Cixi: One of The Last Empresses

Cixi (pronounced "Si-Shee") was the last dowager empresses of China (the mothers of the emperor) and helped rule the country for many years on behalf of her own son and her adopted son later on. She was the empress dowager at the same time as Queen Victoria was queen in England. She helped bring China into the twentieth century and encouraged the country to trade with other countries and to modernize. She saw China change drastically over her lifetime. Soon after she died the country became a republic and did away with having an emperor rule over them.