The Boxer Rebellion soul purpose was to liberate China from foreign influence. Foreign capitalists dictated corrupt government officials and controlled leading industrial parts of Northern China. Chinese overseers were upset over this issue and contemplated for a solution. A revolt was the key and the outcome of the Boxer Rebellion was disastrous for China and its dynasty. Countless officials were executed, extensive payments had to be made and in addition, foreign troops were stationed in China as the dynasty lost its control. To this extent, the Boxer Rebellion was a failure in its aftermath, although successful in its unification.
During the 1890's, the Chinese people felt that foreigners not only had brought commercial and territorial demands but also had corroded the Chinese culture. Educated Chinese felt that foreigners humiliated China and they resented even the lowliest European clerk. China then was bombarded with European religion, science, and art from the Jesuit missionaries. As time passed, the power of China grew weaker because successive emperors failed to bring China into the modern world. The Boxer Uprising of 1899-1900 was a turning point in China's history. Economic hardship, anti-foreign feeling, widespread belief in superstition by the uneducated lower class fuelled this peasant rebellion. The Empress Dowager publicly opposed the Boxers, but her ministers convinced her to join forces in order to drive foreigners from China and to keep the Qing dynasty surviving. The Boxer Rebellion was a major turning point because it showed that the people of China could stand up to the foreigners and drive them out.
The Boxer movement developed in the Shandong province and took on an anti-foreign and anti-Christian point of view after foreign intervention. After gaining support from the Empress Dowager Cixi the Boxers laid siege on foreign embassies. Foreign powers including Japan, America and Britain sent troops to Beijing and punished them for their attempted revolt. They implemented huge reparations and loss of territory, which caused the Scramble for Concessions. After the Boxer Rebellion, the Qing dynasty prestige was lowered dramatically and Cixi tried to implement late reforms that she cancelled during the Hundred Day Reform. The foreign powers that intervened gained land and prestige among others while China was degraded. Anti-Qing support and protests increased after the Boxer Rebellion. It is possible to argue that these events in it were not a turning point due to the actual failure of the Rebellion. The Boxer Rebellion was the beginning of the end for the Qing dynasty, however, it could have survived more if Cixi had not died and implemented reforms earlier. However, it was a turning point because it changed the attitude of the people in China that they could form a resistance against the foreigners. In the long term, the Boxer Rebellion weakened the position of the Qing family greatly and possibly. Furthermore, it concentrated the hatred of foreigners but did leave China more open and exposed to foreign influence. Probably most importantly, the Rebellion showed China that it was not a major power and in fact a very weak state and needed to modernise, even though everyone already knew this, China had failed to acknowledge this until recently.
The Taiping Rebellion of 1850, was lead by a Christian man called Hong Xiuquan who believed he was the Chinese son of God and tried to overthrew Qing dynasty. Certain parallels are drawn from the Taiping Rebellion and the Boxer Rebellion, however, the differences are that the Taiping was to instate and promote Christianity throughout China; however, the Boxer Rebellion was to get rid for the foreigners that had carved and get rid of Christianity from China. However, both of their common goals were to get of someone that they didn’t like, for the Taiping it was the Qing dynasty while for the Boxers it was to regain independence of China.
Overall, the Boxer Rebellion in China in fact a great turning for China and lead to many different events that would form the Republic of China. Inadvertently, the Rebellion in fact formed the Tongmenghui and got rid of the imperial family in the 1911 Revolution. It opened up China to real chances of modernisation which men like Sun Yat-Sen recognized China needed which eventually lead to the expulsion of the imperial family and eventually the creation of the Republic of China after the period of warlords.
