Boxer Rebellion in China

In 1898, groups of peasants from northern China established a secret society which was named the 'Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists', known as the 'Boxers' by the Western powers. They opposed the widespread foreign influence upon China. By 1900, Christian missionaries were being massacred and on 20 June 1900 the Boxers besieged the foreign quarter in Peking. Foreign ministers and their families were killed before the siege was finally relieved in August by an international force which had fought its way through northern China