By the 1860s the Qing Dynasty had started to threaten the Taiping rebels’ stronghold at Nanjing.  The Western powers inside China, grew weary and distrustful of the Taipings.  They intervened militarily against the Taiping and helped to defeat them and end the rebellion. The Nian rebellion ended as well.

The Emperor Xian Feng died in 1861.  Before he died he named his five-year old son to succeed him.   He would become the Emperor Tongzhi.  One of the late Emperor’s concubines, Cixi (a/k/a The Empress Dowager and the mother of the five-year old), orchestrated a coup d’tete against the boy’s advisors. She became the de-facto Emperor of the Dynasty for the next fifty years. She would rule China from behind the curtain. 

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