The Boxers do not deserve a bad reputation because they were uneducated on natural disasters. Missionaries in China were “trying to… Westernize their particular society… undermining the Chinese village, the Chinese traditions, and Chinese control over their own territory” (Lefeber). Chinese farmers “believed that the Christians had so displeased the gods that [they were] being punished with drought” (Szczepanski). After the Opium Wars, where the British won 2 wars over Opium regulations, missionaries came to China wanting to Christianize the Chinese people to “make the Chinese a better people by converting them” (Lefeber). As a result, the Chinese responded because of the attempts to Christianize by German missionaries with violence in Shandong during November 1897. Because of the Missionaries that took away Chinese traditions and Chinese control of territory, they started the Boxer rebellion, which mostly used their fists to fight. However, the Chinese were unaware that droughts and famine were natural and not caused by the Christians, believing that they were being punished by god because of the Christians. Therefore, the Boxers do not deserve a bad reputation because they were not educated.
