Boxer Rebellion Timeline

(1899 - 1901)

The Boxer Rebellion was an anti-foreign and anti-Christian uprising in northern China between 1899 and 1901, led by a group known as the Boxers (Yihequan, or 'Righteous and Harmonious Fists'). The movement arose from resentment over foreign imperialism, missionary activity, and economic hardship. After initially condemning the movement, Empress Dowager Cixi backed the Boxers in 1900, leading to the siege of foreign legations in Beijing. An Eight-Nation Alliance of Japan, Russia, Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary invaded China to relieve the siege, capturing Beijing in August 1900. The rebellion ended with the signing of the Boxer Protocol in September 1901, which imposed heavy indemnities on China and marked a turning point toward the dynasty's eventual collapse. More Less

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Background and Causes

Treaty of Tianjin signed

Jun 26, 1858

The Treaty of Tianjin ended the first phase of the Second Opium War, opening more Chinese ports to foreign trade, allowing foreign legations in Beijing, and permitting Christian missionary activity, further deepening foreign influence in China.

Image source: Treaty of Tientsin

Convention of Peking cedes Kowloon to Britain

Oct 24, 1860

The Convention of Peking concluded the Second Opium War, forcing China to pay large indemnities, open Tianjin as a treaty port, and cede Kowloon Peninsula to Britain. Foreign troops were even permitted to occupy parts of Beijing, intensifying anti-foreign sentiment.

Image source: Convention of Peking

Sino-Japanese War ends in Japanese victory

Apr 17, 1895

The Treaty of Shimonoseki ended the First Sino-Japanese War with China's humiliating defeat by Japan. China ceded Taiwan and the Liaodong Peninsula and recognized Korean independence, shocking the Qing court and exposing its weakness.

Image source: Treaty of Shimonoseki

Triple Intervention forces Japan out of Liaodong

Nov 23, 1895

Russia, France, and Germany pressured Japan to return the Liaodong Peninsula to China. Russia then secured concessions in Manchuria itself, heightening rivalry among foreign powers for spheres of influence in China.

Image source: Triple Intervention

Germany seizes Jiaozhou Bay and Qingdao

Nov 14, 1897

Germany used the murder of two missionaries as a pretext to seize Jiaozhou Bay in Shandong Province, establishing the port of Qingdao as a naval base and triggering a scramble among other powers for concessions across China.

Image source: Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory

Hundred Days' Reform crushed by Empress Dowager Cixi

Jun 11, 1898 - Sep 21, 1898

The Guangxu Emperor launched sweeping modernizing reforms, but Empress Dowager Cixi staged a coup, placing him under house arrest and executing or exiling reformers. Conservative officials regained power, shaping the court's hostile stance toward foreigners.

Image source: Hundred Days' Reform

United States announces Open Door Policy

Sep 6, 1899

U.S. Secretary of State John Hay issued the Open Door notes calling for equal trading rights in China and preservation of Chinese territorial integrity, reflecting international concern over the division of China into exclusive spheres of influence.

Image source: Open Door Policy

Rise of the Boxers

Big Sword Society resists missionaries in Shandong

Jan 1, 1895 - Dec 31, 1899

In Shandong Province, rural self-defense groups like the Big Sword Society organized against banditry, Christian missionary influence, and foreign encroachment, providing an early model for the militant anti-foreign movement that followed.

Spirit Boxers emerge in northwest Shandong

Jan 1, 1896 - Dec 31, 1898

The Spirit Boxers, drawing on traditional martial arts and spirit possession rituals, spread through drought-stricken Shandong. Practitioners believed ritual invulnerability would protect them from bullets, and they targeted Christian converts and missionaries as agents of foreign corruption.

Image source: Boxer movement

Juye Incident sparks German intervention

Nov 1, 1897

Two German Catholic missionaries were murdered in Juye County, Shandong. Germany used the killings to justify seizing Qingdao and extracting concessions, demonstrating to Chinese villagers how missionary presence invited foreign aggression.

