The roots of the Boxer Rebellion go back almost a century before its outbreak. During the Napoleonic Wars in Europe, the London Missionary Society sent its first evangelists to China in 1807. They began to have sufficient success in converting Chinese people to Christianity that the British government began showing an interest in expanding their merchant empire into the Chinese markets after Napoleon’s defeat in 1815. They established a strong foothold in southern China in the wake of the first Opium War (1839–1842). Their victory, solidified by the Nanjing Treaty, allowed them to occupy Hong Kong and granted all foreigners in China extraterritorial status, meaning that local laws would not apply to them. After a second Opium War (1856–1860) Britain and France imposed the Treaties of Tientsin after capturing Canton and advancing northward, capturing several forts. “As part of the treaties, the British, French, Americans, and Russians were permitted to install legations in Beijing, ten additional ports would be opened to foreign trade, foreigners would be permitted to travel through the interior, and reparations would be paid to Britain and France.” They also were obliged to “cede part of Kowloon to Britain, open Tianjin as a trade port, allow religious freedom, legalize the opium trade, and pay reparations to Britain and France. Though not a belligerent, Russia took advantage of China’s weakness and concluded the Supplementary Treaty of Peking which ceded approximately 400,000 square miles of territory to St. Petersburg” (ThoughtCo., “Overview of the Second Opium War”).

All of this led to various European countries establishing spheres of influence wherein they controlled virtually all trade and all harbors. The Chinese government could still collect tariffs, but the amounts were determined by the Europeans. Over the next few decades, more and more European merchants, missionaries, and soldiers poured into China. This influx of foreign influence, coupled with the inability of the Chinese government or military to stop any of it, left many Chinese resentful of what they perceived as an assault upon their culture. With an embarrassing loss to Japan in the Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), many Chinese citizens decided to push back.

As a nationalist movement was gaining strength, the foreign countries were hoping to ease some of the strong competition among themselves over trade with China. As mentioned earlier, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Japan (along with some minor activity by Italy and Austria-Hungary) were about to be joined by the United States. With their victory in the Spanish-American War of 1898, the Americans occupied the Philippines, which increased what had been a relatively minor interest in Asian trade. With behind-the-scenes British support, American Secretary of State John Hay introduced what came to be known as the Open Door Policy. By allowing other countries to trade within each other’s spheres of influence, the Western countries could gain access to more customers and more trade goods. Hay proposed this in a letter to the interested countries in September 1899. All the countries saw the logic to the argument, but they all were equally jealous of their own area of domination. Each country agreed that they would go along with the plan only if every other country signed on as well. The following March Hay announced that all the countries had agreed. The Chinese challenge to the foreign influence, however, was not long in coming.

In 1898 a nationalist movement had begun, calling itself I Ho Ch’uan (Society of “Righteous and Harmonious Fists”). The foreigners referred to them as the Boxers, given that they were a blend of martial arts practitioners and spiritualists and boxing was the closest Western description of their practices. The Boxers taught that by performing certain martial arts movements they could make themselves bulletproof. The Boxer movement grew as extreme weather and poor harvests motivated the desperate people in the countryside to join, hoping for an overthrow of the Qing dynasty government that was blamed for allowing the foreigners so many liberties. Attacks on Western businesses and Christian missions grew through 1899 into 1900, killing more than 200 converts, drove many in the countryside to the capital city of Peking (modern Beijing) for protection. As that was also the center of Western influence through the foreign legations there, the Boxer forces began attacking the city in late May 1900.

Thus, the Open Door Policy needed military as well as economic cooperation. Some foreign troops were aboard ships in each country’s respective harbors. Forty-eight Marines, five sailors, and a Navy surgeon were in Peking by 31 May. Foreign troops consisting of 35 Austrians, 82 British, 48 French, 51 Germans, 25 Japanese, 81 Russians, and 29 Italians arrived the same day. As all the embassies were in a single, walled-off area of the city, the Boxers soon had them besieged. However, rather than assault the legation district the Boxers tended to harass the local population for supplies and support. The diplomats were able to send pleas for help before the telegraph lines were cut.

Initially the ruling Qing dynasty was ambivalent about the movement, but as it grew and the outside threat increased, the government decided to secretly support the Boxers. Through the early summer the Boxers destroyed rail lines running to Peking from the nearest port at Tientsin. This proved initially effective as foreign troops began to arrive and could only move slowly through Boxer-controlled territory. Troops did arrive quickly, with the British sending troops from India, the French from Indochina, the Russians through Manchuria, and Americans from their action in the Philippine Insurrection. Already established foreign troops controlled the Taku forts at the mouth of the Peiho River leading to Tientsin. The British made the first attack with a column under the command of Sir Edward Seymour taking a train from Tientsin toward Peking. They were stopped when they encountered destroyed tracks outside Langfang. They then retreated to join the growing forces outside Tientsin, as the Boxers had captured the city after Seymour left.

