The 'Warlord era' represents the period in the
history of the Republic of China from
1916 to the late-1930s when the country was divided by various military cliques, and this division continued until the fall of the Nationalist government in mainland
China in many regions, such as in
Sichuan,
Shanxi,
Qinghai,
Ningxia,
Guangdong,
Guangxi,
Gansu,
Yunnan, and
Xinjiang.
It followed the death of
Yuan Shikai and nominally ended in
1928 at the conclusion of the
Northern Expedition with the
Northeast Flag Replacement, beginning the "
Nanjing decade". However, when old warlords such as
Wu Peifu and
Sun Chuanfang were brought down, various new elements of warlordism persisted into the 1930s and 1940s, as the central government struggled to keep its nominal allies under its rein, and this would prove to be a major headache for the
Kuomintang (KMT) all the way through WWII and the following civil war. Some of the most notable of the warlord conflicts post-1928 include the
Central Plains War, which involved nearly a million soldiers.
Major Chinese warlord coalitions (1925)
Origins
The
Qing Dynasty did not have a national army but utilized regional armies and
militias which lacked standardization or consistency. The most powerful army was the northern-based
Beiyang Army under
Yuan Shikai which received the best in training and modern weaponry. Officers were loyal to their superiors and formed cliques based upon geography and shared academy experiences. Units were comprised of men from the same province. This policy was meant to reduce dialectal miscommunication but encouraged regionalist tendencies.
The
Xinhai Revolution in
1911 brought widespread mutiny across southern China. Rebel troops established a provisional government in
Nanjing the following year under
Sun Yatsen. The revolutionaries were not strong enough to defeat the Beiyang army and continued fighting would almost certainly lead to defeat. Instead, Sun negotiated with the Beiyang commander, Yuan Shikai, to bring an end to the Qing and reunify China. In return, Yuan would become president. Yuan refused to move to Nanjing and set the capital in
Beijing where his power base was secure.
Reacting to Yuan's growing
authoritarianism, the southern provinces rebelled in
1913 but were effectively crushed by Beiyang forces. Civil governors were replaced by military ones. In December
1915, Yuan made clear his intentions to become
emperor of China. The southern provinces rebelled again in the
National Protection War only this time it was more serious because most Beiyang commanders abandoned Yuan. He renounced monarchy to woo back his lieutenants but by the time he died in June
1916, China was fractured politically. The
North-South split would remain during the course of the warlord era.
North
Yuan's death split the Beiyang army into two factions: the
Anhui clique led by
Duan Qirui and the
Zhili clique led by
Feng Guozhang. The
Manchurian based
Fengtian faction, led by
Zhang Zuolin, was an amalgamation of Beiyang and local units. Diplomatic recognition was usually given to any government that ruled Beijing so capturing this city was a high priority. In addition, they could collect the customs revenue and apply for foreign loans. All the northern factions recognized the Beijing government as legitimate even if they opposed it. They would argue that while the government was legitimate, it lacked ''authority'' to dictate to provinces. The
Beiyang government in Beijing would occasionally issue edicts to territory beyond their control to charge rival factions with treason when it was expectedly ignored and thus justify military action. This practice ended in
1923 when
Cao Kun bought the presidency. The other northern factions were disgusted enough to refuse recognition.
Anhui clique era (1916-1920)
President
Li Yuanhong was virtually sidelined by the Beiyang generals. Premier Duan Qirui dominated politics but had to work with the Zhili clique in order to maintain stability. Many provinces refused to recognize their government and called for the removal of all Beiyang generals from politics. Duan's heavy-handed efforts to push China into
World War I and his secret loans from Japan led to his dismissal by Li in May
1917. Knowing that Duan was plotting against him, Li asked influential Beiyang general
Zhang Xun to protect the government. Instead, Zhang restored the Qing dynasty in July. Duan toppled the monarchist putsch and was hailed as the saviour of the republic, giving him greater clout. He was able to declare war against
Germany. His next task was to subdue the south but differences with the Zhili clique, which preferred negotiating, led to his resignation to save the unity of the Beiyang. President Feng Guozhang, however, had to recall Duan due to pressure from the Anhui clique. The campaign in
Hunan backfired resulting in attrition, low morale, and bitterness. Duan resigned again in October
1918 but did every effort to sabotage peace between north and south. His pro-Japanese policies weakened him during the
May Fourth Movement. The Zhili clique made an alliance with the
Fengtian clique of
Zhang Zuolin and defeated the Duan in July
1920.
