Boxer Rebellion

The Boxer Rebellion was an anti-foreign and anti-Christian uprising in northern China led by the Yihetuan, the 'Militia United in Righteousness', known in the West as the Boxers for their martial rituals. Spreading through Shandong and Zhili in 1899 and 1900, the Boxers killed missionaries and thousands of Chinese Christians, and in June 1900, after the Qing court under the Empress Dowager Cixi declared war on the foreign powers, they besieged the foreign legations in Beijing. An international force of eight nations relieved the legations in August 1900 and occupied the capital, and the Boxer Protocol of 1901 imposed a huge indemnity on China.