August 14, 1900: Boxer rebels lose Peking

On this day in 1900, the Eight-Nation Alliance captured Peking from Boxer rebels, freeing around 1,000 envoys and missionaries the rebels had taken as hostages.

The Righteous and Harmonious Fists, known more commonly as the Boxers, was a powerful secret society that disliked the presence of foreigners in China. On June 21, 1900, after the Boxers had invaded Peking (now Beijing), Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing dynasty relented and declared war on the foreign powers.

The Eight-Nation Alliance was set up to counter the rebellion (or uprising, depending on your point of view). It was a hodgepodge that would look impossible just 14 years later: Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United States.

The Boxers preached their invincibility to foreign weapons, but that quickly fell to shreds as the Alliance captured Peking. An agreement the following year called for the execution of pro-Boxer officials, as well as a huge payment to the Alliance – one greater than an entire year of Chinese tax revenues.

Image: “I’ll Try, Sir!” Department of the Army (1900).