information:classification, structural:expansion
Long-term consequences

The occupation of Beijing by foreign powers and the failure of the rebellion further eroded support for the Qing state. Support for reforms decreased, while support for revolution increased. In the ten years after the Boxer Rebellion, uprisings in China increased, particularly in the south. Support grew for the Tongmenghui, an alliance of anti-Qing groups which later became the Kuomintang.

Cixi was returned to Beijing, the foreign powers believing that maintaining the Qing government was the best way to control China. The Qing state made further efforts to reform. It abolished the imperial examinations in 1905 and sought to gradually introduce consultative assemblies. Along with the formation of new military and police organisations, the reforms also simplified central bureaucracy and made a start at revamping taxation policies. These efforts failed to maintain the Qing dynasty, which was overthrown in the 1911 Xinhai Revolution.

In October 1900, Russia occupied the provinces of Manchuria, a move that threatened Anglo-American hopes of maintaining the country's openness to commerce under the Open Door Policy.

The historian Walter LaFeber has argued that President William McKinley 's decision to send 5,000 American troops to quell the rebellion marks "the origins of modern presidential war powers":

McKinley took a historic step in creating a new, 20th century presidential power. He dispatched the five thousand troops without consulting Congress, let alone obtaining a declaration of war, to fight the Boxers who were supported by the Chinese government.... Presidents had previously used such force against non-governmental groups that threatened U.S. interests and citizens. It was now used, however, against recognised governments, and without obeying the Constitution's provisions about who was to declare war.

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., concurred and wrote:

The intervention in China marked the start of a crucial shift in the presidential employment of armed force overseas. In the 19th century, military force committed without congressional authorisation had been typically used against nongovernmental organisations. Now it was beginning to be used against sovereign states, and, in the case of Theodore Roosevelt, with less consultation than ever.