In the 19th century China was ruled by the Ch'ing Dynasty, which had ruled China for the past 300 years. By 1897, the Chinese were desperate to remove all foreigners from their land and used the Boxers as a tool for this purpose. Many atrocities were committed against foreigners, particularly missionaries, and by the middle of 1900's they turned their attention on the diplomatic missions in Peking. A revolt was the key and the outcome of the Boxer Rebellion was disastrous for China and its dynasty, as the Chinese people felt that foreigners not only had brought commercial and territorial demands but also had invaded the Chinese culture. .
Foreigners had entered China during an era of imperialism. In the late 1800s Great Britain and other European nations, the United States, Russia, and Japan scrambled for spheres of influence there. In some cases they seized Chinese territories, but usually they only sought the riches of trade and commercial enterprise. At the same time, Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries tried to convert the Chinese to Christianity. These outsiders were resented and feared by the Chinese, who saw Western religion and business practices as a threat to their traditional ways. The Empress Dowager publicly opposed the Boxers, but her ministers convinced her to join forces in order to drive foreigners from China. By the middle of 1900, Boxers were wandering the countryside and attacking Western missionaries. The Boxers first wanted to kill all the foreign Christians in China, and they also wanted to get rid of the foreigners that occupied the embassies, as well as the Dowager Empress and the Ch"ing Dynasty. However, the Dowager Empress was smart, as she convinced the Boxers that she was on their side and had the Boxers attack the foreigners instead. The Dowager Empress did not trust the Europeans, Americans and Japanese very much. The Dowager Empress thought that they were dishonest in their relations with China.