Zhili clique era (1920-1924)
After the death of Feng Guozhang, the Zhili clique was led by
Cao Kun. The alliance with the Fengtian was only of convenience and war broke out in
1922 with Zhili driving Fengtian forces back to
Manchuria. Next, they wanted to bolster their legitimacy and reunify the country by bringing back Li Yuanhong to the presidency and restoring the
National Assembly. They proposed that
Xu Shichang and
Sun Yatsen resign their rival presidencies simultaneously in favor of Li. When Sun issued strict stipulations that the Zhili couldn't stomach, they caused the defection of KMT general
Chen Jiongming by recognizing him as governor of
Guangdong. With Sun driven out of
Guangzhou, the Zhili clique superficially restored the constitutional government that existed prior to Zhang Xun's coup. Cao bought the presidency in
1923 despite opposition by the
Kuomintang, Fengtian, Anhui remnants, some of his lieutenants, and the public. In the autumn of
1924, the Zhili appeared to be on the verge of complete victory until
Feng Yuxiang betrayed the clique, seized Beijing, and imprisoned Cao. Zhili forces were routed from the north but they kept the center.
Fengtian clique era (1924-1928)
The alliance between Zhang Zuolin and Feng Yuxiang was tenuous. Feng had formed his own faction called the
Guominjun (Nationalist Army) which was ideologically sympathetic to the southern
Kuomintang government but not a part of it. As a compromise, they gave the northern government to Duan Qirui whose Anhui clique was near extinct. Fengtian was far stronger in terms of manpower as KMC troops were stretched thinly across a vast area. Negotiations in north-south reunification went nowhere since Zhang and Duan had little in common with
Sun Yatsen who died in March
1925. Later that year, fighting broke out after Fengtian general
Guo Congling defected to the KMC. Zhili general
Wu Peifu decided to ally with Zhang against the traitor Feng. KMC forces were driven to the northwest but later joined the
Northern Expedition of
Chiang Kaishek. Zhang took over the northern government in June
1927 as troops from the
National Revolutionary Army were flooding into his territory. On 2 June
1928, Zhang resigned after agreeing to handover Beijing to the NRA. He was
assassinated by a Japanese bomb while fleeing to
Manchuria on 4 June. Five days later, NRA troops seized the capital and extinguished the
Beiyang government. Zhang's son and successor,
Zhang Xueliang, recognized the Nationalist government on
31 December.
South
The south was the hotbed of revolutionary activity where opposition to the Beiyang cliques were the strongest. They revolted against the Qing in
1911 and against
Yuan Shikai in
1913 and
1916. After the Qing restoration debacle in Beijing, several southern provinces led by
Tang Jiyao and
Lu Rongting refused to recognize the new
Duan Qirui cabinet and parliament.
Sun Yat-sen gathered notable politicians, KMT members of the dissolved
National Assembly, and southern militarists in late July
1917 to form a rival government in
Guangzhou known as the
Constitutional Protection government. The southern factions recognized
Guangzhou as the legitimate capital even though it lacked international recognition. Like the north, southern militarists would occasionally rebel on the pretense of provincial rights,
Guangxi especially. The southern provinces were:
Yunnan,
Sichuan,
Guizhou,
Hunan,
Guangxi, and
Guangdong (including
Hainan).
