Boxer Protocol

Signed on September 7, 1901, the Boxer Protocol was an agreement between China’s ruling Qing Dynasty and the coalition of nations that had been affected by the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. This uprising had targeted both foreign nationals and Chinese subjects who had, for example, converted to Christianity. Although the Boxer Rebellion had been initiated by a mystical group called the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, it had received support from the royal court. A multinational military force succeeded in suppressing the uprising.

One of a long series of “unequal treaties” between China and Western powers, the Boxer Protocol had three broad goals: to humiliate China, to financially punish China, and to strengthen the position of the powers that had established economic footholds in China. The Boxer Protocol required that China erect monuments at the sites of the legations that had been attacked in the uprising as well as a monument to Clemens von Ketteler, the...