The Eight-power Allied Forces Through Foreigners' Camera

China Before the Invasion of the
Eight-Power Allied Forces

The Entering of
Envoys and Legation Guards into Beijing

First Setbacks of
the Allied Forces
and the Capture of Tianjin

The Capture of
Beijing by the
Eight-Power Allied Forces

The War Before Negotiations and the Signing of the
Protocol of 1901

China Under the Protocol of 1901

Home>>The Entering of Envoys and Legation Guards into Beijing

When the Boxer Uprising first broke out in Shandong Province in 1899, the Qing Government immediately sent troops to put down the rebellion. But when the Boxers upheld the slogan of "supporting the Qing and exterminating the foreigners," the Qing Government reversed its attitude from suppression to pacification. However, as the foreign powers took an increasingly intransigent attitude toward the Boxers, the Qing Government vacillated between suppression and pacification. In 1900, when a group of armed legation guards entered the legation quarters in Beijing and the eight powers formed allied forces, the Qing Government stopped attacking the Boxers and united with them against the foreigners.

After that, a number of sanguinary events occurred in Beijing, in which the legation guards attacked the Boxers. Meanwhile, Allied Forces captured Dagu Fort in southeast Tianjin. The Boxers, together with Qing troops, began to lay siege to legation and churches.