Empress Dowager Cixi

Empress Dowager Cixi was effectively the ruler of the Great Qing Empire from 1861 to 1908. A daughter of the Manchu Yehe Nara Clan, was began as the concubine of Emperor Xianfeng and rose to prominence when her son succeeded him as Emperor Tongzhi during whose minority she took power from the regents. In 1875 she put her nephew Emperor Guangxu on the throne but continued to dominate affairs. She presided over the disastrous defeat in the Boxer Rebellion and after years of hesitation began to enact political reforms along with the modernization program she had enacted long before. It was insufficient to save the dynasty but she lived long enough to choose her nephew, Aisin-Gioro Pu-Yi, to become the last Emperor of China.