Boxer movement

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Boxers
義和拳
A Boxer war flag, inspired by the Black Flag Army
Also known as	Plum Blossom Fists (1898) League of Harmony and Justice (1899) Righteous and Harmonious Fists (1899–1901)
Commander	Cao Futian
Commander	Zhang Decheng
Dates of operation	1890s–September 1901
Country	China
Ideology	Chinese nationalism Monarchism Anti-Western sentiment Anti-Christianism Anti-imperialism Xenophobia
Slogan	"Kill the foreigners! Slaughter the followers of the foreign devils!"[1] "Uphold the Qing, destroy foreigners!"
Size	50,000–100,000
Battles and wars	Boxer Rebellion

The Boxers, officially known as the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists (traditional Chinese: 義和拳; simplified Chinese: 义和拳; pinyin: Yìhéquán; Wade–Giles: I⁴-ho²-ch'üan²) among other names, were a Chinese secret society based in Northern China that carried out the Boxer Rebellion from 1899 to 1901.

The movement was made up of independent local village groups, many of which kept their membership secret, making the total number of participants difficult to estimate, but it may have included as many as 100,000. They originally attacked the Qing government, but soon called upon it to resist foreign influence.

In the summer of 1900, groups of Boxer fighters destroyed foreign owned property, such as railroads and telegraphs, and murdered Christian missionaries and Chinese Christians. They then supported the Empress Dowager in resisting the resulting foreign invasion, which all but destroyed the group and ended the Rebellion, though some members continued in other groups across China.