Around 1900, after many years of succumbing to the superior
             military of the West, the Chinese stood up for their country. China
             was a weak, backwards, country, exploited by the West. They felt that
             they could counter the foreign domination, but reforms were useless
             because they needed the West to help with the reforms. But something
             sparked their confidence, and they believed themselves to be able to
             conquer any foreign power. This spark was the Society of Harmonious
             Fists, commonly known as "Boxers." Combined with unhappy people, and
             new weapons technology, the Chinese rebelled against the foreign
             The first reason of this confidence was the Boxer Society, which
             formed in North China after the Sino-Japanese war, but wasn't well
             known until 1898 in Shantung. This organization was actually a cult,
             following strange and absurd practices of defense. It had no central
             leaders, and the practices varied in different locations. Their goal
             was to rid China of the foreign menace. The boxers were different from
             most other rebels of their time. They would conduct public physical
             exercises that were supposed to make a magical shield to protect one
             against foreign bullets and shells. These looked similar to a boxers
             training exercises so the westerners nicknamed the members of the
             Society of Harmonious Fists "Boxers." Rather then using foreign
             weapons, they relied on magical spirits and swords, knives, staves,
             and polearms to drive the foreign devils from their precious home
             country. The membership of this group consisted of mostly the
             criminals, poor, and illiterate of China who wore a simple uniform
             consisting of a red armband, sash, or waistcloth. These people truly
             believed that magic would protect them, and help remove the foreigners
             from China. That gave them enough confidence to try to destroy the
             foreigners. Missionaries were killed, ra
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