Do The Boxers Deserve A Bad Rap?

No, the Boxers did not deserve a bad rap because they were only protecting what was theirs.  The foreigners were trying to “make the Chinese a better people by converting them.”  (-Walter Lefeber) In addition to that, they also “exemplified an American lifestyle” which obviously the Chinese didn’t like. Although they expressed their values through violence , they were only doing it to drive the forgeiners out of their own land. The Chinese had already taken a big hit after the opium traders, when they found out that the westerners were interfering in local land and the water disputes, they were naturally unhappy about it.  Furthermore, the foreigners were undermining the Chinese traditions and beliefs like Buhdism and Confucianism. They were protecting what was theirs, and westerners went too far trying to spread their religion and forcing trade to open up in China. The Americans saw a money-making opportunity (that was in someone else’s territory) and tried to spread their lifestyle and products into China in attempts of opening up trade to benefit themselves. The Boxer’s simply tried to fight them off (they failed) and take back the control foriegners had in China.  The Boxers were only protecting their own land.