112 China in World History
of the Boxer uprising, Hart predicted with uncanny accuracy that in
fi fty years’ time, twenty million or more Boxers “will make residence in
China impossible for foreigners, will take back from foreigners every-
thing foreigners have taken from China, will pay off old grudges with
interest, and will carry the Chinese fl ag and Chinese arms into many a
place that even fancy will not suggest today.. .”^5
In the fi rst decade of the twentieth century, the Qing government
tried fi nally to promote the reforms that might yet save the dynasty.
However, it was too little, too late, as more and more Chinese concludedA stereographic photograph labeled “Some of China’s trouble-makers” shows
Boxer prisoners captured by the 6th U.S. Cavalry in Tianjin. The United States
joined the European powers and Japan in sending troops to free the foreign
legations in Beijing and quell the Boxer uprising in 1901. Library of Congress,
LC-USZ62–68811