Empress Dowager Cixi
Cixi (Empress Dowager) was the de facto ruler of Qing China for nearly five decades, exercising power as regent for Emperor Tongzhi (1861–1873) and Emperor Guangxu (1875–1908). A low-ranking concubine who rose through palace politics, she blocked the Hundred Days’ Reform of 1898, imprisoning the reformist Emperor Guangxu and executing his associates, stalling China’s modernisation. She supported the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, which brought a devastating eight-nation military intervention and the humiliating Boxer Protocol. Despite her conservatism, she initiated limited reforms in her final years; her death in 1908 was followed within three years by the collapse of the Qing dynasty.
- Lived: 1835 CE – 1908 CE
- Nationality: chinese
- Roles: ruler, regent
