| When the Boxer Uprising first broke out
in Shandong Province in 1899, the Qing Government immediately
sent troops to put down the rebellion. But when the Boxers upheld
the slogan of "supporting the Qing and exterminating the
foreigners," the Qing Government reversed its attitude
from suppression to pacification. However, as the foreign powers
took an increasingly intransigent attitude toward the Boxers,
the Qing Government vacillated between suppression and pacification.
In 1900, when a group of armed legation guards entered the legation
quarters in Beijing and the eight powers formed allied forces,
the Qing Government stopped attacking the Boxers and united
with them against the foreigners.
After that, a number of sanguinary events
occurred in Beijing, in which the legation guards attacked
the Boxers. Meanwhile, Allied Forces captured Dagu Fort in
southeast Tianjin. The Boxers, together with Qing troops,
began to lay siege to legation and churches.
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