject nation.

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