Changes

Similar to what happened in the Second Opium war, the Boxer Rebellion created a situation where a mass uprising forced all the great powers with concessions in China to collaborate, as each one was to limit in resources to tackle the rebellion effectively. One great irony was by 1900 there was already great tension between the Western powers. Germany, or more specifically Prussia, and France had fought a bitter war in 1870-1871, Germany was seen as the rising rival to Great Britain, the Russo-Japanese War was only 4 years away at this point, although Great Britain began to draw more closely with the United States. <ref>For a discussion on Anglo-US relations in the late 19th century see: Ellis, Sylvia. 2009. Historical Dictionary of Anglo-American Relations. Historical Dictionaries of U.S. Diplomacy 10. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press.</ref>

However, the mass uprising in the Box Rebellion was swift and was very popular among the vast peasantry. This put immediate pressure on the Western powers to suppress the rebellion before all of them would lose their foothold in China. The rebellion forced the Qing Dynasty to largely support the uprising, even if members of the Qing court held reservations given their bitter defeats in the Opium wars.<ref>Esherick, Joseph W. 1987. The Origins of the Boxer Uprising. Berkeley: University of California Press, pg. xiv.</ref> With the arrival of foreign troops and reinforcements, with a large Japanese presence in particular, to Beijing, the Boxers were ultimately defeated by 1901. While the unity caused by the rebellion proved to be short-lived, as the rivalries between the great powers soon reemerged and ultimately led to World War I, for China there were long-term changes that have made these events of great interest to this day.