Image source: Juye Incident

Yuan Shikai suppresses Boxers in Shandong

Dec 1, 1899

Appointed governor of Shandong, Yuan Shikai cracked down harshly on Boxer activity, driving many militants northward into Zhili Province toward Beijing and Tianjin, where the movement grew explosively amid famine and flooding.

Image source: Yuan Shikai

Yuan Shikai suppresses Boxers in Shandong

Qing court equivocates on Boxer movement

Jan 1, 1900 - Jun 20, 1900

As Boxers spread across northern China, the Qing court under Empress Dowager Cixi wavered between suppression and tacit support. Some conservative officials saw the Boxers as useful allies against foreign domination, allowing the movement to grow unchecked.

Image source: Boxer Rebellion

Boxers cut telegraph lines and attack railways

May 1, 1900 - May 31, 1900

Boxer bands destroyed railway lines, telegraph wires, and stations between Beijing and Baoding, viewing these symbols of foreign intrusion as targets. Violence against Chinese Christians escalated dramatically across Zhili Province.

Foreign Intervention and War

Seymour Expedition departs Tianjin for Beijing

Jun 10, 1900

A force of about 2,000 sailors and marines under British Admiral Edward Seymour set out from Tianjin to relieve the besieged legations in Beijing, but was halted by damaged railways and fierce Boxer and Qing resistance.

Siege of the Beitang cathedral in Beijing

Jun 15, 1900 - Aug 16, 1900

Thousands of Chinese Catholics took refuge in the Beitang (North) Cathedral, defended by French marines. They withstood nearly two months of assaults by Boxers and Qing forces before relief arrived with the allied army.

Allied fleet attacks Dagu Forts

Jun 17, 1900

Allied warships bombarded and captured the Dagu Forts guarding the approach to Tianjin, an act the Qing court considered an act of war, pushing it decisively toward supporting the Boxers and declaring hostilities.

Image source: Battle of the Taku Forts (1900)

Battle of Dagu Forts (Langfang) repulses Seymour

Jun 18, 1900 - Jun 22, 1900

Near Langfang, combined Boxer and Qing imperial forces attacked the Seymour Expedition, forcing it to retreat to Tianjin after heavy casualties, marking a significant early defeat for the allied powers.

Image source: Seymour Expedition

Siege of the International Legations begins in Beijing

Jun 20, 1900 - Aug 14, 1900

After the German minister Clemens von Ketteler was killed, Boxers and Qing troops besieged the diplomatic quarter in Beijing. Around 900 civilians and soldiers alongside roughly 3,000 Chinese Christians endured fifty-five days of siege, shelling, and sniper fire.

Qing court issues declaration of war on foreign powers

Jun 21, 1900

Empress Dowager Cixi issued an imperial decree declaring war on all foreign powers, formally allying the Qing state with the Boxers and authorizing attacks on foreigners throughout China.

Southeastern viceroys protect provinces from war

Jun 26, 1900 - Aug 31, 1900

Powerful viceroys of central and southern provinces, led by Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong, refused Cixi's declaration of war and reached informal agreements with foreign powers to keep their regions neutral, sparing southern China from invasion.

Image source: Mutual Defense Pact of the Southeastern Provinces

Russian occupation of Manchuria

Jul 1, 1900 - Oct 1, 1900

Citing protection of the Chinese Eastern Railway, Russia invaded and occupied Manchuria with over 100,000 troops, committing massacres such as at Blagoveshchensk, and refusing subsequent deadlines to withdraw, setting the stage for the Russo-Japanese War.

Image source: Russian invasion of Manchuria

Taiyuan Massacre of foreigners and Christians

Jul 9, 1900

Governor Yuxian ordered the execution of dozens of foreign missionaries and their families in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, one of the deadliest single atrocities against Westerners during the rebellion.

