His Majesty, the European Emperor of China

While reading on the topic of plausibility on this website's wiki (I believe it was), I came across a note that if there is a point of divergence after Napoleon's birth, then it should be considered flat-out impossible that Napoleon will be appointed Emperor of Japan in the early 19th century. The notion of a European somehow establishing himself as an Emperor in an Asian country intruiged me. What I am referring to is not the Indian case where a nation was declared a colony and the monarch back in Europe was declared Imperial head of state of that colony, but the Brazilian or Mexican case, where there actually was a nobleman of European origin who ruled a non-European nation with his court and capital in that very nation. So let's say I wanted to have a Chinese Empire ruled by a scion of the House of Hanover, Bourbon, Bonaparte or Habsburg-Lorraine. To make the challenge as difficult as possible, let's put the PoD no earlier than the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. How do I achieve that?

Personally, I am interested in exploring the possibility of having the French join with the British in the Opium War (or a later more destructive war), culminating in the partition of China into new states loyal to the two European nations (for example, a British-backed fully independent Tibet would be interesting). These are then ruled by noblemen and former vassals of imperial China. Soon enough, though, citing obstruction of British and French interest, these new states are rapidly colonized, with Viceroys appointed as rulers. In a later German Unification War, the French royal (or imperial family) flees Paris much like the Portuguese royal family fled Lisbon and arrives in one of their Chinese colonies, and soon, much like the Portugal-Brazil case, we get a French Emperor of China.

Clearly this rough draft won't work, and so remedies are needed to achieve the objective.

Suggestions?
 
The note on the Wiki was right.

Bear in mind when you cite Brazil and Mexico as examples, that they have had more than 200 years of continuous rule by and ethnic intermingling with Europeans by this point. In fact, the populations were considered to largely be European-mix-American so they would likely actually welcome a European King, all politics re: republicanism aside.
 
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Both Brazil and Mexico aren't good examples of this either - mostly because both had large populations descended from European settlers (who had been colonising them for centuries), and had been (largely) culturally assimilated by said settler populations.

Emperor Pedro was a Portuguese monarch ruling a region controlled by Portuguese and -descended population. The First Mexican Empire was ruled by a Mexican citizen who proclaimed himself emperor (though the Second one was by a monarch imposed from outside, but subsequently overthrown).

Anyway, the French monarch fleeing from the Uber-Unified-Germans of Doom would more likely escape somewhere closer, like Algeria*, and rule their empire from there.

For something like what you've envisioned, you'd need the colonising power to be heavily entrenched in the colonial region, probably for a long time, for this to work.



*Unless (a) Algeria has already been secured by the Republicans, or (b) the Chinese colony is considered by far the most valuable one
 
The closest I can think of is that during some time of weakness in Europe, a local Viceroy with delusions of Grandeur declares himself Emperor and independent. E.g. France is weak, so some local Napoleon wannabee announces he is 'Empereur de Indochine' with the Emperor of Vietnam, King of Cambodia, and King of Lan Xiang as his vassals. This is unlikely to last long though.
 
What about China breaking up into smaller states and Portugal having a more effective presence in the region beyond Formosa and Macau? Or alternatively, a powerful Russia placing some prince on a Chinese rump state over which they have a protectorate.
 
I think the Philippines are maybe an option, but not China.

Now that's an interesting possibility.

Spain ruled in the Philippines until 1898, and we want to create a monarchy that lasts longer than just a few years. What did go on in the Philippines during the Napoleonic Wars?

Alternatively, is there any way we can have Napoleon III go for a little adventure there much like he did in Mexico? Whoever is made Emperor of the Philippines is then backed by both Spain and the United Kingdom.
 
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