The British press gave them the mocking title of “Boxers.” for the calisthenic rituals and boxing the members would practice in belief it would make them impervious to bullets, but the aims of the I-ho ch’üan revolutionary group were deadly serious. At first they sought to throw out all the foreigners from their land and depose the Ch’ing dynasty that tolerated them, but the the Empress Dowager joined their cause, and the Boxers turned their attention to throwing out the foreigners.

On this day, September 7, in 1901 the Boxer Rebellion ended with the signing of the Boxer Protocol peace agreement. The Boxers were subdued by the eight-nation international force, and made to pay heavy reparations.

Although the Empress was allowed to keep her post, and the foreign powers stopped short of full colonization, the damage to China’s collective pride was inestimable. A system of reforms were undertaken to bring the education system up to Western standards, but it was too little, too late, as a movement borne out the humiliation of foreign occupation overthrew the last of the Chinese emperors and brought in a republic.