Survival of Qing Dynasty?

Basically, what ould have allowed for the Qing to last longer than they did in China? If Empress Cixi and/or Emperor Guangxu had survived, would their dynasty have done so as well? Or would the fall of the dynasty be inevitable? If the latter is the case, would it be by revolution, or would the dynasty degenerate into a different kind of Govt. over time?
 
Cixi living longer would only hasten the end on account of her miserable aptitude for proper governance, politics, and diplomacy . ;)
 
Yeah Cixi was by a lot of accounts a major bar to the Chinese government modernising, although she's generally not considered to be as corrupt wickedness incarnate that she has been portrayed to be in the past.

One timeline that I thought about doing was have a point of departure where she dies, either naturally/accidentally or with some help, before the end of 1874. Now in our timeline when the Tongzhi Emperor died rather than have Prince Gong's son Zaicheng succeed like tradition mandated and Ci'an proposed Cixi managed to force through having her nephew named as the new Guangxu Emperor and generally used him as a finger puppet, up to and including putting him under house arrest when he tried to institute reforms she disapproved of. However in this timeline with her dead that leaves Ci'an as sole Empress Dowager and her suggestion of Zaicheng as the new emperor unopposed. Finding out information about Zaicheng is a bit difficult but his father Prince Gong was fairly powerful and influential at court before Cixi managed to sideline him and looks to of been one of the leading proponents of reform. Even if this hasn't rubbed off on his kid what with the Dowager Empress Ci'an being a fairly quiet type that didn't involve herself in politics this has catapulted him into being the most powerful man in China after his son. With him around to lend support to the second phase of the self-strengthening movement and drive it forward and Cixi not that there to shut it down you've got just shy of twenty years until the First Sino-Japanese War kicks off, assuming of course that it happens in this timeline, to get reforming.


Needs several pre-1900 PODs working in tandem to happen.
Bugger. Yeah I didn't notice this was the After 1900 forum. Post-1900 is pretty much an no-go, even as a constitutional monarch is unlikely.
 
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