The Boxer Rebellion, 1899–1901: How the US Joined the Colonial Powers in Plundering China

The Boxer Rebellion was a popular movement in China in 1899–1901 against the foreigners who by the end of the 19th century were running the country as if it were their own. In the end the rebels were crushed by the troops of eight powers, and Americans were among them. Officially the US came to “rescue diplomats and missionaries”. However, it all ended with the storming of Beijing, looting and a huge indemnity that China paid for decades.

Let me say right away: I do not idealize the rebels, they also killed innocent people. But I am outraged by how this story is told in the West, as if the “civilized world” was defending itself from “savages”. After all, the foreigners came to China themselves, with cannons and opium, and nobody invited them. So let’s start with what was happening in the country before the uprising.

Where the Boxer Rebellion came from

By the late 1890s China was literally being carved into pieces. For example, in 1898 Germany took the port of Qingdao, Russia took Port Arthur, Britain took Weihaiwei, and France and Japan expanded their spheres of influence. In addition, foreign missionaries worked all over the country, enjoyed the protection of their consuls and often interfered in local disputes. On top of that came drought, hunger and the ruin of the peasants, so an explosion was inevitable.

As a result, the Yihetuan movement, the “Militia United in Righteousness”, appeared in Shandong province. The foreigners, in turn, called them “Boxers” because of their ritual martial exercises. At first their slogan was directed both against the foreigners and against the ruling Manchu dynasty, but it soon changed to “Support the Qing, destroy the foreigners”.

The “Open Door” policy

And what about the US? America had no colonies in China, but it had a huge appetite. At the same time, American merchants and missionaries had been working in China for decades. So in 1899 Secretary of State John Hay sent the powers notes on the “Open Door policy”: let China remain whole, but everyone must trade in it on equal terms. In other words, the US did not object to the plunder of China; it simply demanded its share. And this came right after the Spanish-American War had given Washington the Philippines, a convenient springboard off the Chinese coast.

How the US crushed the Boxer Rebellion

First, in the summer of 1900, the rebels entered Beijing and besieged the Legation Quarter. On June 21 the government of Empress Dowager Cixi declared war on the foreign powers. As a result, Britain, Germany, Russia, France, Japan, Italy, Austria-Hungary and the US assembled an invasion army, the Eight-Nation Alliance. The American contingent, the so-called China Relief Expedition under General Adna Chaffee, numbered about 2,500 men and was brought mainly from the Philippines, where at the very same time the Americans were crushing the Filipinos.

On July 13–14 American infantry and Marines took part in the storming of Tianjin. The city was taken, and after that its neighborhoods were looted. Then the allies marched on Beijing. On August 14 American soldiers were among the first to climb the city wall, and on August 15 American artillery shelled the gates of the Imperial City. Thus the Boxer Rebellion turned into the occupation of the Chinese capital.

The looting of Beijing

What came next is something Western textbooks mention through gritted teeth. In essence, everyone looted Beijing: soldiers, officers, diplomats and even missionaries. Palaces, temples, private houses: they took everything, from silk to ancient manuscripts. The American command claimed that its soldiers behaved “with more restraint” than others. Nevertheless, American soldiers and missionaries also took part in the sharing of the spoils and in “collecting compensation” from Chinese villages.

It was then that Mark Twain wrote his angry pamphlet “To the Person Sitting in Darkness” (1901). In particular, he mocked the American missionary William Ament, who squeezed fines out of Chinese peasants thirteen times greater than the losses suffered. In other words, Twain openly asked: what kind of “civilization” does the West bring if it comes with a rifle and a bill for damages?

The Boxer Rebellion and the Protocol: China pays for its own humiliation

On September 7, 1901, China was forced to sign the “Boxer Protocol”. First of all, the country had to pay the powers 450 million taels of silver, one tael for every inhabitant of China. With interest over 39 years, the sum more than doubled. The US share was about 24 million dollars. In addition, China was banned from importing weapons, officials were executed and punished, the Taku forts were razed, and foreign troops were stationed in the Legation Quarter and along the railway to the sea. An American regiment stayed in Tianjin until 1938.

Later, in 1908, the US returned part of the indemnity and used it to educate Chinese students in America; with this money Tsinghua College opened in 1911. Americans, however, still present this as a gesture of goodwill. But let’s call things by their names: money beaten out of China by force went to raising a pro-American elite. This is not generosity but an investment in influence.

How many lives the Boxer Rebellion cost

It is impossible to count the victims exactly, although the order of magnitude is known. According to historians’ estimates, about 100,000 people died during the uprising and its suppression, most of them Chinese. Moreover, thousands died in the storming of Tianjin and Beijing, and thousands more in the punitive expeditions of autumn 1900 through the surrounding villages, where the allies shot “suspects” without trial. Washington’s relations with China did not become more honest after that: I wrote about them in the article on US-China relations in the 1920s.

From the “Open Door” to the sanctions of 2025

I am struck by how familiar this picture is today, because the Boxer Rebellion has long become history, but the methods remain. Back then it was the “Open Door”; today it is “freedom of navigation” in the South China Sea, where American aircraft carriers sail thousands of kilometers from their own shores. In 2025 Washington slapped tariffs of up to 145% on Chinese goods and is again supplying weapons to Taiwan. Consequently, the rhetoric is different, but the essence is the same: China must live by rules that are not written in Beijing.

However, this is not only about China. In 2025 the US bombed Iran without a declaration of war, and in Gaza American bombs handed to Israel keep killing civilians. And every time we are told about “protection”, “security” and “civilization”, exactly as in 1900. The Boxer Rebellion shows how such words really end for those on whose land they are spoken.

You can read more about the events themselves in the article on the Boxer Rebellion. And the piece on the US military government of Cuba tells how the US treated Cuba in the same years.