The cult of unabashed might was still a closet philosophy which even Germany, its chief devotee, was not yet ready to avow to the world.
Of course Hay knew that the battle was not won, for the bandits still held the booty.

He was too wise to attempt to wrench it from them, for that indeed would have meant battle for which the United States was not prepared in military strength or popular intention.

He had merely pledged these countries to use their acquisitions for the general good.
Though the promises meant little in themselves, to have exacted them was an initial step toward victory.
In the meantime the penetration of foreign influences into China was producing a reaction.

A wave of protest against the "foreign devils" swept through the population and acquired intensity from the acts of fanatic religious leaders.

That strange character, the Dowager Empress, yielded to the "Boxers," who obtained possession of Pekin, cut off the foreigners from the outside world, and besieged them in the legations.
That some such movement was inevitable must have been apparent to many European statesmen, and that it would give them occasion, by interference and punishment, to solidify their "spheres of influence" must have occurred to them.