Question

Why do you think the boxers murdered missionaries and attacked foreign legations ?

Answer 1

They were trying to eradicate the foreign presence and associated religions. The Boxers, or what was known to the local populations as the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious fists wanted to eliminate the foreign threat to their ways of life and systems of beliefs.

Answer 2

Western nations and Japan wanted to control China's economy. The boxers was a group of Chinese men who did exercise to help the fight the foreigners who were forcing westernization on them. They killed the missionaries because they felt that foreigners and the Japanese were forcing their ways into them. In revenge, the killed the missionaries and other Christian Chinese.