Autumn Auction

German cartoon card of Boxer Rebellion, postally used from St Petersburg to New York 18 III 1902.
The Society of Righteous Harmonious Fists (I Ho Ch'uan), or boxers as they were called by westerners, was dedicated to the extermination of "foreign devils" in China. Their uprisings in 1899 developed into a wave of violence against foreigners that swept through China, spread into Manchuria, and had repercussions across the Amur River in Russia. The boxers besieged the European Legations in Peking (1900) and began destroying the half-finished Chinese Eastern Railway. Expeditionary Forces were despatched by the leading Powers and the rebellion was liquidated by the Protocol of Peking (1901). This allowed the powers to retain garrisons in the region for several years.