The Boxer Rebellion

In the year 1900, an unprecedented alliance occurred between the eight major military powers of the world. Never before, and never since, has there been such an alliance. For more than a year military and naval personnel from Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States fought together against a common enemy. That common enemy was a society whose goal was the extermin­ation of all 'foreign devils' in China—the Boxers.
The exact origin of the / Ho Ch'uan (Righteous Harmonious Fists), or Boxers as they were called by Westerners, may never be known. Like most Chinese secret societies their past is shrouded in myth and legend. They must have existed in the 1700s, for some Jesuits were expelled from China in 1747 as a result of Boxer influence. Why they were able to rise to such power in 1900 may also remain a mystery. There were certainly Boxers and Boxer sympathizers in positions of influence in the Imperial Court of the Dowager Empress, Tzu Hsi—most notably Prince Tuan.