A secret society convinced its fighters that rituals made them immune to bullets

Chinese peasants furious at foreign missionaries and merchants formed a militia who believed martial-arts rituals made them impervious to bullets. They besieged foreign legations in Beijing for 55 days in 1900 until an eight-nation army broke the siege. The defeat forced a punishing indemnity on China and accelerated the fall of the Qing dynasty a decade later.

— Diana Preston, The Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China's War on Foreigners That Shook the World in the Summer of 1900 — 2000
Go deeper: get the book →