sentences:  It was at this time that naval troops previously used almost exclusively for defence of vessels or minor beach operations were expanded to enable extended littoral operations.The colonial experience, though largely confined to the period before the First World War, persisted well into the 20th century.Unique in this period was the emergence of non-empire building multinational (though not coalition) operations to defeat the Boxer Rebellion by the Eight-Nation Alliance that can be categorised as possibly the first peacekeeping operation in the modern era.