With the initial Chinese government response being irregular, the Dowager Empress Cixi seized control and openly sided with the Boxers, providing them with weapons and army troops. On 18 June she offered the embassy personnel safe passage as far as Tientsin; after an overnight meeting among the legations, the offer was rejected. Thus, on the 20th, the attacks on the legations increased as the international force slowly made their way to Peking. Artillery bombardment was almost constant and troops on both sides exchanged rifle fire. Various committees were formed in the legation area to handle aspects of the defense, including Fortification, Sanitation, Commissariat, etc. The diplomats elected the British ambassador Sir Claude MacDonald to oversee the defense of some 3,000 Chinese Christians and another 430 foreign civilian personnel by 400 soldiers and embassy guards.

As more foreign troops arrived, their priority was capturing Tientsin. A force consisting of American, Russian, French, German, and Japanese forces attacked on 11 July. Little progress was made during the day, but a Japanese force got through the city wall at night and the rest of the force followed. The Chinese defenders abandoned the city but counterattacked a few days later and the battle raged back and forth until 14 July. A few weeks earlier a reporter in Shanghai sent a report to London that all the foreigners in the embassies had been slaughtered. This motivated some Russian and German troops to loot and pillage in response to the reported massacre of the legation occupants. The report, assumed to be true by the multinational force, convinced them that there was no need to hurry an attack on Peking. Thus, they spent time planning and organizing for their advance, which they finally launched from Tientsin on 4 August.

In Peking the Chinese had made some serious assaults on the legation area and gradually moved barricades closer to the walls. A midnight sortie by some U.S. Marines drove them back, but sniper and artillery fire continued. Similar raids took place often. Then, on 14 July, with the situation extremely bad in the legation area the defenders were shocked to see a banner posted saying the Chinese government had declared a cease-fire. The government also delivered some fruit and both defenders and attackers began mingling and trading. There were occasional shots fired but the situation remained relatively quiet. It has been assumed that as the relief force approached, the Chinese leaders began to show restraint so they might not suffer as did the citizens of Tientsin. Although mostly quiet, the Chinese army (now in greater numbers than the Boxers) continued construction of their barricades.

The 18,000-strong force reached Peking after a fighting advance of ten days. The force was divided into four segments to attack Peking at four points along the eastern wall. It was supposed to be a coordinated assault but the Russians attacked in the dark of night late on 13 August. The Japanese attacked their sector at dawn and the Americans went into action against a section of the city wall without a gate; hence, they had to scale the wall. Volunteers were called for and climbed to the top, which they found undefended. More manpower and arms were soon inside. British forces attacked their target at noon on the 14th and found that the defenders had fled. A drainage ditch was discovered, which American and British troops advanced into the legation area. By sundown the four prongs converged and officially relieved the legation compound.

On 15 August attacks began on the Forbidden City where the Chinese leadership had taken refuge. Many gates were blasted open by artillery fire but just as the final assault was to take place the American forces were ordered to stand fast. The Forbidden City was not occupied until 28 August. As the legation quarter was being liberated, the Dowager Empress Cixi and the Emperor Guangxu disguised themselves as peasants and fled the city. It was up to the officials left behind to negotiate what came to be called the Boxer Protocol. The Chinese were obliged to pay $333,000,000 in damages to the various foreign countries involved. Only monetary concessions and not territorial ones were imposed thanks to John Hay. Fearing an overly aggressive reaction by the other powers, on 3 July he had issued a message to those governments. “It proclaimed that the ‘policy of the Government of the United States is to seek a solution’ which may ‘preserve Chinese territorial and administrative entity,’ and ‘safeguard for the world the principle of equal and impartial trade with all parts of the Chinese Empire’” (Bailey, Diplomatic History, pp. 481–482).

The American share of the money was $25,000,000, of which they only accepted $7,000,000. They dedicated the remainder to establishing a fund for Chinese students to attend American universities. That gesture may have had the longest-lasting effect of the entire conflict. High damage claims and looting the Chinese certainly expected; to have one of the invaders invest in China’s future was shocking. From that point the United States enjoyed a much closer relationship with China than any other Western power, one that lasted through World War II and up to the victory of Communism in 1948. On the other hand, ignoring Hay’s call for restraint, Russia annexed Manchuria, which had been their sphere of influence before the Open Door Policy. That ultimately led to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 and a sound defeat of Russian forces and goals.