Editing Boxer Rebellion (section)

=== Intensifying crisis ===
[[File:Chinese Muslim Kansu Braves 1900 Boxer Rebellion.jpg|thumb|upright|Chinese Muslim troops from [[Gansu]], known as the [[Gansu Braves]]]]
In January 1900, with a majority of conservatives in the imperial court, Cixi changed her position on the Boxers and issued edicts in their defence, causing protests from foreign powers. Cixi urged provincial authorities to support the Boxers, although few did so.{{sfnp|Schuman|2021|p=272}} In the spring of 1900, the Boxer movement spread rapidly north from Shandong into the countryside near Beijing. Boxers burned Christian churches, killed Chinese Christians and intimidated Chinese officials who stood in their way. American Minister [[Edwin H. Conger]] cabled Washington, "the whole country is swarming with hungry, discontented, hopeless idlers".{{sfnp|Thompson|2009|p=42}}

On 30 May the diplomats, led by British Minister [[Claude Maxwell MacDonald]], requested that foreign soldiers come to Beijing to defend the legations. The Chinese government reluctantly acquiesced, and the next day a multinational force of 435 navy troops from eight countries debarked from warships and travelled by train from the [[Taku Forts]] to Beijing. They set up defensive perimeters around their respective missions.{{sfnp|Thompson|2009|p=42}}

On 5 June 1900, the railway line to Tianjin was cut by Boxers in the countryside, and Beijing was isolated. On 11 June, at [[Yongdingmen]], the secretary of the Japanese legation, Sugiyama Akira, was attacked and killed by the forces of General [[Dong Fuxiang]], who were guarding the southern part of the Beijing walled city.{{sfnp|Preston|2000|p=70}} Armed with [[Mauser]] rifles but wearing traditional uniforms,{{sfnp|Elliott|2002|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=wWvl9O4Gn1UC 126]}} Dong's troops had threatened the foreign legations in the fall of 1898 soon after arriving in Beijing,{{sfnp|Xiang|2003|p=https://books.google.com/books?id=lAxresT12ogC&pg=PA207 207}} so much that [[United States Marines]] had been called to Beijing to guard the legations.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Biggs |first=Chester M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S8YtE0SIDq0C&pg=PA25 |title=The United States Marines in North China, 1894–1942 |publisher=McFarland |year=2003 |isbn=0-7864-1488-X |page=25}}</ref>

Wilhelm was so alarmed by the Chinese Muslim troops that he requested Ottoman caliph [[Abdul Hamid II]] to find a way to stop the Muslim troops from fighting.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}} Abdul Hamid agreed to the Kaiser's request and sent Enver Pasha (not to be confused with the [[Enver Pasha|later Young Turk leader]]) to China in 1901, but the rebellion was over by that time.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Karpat |first=Kemal H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PvVlS3ljx20C&pg=PA237 |title=The Politicization of Islam: Reconstructing Identity, State, Faith, and Community in the Late Ottoman State |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2001 |isbn=0-19-513618-7 |page=237}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=رشيد رضا |first=محمد |year=1901 |pages=229–230 |language=ar |script-title=ar:مجلة المنار؛ الجزء 4}}</ref>

On 11 June, the first Boxer was seen in the [[Peking Legation Quarter]]. The German Minister [[Clemens von Ketteler]] and German soldiers captured a Boxer boy and inexplicably executed him.<ref>Weale, B. L. ([[Bertram Lenox Simpson]]), ''Indiscreet Letters from Peking''. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1907, pp.&nbsp;50–51.</ref> In response, thousands of Boxers burst into the walled city of Beijing that afternoon and burned many of the Christian churches and cathedrals in the city, burning some victims alive.{{sfnp|Edgerton|1997|p=[https://archive.org/details/warriorsofrising00edge/page/70 70]}} American and British missionaries took refuge in the Methodist Mission, and an attack there was repulsed by US Marines. The soldiers at the British Embassy and German legations shot and killed several Boxers.{{sfn|Thompson|2009|pp=44–56}} The Kansu Braves and Boxers, along with other Chinese, then attacked and killed Chinese Christians around the legations in revenge for foreign attacks on Chinese.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Seagrave |first1=Sterling |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tURwAAAAMAAJ&q=kansu+braves+baron+von |title=Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of China |last2=Seagrave |first2=Peggy |publisher=Knopf |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-679-40230-5 |page=320}}</ref>