Constitutional Protection (1917-1922)
In September, Sun was named generalissimo of the military government with the purpose of protecting the
provisional constitution of 1912. The southern warlords assisted his regime solely to legitimize their fiefdoms and challenge Beijing. In a bid for international recognition, they too declared war against the
Central Powers but failed to garner any recognition. In July
1918, southern militarists thought Sun was given too much power and forced him to join a governing committee. Continual interference forced Sun into self-imposed exile. While away, Sun recreated the
Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang). With the help of KMT general
Chen Jiongming, committee members General
Cen Chunxuan, Admiral
Lin Baoyi, and General
Lu Rongting were expelled in
1920. On May
1921, Sun was elected "extraordinary president" by a rump parliament despite protests by Chen and
Tang Shaoyi who complained of its unconstitutionality. Tang left while Chen plotted with the Zhili clique to overthrow Sun in June
1922 in return for recognition of his governorship over
Guangdong.
Reorganization (1923-1925)
Loyalists drove Chen out and Sun returned to power in March
1923. He reorganized the KMT along
Leninist democratic centralism and made an alliance with the
Communist Party of China which would be known as the
First United Front. The southern government abandoned protecting the 1912 constitution since its rump parliament defected to the north to join Cao's puppet government. Instead, its new purpose was to create a revolutionary
single-party state. The
Whampoa Military Academy was formed to create a loyal officer corps to rid the KMT of its dependence on unreliable and opportunistic southern generals. With the ouster of the Zhili clique in
1924, Sun traveled to Beijing to negotiate reunification with Kuominchun, Fengtian, and Anhui leaders. He succumbed to cancer in March
1925 which ended the talks but also initiated a power struggle within the KMT.
Tang Jiyao, claiming to be Sun's chosen successor, tried to seize control of the southern government but was routed.
Northern Expedition (1926-1928)
Main articles: Northern Expedition
KMT general
Chiang Kai-shek emerged as the leader of the
National Revolutionary Army, following the
Zhongshan Warship Incident. He set out on the long delayed
Northern Expedition in the summer of
1926. NRA forces easily defeated the Zhili armies of
Wu Peifu and
Sun Chuanfang in central and east China. The Kuominchun and
Shanxi warlord
Yan Xishan joined forces with the KMT against the Fengtian. In
1927, the KMT-CPC alliance ruptured with the communists being
brutally purged, which initiated the
Chinese Civil War - bloody events forming the background to the novel
Man's Fate. Chiang established his capital in Nanjing but still needed to take Beijing to get international recognition. Yan Xishan, now a KMT general, occupied Beijing after the death of Zhang Zuolin.
Zhang Xueliang, the new leader of Fengtian, submitted himself under the condition he would continue to rule over
Manchuria, but the Japanese would later occupy Manchuria in
1931.
Nominal reunification
Main articles: Chinese reunification (1928)
By moving the capital to Nanjing, Chiang was secured in his power base, completing the
Northeast Flag Replacement of Chinese reunification in 1928. Many warlords were not defeated but co-opted into the new national government which would trouble Chiang. Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan rebelled in
1930 in the
Central Plains War. Zhang Xueliang took part in the
1936 Xi'an Incident. In addition minor warlords, bandits, ethnic minority militias, and the communists were active in the countryside and peripheral regions. The KMT itself was plagued by factionalism with influential leaders like
Wang Jingwei and
Hu Hanmin rebelling against Chiang. Chiang's actual power was weaker beyond the provinces surrounding
Jiangsu. In short,
warlordism did not end but took on a different appearance. All cliques now wore the
Zhongshan suit and had KMT party membership.
Major Factions
Northern factions
Early Cliques
Newer Cliques
'Minor Northern Factions'
Southern factions
'Minor Southern Factions'
See also
★
National Revolutionary Army
★
Whampoa Military Academy
★
Military of the Republic of China
★
History of the Republic of China
★
Politics of the Republic of China
★
Sino-German cooperation
★
Kuomintang
★
Chinese Nationalism
★
Man's Fate
External links
★
民国军阀派系谈 (The Republic of China warlord cliques discussed)
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