Cixi Dowager

Dowager Cixi, after giving birth of her fail of leader son, is now seen by historians as the cow the screwed over China before WWI. She was the last of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, though her legitimacy to the imperial thrown was questioned. Cixi is, without a doubt, one of the greatest female leaders of the 20th century. She had the big dragons balls; supported The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Yihetuan movement. When given the ultimatum to surrender China's military power, she stood up to the Grand Council stating that she would ''fight to the death'' rather than allow foreign influences to go up her imperial skirt.

Cixi started her political career as a concubine to Emperor Xian Feng in 1851. Five years later she gave birth to a son who would become Emperor. After the birth of Tongzhi the Emperor made her consort. When Xian Feng died in 1861, Tongzhi started his reign. This period would come to be known as the ''Tongzhi Restoration;'' an attempt to stabilise and modern China. (It failed.)

Cixi was a strict mother. Evidence left at the ''Forbidden City'' shows a wall of bricks she had placed to deny any entree to his royal chambers. Even his Empress, Xiaozheyi could not enter without permission. Cixi, before Tongzhi turned 18 was planning a reform removal of his claim to the thrown with scholars but it was not needed. He died at 18 years old without any sons to succeed him. His Empress, a few month after his death, followed him to his demise. There is some lore that he caught an sexually transmitted disease, but it was actually small pox. During his reign, his mother was made regent, but who knows just how much power she had between his young minded ego and advisors. As all mothers do, I think she tried her best. There is also the issue that her legitimacy to power over China was questioned. She was one in a thousand concubines. The only thing that made her different is that was lucky enough to bare the Emperor a son.

Cixi became Empress after his death in January 1875. Cixi position during his reign may have factored in the Imperial fuck up, (historically speaking) but she was ready to clean her boys mess up. This also included the other minor set backs which his Dynasty had inherited. Nothing major, just the implications of the second Opium war as well as the western realm's sinophila.

Events leading up to the boxer rebellion include many elements, many of which the Chinese blamed the Western World. These include opium traders, political invasions, economic manipulation, and missionary evangelism.

The second opimum war in the mid 1850's resulted in the Treaties of , Tianjin. These treaties legalized the opium trade, a loss of territory to Russia as well as revealing the weakness if the Qing dynasty. The Japan Western War of 1894-5 made another huge revealation of how weak China was. This made the world look to Japan as the leading power in Asia.

Western exploitation ended with the complete map of the world and there was a shortage of claimable territory available. The world powers eyes turned to China. Cixi was dealing with fear that China would be the slaves of Western Powers. Already it ran on an almost feudal system of government.

The rebels of Righteous and Harmonious Fists/Society, also known as the Boxer Rebellion, banded together for the purpose of the rebellion in March 1898. Their existance, however; can be dated back to the 1700's with the explusion of a jesiut missionary group. They were Proto-Nationalist group that opposed the push of Foreign Imperialism. China was and remains a large country, and the west viewed their old civilization as backwards and ripe for the taking. With a lack of terrority left to claim, there was an ever pressing need for conquest in order to expand their resources.

The Boxers' main mission was to keep out foreign practises and ideologies in order to preserve China of its spiritual beliefs and traditions. The Rebellion started in November 1899 in the Shandong Province. Boxers believed that Foreigners were pure evil, Chinese Catholics corrupted by evil and anyone working for foreigners were part of the machine that gave strength to such evil, and righteously believed it was their mission to rid China of this said evil. The rebellion peaked with the 55 day siege of Foreign embassies in Beijing. A Hollywood representation of this event exist in movie format; check out the ''55 Days at Peking,'' by Samuel Broston Productions in 1963.

After the massacre of Chinese catholics and the destruction of much foreign property around the times of the anti-western riots, it was clear that Rebellion was out of control. The Boxer Rebellion ended in September 7th of 1901, with the signing of the Boxer Protocol. The siege was relieved by 20,000 Japanese, American, and European soldiers fighting against the Boxers and the Imperial soldiers. The Protocol demanded the death of the leaders of the Boxer rebels, as well as 67 million pounds of gold, or 450 million silver teals to be paid over the course of 39 years. This amount was much more than the government tax revenue could afford.

From Imperial Concubine to Empress, Cixi never saw the beginning of World War I. Much of the Asian esthetics's can attributed to her style portrayed by the photography. At the end of her life, she began warming up to western ideas. She is now known as one of the most influential women in political history. Little is certain about her death, though there is lore about how she committed suicide by starvation.