Which leader's situation was most surmountable?

Which leader's situation was most surmountable?

  • Louis XVI of France (1774-1792)

    Votes: 21 18.9%
  • Cixi of China (1861-1908)

    Votes: 10 9.0%
  • Nicolas II of Russia (1894-1917)

    Votes: 42 37.8%
  • Mikhail Gorbachev of USSR (1985-1991)

    Votes: 38 34.2%

  • Total voters
    111
I feel like Louis simply had to actually supported the revolution, not just openly support it and secretly plotting against it. He would have lost power, but not his position or life. It would have been better for France(and the world) too.

Anyway thats actually way easier to do than maintain the Soviet Union while making the system collapse in on itself at the same time.
 

LordKalvert

Banned
All Cixi has to do to prevent collapse is let Guangxu continue with his reforms.


I'll disagree her. The Guangxu Emperor's reforms were ill conceived and poorly thought out. They would have inevitably lead to revolution as they alienated every single sector that the Manchu regime relied upon at once.
She's in a tight spot between the Chinese and the Manchus

Of course, if she had spent a little more money on the Navy in the late 1880's and early 1890's and not interfered with the military command, China would have won the Japanese war decisively. That butterflys away a lot of the regime's problems.
 
I'll disagree her. The Guangxu Emperor's reforms were ill conceived and poorly thought out. They would have inevitably lead to revolution as they alienated every single sector that the Manchu regime relied upon at once.
She's in a tight spot between the Chinese and the Manchus

Of course, if she had spent a little more money on the Navy in the late 1880's and early 1890's and not interfered with the military command, China would have won the Japanese war decisively. That butterflys away a lot of the regime's problems.

Was the Guangxu Emperor the Qing version of Gorbachev?
 

LordKalvert

Banned
Was the Guangxu Emperor the Qing version of Gorbachev?

He may have been. For example, abolishing the Confucian exams may have been a great idea but one has to remember that millions of Chinese had spent their lives studying the Confucian classics. All of a sudden, that knowledge is worthless. That's not going to make people happy

Democratization? Give jobs to the Chinese? What about the Manchus?

By 1898, China's position was getting desperate. The Japanese War had destroyed her military, forced her to pay an astronomical indemnity and the Great powers were licking their chops at the thought of partitioning China. The Boxer Rebellion would be the death blow even if the regime lingers for a few more years

But there really isn't anything transforming in the Hundred Days reforms and its angering every pillar of the old regime. The ouster is predetermined
 
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