WI Prince Gong ascended the throne in 1850 instead of the Xianfeng Emperor

raharris1973

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Gong

He seemed to get most policy questions right as a senior imperial advisor, worked with the Dowager Empress Cixi, and when they had rifts later he was taking the more reformist and fiscally responsible stances. He also lived till 1898.

What if the Xianfeng Emperor died before the Daoguang Emperor did, and Prince Gong became Emperor then in 1850 at 17. ...and, as a consequence, his own mother, and not Cixi, would be Dowager Empress. His own mother died in 1855.

What difference does any of this make of 19th century China?
 
It's very possible that he would be less reformist and more ignorant of the rest of the world in this scenario.Yixin's reformist attitudes were more or less shaped by his numerous interactions with westerners.As emperor,he would have to deal with Westerners through proxies

Nonetheless,reforming will probably be much more earnest than OTL.What must be noted however was that the reason why the reforms from otl was not successful was due to the fact that there was severe corruption and gross mismanagement rather than there being not enough efforts to try reforms.Unless Yixin is going to somehow manage that better as emperor,things are still going to be pretty bad.Nonetheless,I think things like railroads will be built earlier.
 

raharris1973

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Good point- I had not thought about the personal isolation factor, which could make him less realistic.

Overall, it occurred to me to propose this PoD because he wouldn't have been a political non-entity like the Tongzhi Emperor and Guangxu Emperor, and he's an alternative to the much-maligned Ci'xi.
 

raharris1973

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Any other thoughts on this. Is Naval budget waste on the marble boat just as likely? Will military training and supply services be any more serious? How would Gong deal with the foreign policy crises like the Tianjin Massacre (1870), Japanese raid on Taiwan (1873) Ili Incident (1877-81) and French Tonkin Campaign (1880s), which in OTL turned into a Sino-French War?
 
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