Taking this into consideration, it seems appropriate to attribute the rebellion of the Boxers as the consequence of natural disasters. However, studies on the origins of this secret society and the events prior to its uprising in the summer of 1900, led me to consider the floods that struck on China just before the end of the century, in conjunction with other events of the period, as an important cause of the Boxer uprising. Given that there also are clear divergences in scholars' opinions on the Boxers, in this essay I will attempt to discuss the relevance of droughts in causing the uprising as well as other decisive events.

"Victims of the natural calamities as well as superstitious scholars and officials blamed the misfortune on the foreigners, who, they insisted, had offended the spirits by propagating a heterodox religion and prohibiting the worship of Confucius, idols and ancestors."

Assuming that the Boxer uprising was caused by the natural disasters of end of century, it is opportune to identify where the government failed in containing the floods of the Yellow River. Shandong was a province that had had little difficulty in meeting its obligations toward the state and the surplus in production had generated means for supporting public work projects. After the Sino-Japanese War in 1894-95 the government military expenditure created a huge budget imbalance, because of its obligations as a defeated country, and the heavy burden, mostly higher taxation, to meet further expenses was left on the rural population. This incumbency was made even harder to comply by the decline in price of silver throughout the 1890s, which also devalued the salary of officials, who then more easily fell into corruption. This kind of behaviour was a clear example of non-respect towards Confucian values. The maintenance of river works could not be underestimated by the officials, indirectly appointed by the emperor, but whenever they showed more concern for their own interests, public works maintenance became poorer, to the extent of driving the peasants to rebel. For example, Esherick compares the success of careful officials in avoiding major floods, like Li Pingheng, with the very bad performance of corrupted ones, like Zhang Rumei . The government found itself in the crucial position to decide whether costs could be cut down by reducing its troops, without, on the other hand, weaken the defence in Shandong and other provinces against both the pressure of foreign presence and local banditry activities, including the strengthening of the Boxers. To sum up, the cost of national defence was to heavy and even the reduction of river patrols was attempted, contributing to the disastrous floods of the Yellow River. If natural disasters are not considered as the main cause of the Boxer uprising, however it is very true that they made life very precarious on the north China plain and they were the cause for civil unrest. During the 1890s droughts were as a serious cause of distress as were floods, but the flood of the Yellow River in 1898 is the closest disaster which had impact on the Boxer uprising.

Prior to this period, Boxers and other societies started having influence on the rural population by predicting imminent calamities, which would have brought chaos and death among the population. By promising protection and salvation, criminals, poor and illiterate were pushed, o

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1858
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)