- Who were the Boxers and why did they rebel?
Overview
Boxer Rebellion, an officially supported peasant insurrection in China in 1900 that aimed to expel all foreigners from the country. Foreigners gave the moniker “Boxers” to the Yihequan (“Righteous and Harmonious Fists”), a Chinese secret society. The gang believed that by performing particular boxing and calisthenic rites, they would become invulnerable.
It was supposed to be an outgrowth of the Eight Trigrams Society (Baguajiao), which in the late 18th and early 19th centuries fomented rebellions against the Qing empire. Their first goal was to destroy the dynasty as well as the Westerners who had a privileged position in China.
Due to growing economic deprivation, a succession of catastrophic natural tragedies, and unfettered foreign aggressiveness in the area, the Boxers began to develop their strength in the provinces of North China in the late nineteenth century. Conservative, anti-foreign forces took control of the Chinese government in 1898, convincing the Boxers to abandon their opposition to the Qing dynasty and join it in killing the foreigners.
The governor of Shandong province began to enlist Boxer bands as local military organizations, renaming them Yihetuan (“Righteous and Harmonious Militia”) to look more official. Many Qing leaders at the period evidently grew to believe that Boxer rituals made them bulletproof, and despite protests from the military, they continued to practice them.