Image source: Taiyuan massacre

Battle of Tientsin (Tianjin)

Jul 13, 1900 - Jul 14, 1900

An eight-nation allied force assaulted and captured the walled city of Tianjin after fierce fighting, securing a vital staging base for the march on Beijing and suffering hundreds of casualties in the process.

Image source: Battle of Tientsin

Gaselee Expedition marches on Beijing

Aug 4, 1900

A multinational relief force of roughly 18,000–20,000 troops from Japan, Russia, Britain, the United States, France, and other nations marched from Tianjin toward Beijing, defeating Qing forces at Beicang and Yangcun along the way.

Battle of Pekin: Allies capture Beijing

Aug 14, 1900 - Aug 15, 1900

The allied Eight-Nation Alliance breached Beijing's walls and relieved the besieged legations, ending the fifty-five-day siege. Allied soldiers then looted the city extensively, including the imperial palaces.

Image source: Battle of Peking (1900)

Empress Dowager Cixi flees Beijing to Xi'an

Aug 15, 1900 - Oct 1, 1900

As allied troops entered the capital, Cixi fled with the Guangxu Emperor and the imperial court westward to Xi'an, leaving negotiations to Prince Chun and Li Hongzhang while ordering resistance in some regions.

Image source: Empress Dowager Cixi

Empress Dowager Cixi flees Beijing to Xi'an

German punitive expeditions in Zhili

Dec 1, 1900 - Mar 31, 1901

Field Marshal Alfred von Waldersee, named allied commander-in-chief, led numerous punitive raids across Zhili Province to punish Boxer strongholds. Villages were burned and civilians killed, deepening Chinese suffering after the main fighting had ended.

Image source: Alfred von Waldersee

Aftermath and Consequences

Qing launches New Policies reform program

Jan 29, 1901 - Nov 14, 1908

Humiliated by defeat, the Qing court launched the New Policies: abolishing the civil service examination, modernizing the army, education, and administration, and eventually promising constitutional government—reforms that came too late to save the dynasty.

Image source: New Policies

Boxer Protocol signed

Sep 7, 1901

The Qing government signed the Boxer Protocol with eleven powers, agreeing to pay 450 million taels of silver in indemnities, execute or punish officials who supported the Boxers, station foreign troops in the Legation Quarter, and destroy the Dagu Forts.

Image source: Boxer Protocol

United States returns portion of Boxer Indemnity

May 25, 1908

President Theodore Roosevelt secured congressional approval to remit a portion of America's Boxer indemnity to fund scholarships for Chinese students studying in the United States, fostering educational exchange and goodwill.

Image source: Boxer Indemnity Scholarship

Xinhai Revolution ends Qing dynasty

Oct 10, 1911 - Feb 12, 1912

The weakened Qing dynasty, destabilized by the Boxer Rebellion's indemnities, foreign troop occupations, and failed reforms, collapsed following the Wuchang Uprising, ending over two millennia of imperial rule and founding the Republic of China.

Image source: 1911 Revolution

Key Facts

The Boxers were members of a Chinese secret society called Yihequan ('Righteous and Harmonious Fists') who practiced martial arts and believed rituals could protect them from bullets.
The rebellion targeted foreigners and Chinese Christians, whom the Boxers blamed for China's economic troubles and loss of sovereignty to foreign powers.
In June 1900, Empress Dowager Cixi declared war on foreign powers, and Boxers alongside Qing troops besieged foreign legations in Beijing for 55 days during the Siege of the International Legations.
An Eight-Nation Alliance (Japan, Russia, Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary) sent roughly 20,000 troops who captured Beijing in August 1900 and crushed the uprising.
The conflict ended with the Boxer Protocol on September 7, 1901, which required China to pay an indemnity of about 450 million taels of silver, punish officials, and allow foreign troops to be stationed in China.

Source

This Boxer Rebellion timeline was generated with the help of AI, using information found on the internet.

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