Steering Foreign Relations and Pushing the Self-Strengthening Movement
Prince Gong
A royal family member and politician of the Qing dynasty, and the 6th prince of the Daoguang Emperor. Known by the title Prince Gong, he is called Prince Gong or Prince Kung in English. As the half-brother of the Xianfeng Emperor, he handled diplomatic negotiations for the Qing side during the Second Opium War and was involved in the signing of the Treaty of Beijing (Convention of Peking) in 1860. In 1861, he launched the Xinyou Coup with Empress Dowager Cixi and others, eliminating the court's regency forces that had become political enemies, and led the central politics of the Qing dynasty. Afterwards, he promoted the establishment of the Zongli Yamen and the organization of diplomatic systems, supporting the Self-Strengthening Movement that introduced Western military and industrial technology. On the other hand, political conflicts with Cixi and the conservatives continued, and he was dismissed from his major posts in 1884. He became involved in government affairs again in 1894 when the First Sino-Japanese War began, but died in Beijing in 1898.
Timeline
| Category | |
|---|---|
| Element |
Map
| Category | |
|---|---|
| Element |
Asia
World
Comments