Empress Dowager Cixi, who had initially been hesitant, supported the Boxers and on 21 June issued an imperial decree that was a de facto declaration of war on the invading powers.

By 1894 the newer Protestant mission effort supported over 1300 missionaries, mainly British and American, and maintained some 500 stations-each with a church, residences, street chapels, and usually a small school and possibly a hospital or dispensary-in about 350 different cities and towns.

The Righteous and Harmonious Fists arose in the inland sections of the northern coastal province of Shandong,[12] a region which had long been plagued by social unrest, religious sects, and martial societies.

[16] In 1895, despite ambivalence toward their heterodox practices, Yuxian, a Manchu who was the then prefect of Cao Prefecture and would later become provincial governor, cooperated with the Big Swords Society, whose original purpose was to fight bandits.

Russia gained influence of all territory north of the Great Wall,[30] plus the previous tax exemption for trade in Mongolia and Xinjiang,[31] economic powers similar to Germany's over Fengtian, Jilin and Heilongjiang.

The Russian government militarily occupied their zone, imposed their law and schools, seized mining and logging privileges, settled their citizens, and even established their municipal administration on several cities.

[37] Violence toward missionaries and Christians drew sharp responses from diplomats protecting their nationals, including Western seizure of harbors and forts and the moving in of troops in preparation for all-out war, as well as taking control of more land by force or by coerced long-term leases from the Qing.

On 11 June, at Yongdingmen, the secretary of the Japanese legation, Sugiyama Akira, was attacked and killed by the forces of General Dong Fuxiang, who were guarding the southern part of the Beijing walled city.

Five thousand of Dong Fuxiang's Gansu Braves and an unknown number of Boxers won a costly but major victory over Seymour's troops at the Battle of Langfang on 18 June.

[64] Meanwhile, in Beijing, on 16 June, Empress Dowager Cixi summoned the imperial court for a mass audience and addressed the choice between using the Boxers to evict the foreigners from the city, and seeking a diplomatic solution.

When Cixi received an ultimatum that same day demanding that China surrender total control over all its military and financial affairs to foreigners,[68] she defiantly stated before the entire Grand Council, "Now they [the Powers] have started the aggression, and the extinction of our nation is imminent.

[70] On receipt of the news of the attack on the Dagu Forts on 19 June, Empress Dowager Cixi immediately sent an order to the legations that the diplomats and other foreigners depart Beijing under escort of the Chinese army within 24 hours.

[74] On 21 June, Cixi issued an imperial decree stating that hostilities had begun and ordering the regular Chinese army to join the Boxers in their attacks on the invading troops.

[75] Regional governors in the south, who commanded substantial modernised armies, such as Li Hongzhang at Guangzhou, Yuan Shikai in Shandong, Zhang Zhidong[76] at Wuhan, and Liu Kunyi at Nanjing, formed the Mutual Defense Pact of the Southeastern Provinces.

[83][non-primary source needed] On 22 and 23 June, Chinese soldiers and Boxers set fire to areas north and west of the British Legation, using it as a "frightening tactic" to attack the defenders.

[citation needed] Ronglu forced Dong Fuxiang and his troops to pull back from completing the siege and destroying the legations, thereby saving the foreigners and making diplomatic concessions.

[99] Xu Jingcheng, who had served as the envoy to many of the same states under siege in the Legation Quarter, argued that "the evasion of extraterritorial rights and the killing of foreign diplomats are unprecedented in China and abroad".

While Dong's Gansu army, now swollen by the addition of the Boxers, wished to press the siege, Ronglu's imperial forces seem to have largely attempted to follow Cixi's decree and protect the legations.

[103] Dong Fuxiang was denied artillery held by Ronglu which stopped him from levelling the legations, and when he complained to Empress Dowager Cixi on 23 June, she dismissively said that "Your tail is becoming too heavy to wag."

Zhang Zhidong told Everard Fraser, the Hankou-based British consul general, that he despised Manchus so that the Eight Nation Alliance would not occupy provinces under the Mutual Defense Pact.

[134] Contemporary British and American observers levelled their greatest criticism at German, Russian, and Japanese troops for their ruthlessness and willingness to execute Chinese of all ages and backgrounds, sometimes burning villages and killing their entire populations.

[139] On 27 July, during departure ceremonies for the German relief force, Kaiser Wilhelm II included an impromptu but intemperate reference to the Hun invaders of continental Europe: Should you encounter the enemy, he will be defeated!

When Mark Twain read of this expedition, he wrote a scathing essay, "To the Person Sitting in Darkness", that attacked the "Reverend bandits of the American Board", especially targeting Ament, one of the most respected missionaries in China.

[147] Roger Keyes, who commanded the British destroyer Fame and accompanied the Gaselee Expedition, noted that the Japanese had brought their own "regimental wives" (prostitutes) to the front to keep their soldiers from raping Chinese civilians.

He dispatched the five thousand troops without consulting Congress, let alone obtaining a declaration of war, to fight the Boxers who were supported by the Chinese government ... Presidents had previously used such force against non-governmental groups that threatened U.S. interests and citizens.

It was now used, however, against recognised governments, and without obeying the Constitution's provisions about who was to declare war.Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., concurred and wrote:[181] The intervention in China marked the start of a crucial shift in the presidential employment of armed force overseas.

The historian Joseph W. Esherick comments that "confusion about the Boxer Uprising is not simply a matter of popular misconceptions" since "there is no major incident in China's modern history on which the range of professional interpretation is as great".

Sun Yat-sen, considered the founding father of modern China, at the time worked to overthrow the Qing but believed that government spread rumours that "caused confusion among the populace" and stirred up the Boxer Movement.

Some non-Chinese scholars, such as Joseph Esherick, have seen the movement as anti-imperialist, but others hold that the concept "nationalistic" is anachronistic because the Chinese nation had not been formed, and the Boxers were more concerned with regional issues.

He adds that only after the movement was suppressed by the Allied Intervention did the foreign powers and influential Chinese officials both realise that the Qing would have to remain as the government of China to maintain order and collect taxes to pay the indemnity.