clared war against all foreign powers on its
soil. Whether the Dowager Empress did this
to rid the foreigners—or to simply deflect
public anger away from her regime—is specu-
lative, but troops of the regular Chinese army
began fighting alongside the insurgents.
In the summer of 1900, Chinese forces laid
siege to the various foreign legations quar-
tered in Beijing, a grim trial of endurance that
lasted 56 days. This attack spurred eight na-
tions—Japan, England, Germany, Italy, Rus-
sia, France, Austria, and the United States—
to mount an international relief force to
rescue their diplomats. The American contin-
gent was headed by Gen. Adna Romanza
Chaffee, who proved instrumental in clearing
out rebels in the coastal city of Tianjin. Once
this was accomplished, the allied column,
numbering 20,000 men, clawed its way to-
ward Beijing. On August 14, 1900, Chaffee’s
men stormed the city’s gates and helped res-
cue the diplomats. Afterward, U.S. forces
were assigned the task of capturing the For-
bidden City. In the course of the fighting,
Sergeant Dan Daly of the U.S. Marines single-
handedly defended his post against innumer-
able Boxers and won the Congressional
Medal of Honor. The allies, given their supe-
rior firepower and technology, completely
crushed the Boxers, and naughty Cixi, dis-
guised as a peasant, fled the city and set up
her court in Shaanxi Province. The erstwhile
infallible manipulator had grossly miscalcu-
lated Western military prowess, and the vic-
tors felt disposed to impose harsh peace
terms upon China. These included huge in-
demnities as well as additional territorial
concessions, including the acquisition of
Manchuria by Russia. Cixi’s beloved Summer
Palace was also burned to the ground to
avenge the slaughter of several diplomats.
Imperial China had reached its lowest ebb in
history.
The firsthand experience of war and defeat
seems to have tempered the Dowager Em-
press’s penchant for self-indulgence. There-
after, she allowed many of the modernization
reforms first espoused by the emperor, and
she also welcomed foreigners to her court.
Naturally, Old Buddha charmed Western ob-
servers with her intelligence and grace. But
the Qing Dynasty was by then on its last legs,
and rebellions against the hated Manchus
continued up through 1908. Cixi died on No-
vember 15, 1908, one day after Emperor
Guangxu—apparently poisoned at her com-
mand. Her passing was little mourned, but
she was a remarkable woman. By rising from
concubine to empress of China, she con-
trolled the destinies of more than 400 million
people for half a century. Three years later, in
1911, the Qing Dynasty was finally over-
thrown by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who declared the
creation of the Republic of China. Divested of
medieval trappings, China finally set itself on
the path of modernity—and among the com-
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