Warlord+China

Key Terms
 * SunYatsen || Sun Yatsen was the leader of Koumintang. He tried to overthrow YuanShikai but failed, but later won because of his party's popularity. ||
 * Yuan Shikai || He was the first president of China ||
 * Warlord || A military commander who has seized power, esp. in one section of a country. ||
 * Koumintang || the political party founded in 1911 by Sun Yat-sen; it governed China under Chiang Kai-shek from 1928 until 1949 when the Communists took power and subsequently was the official ruling party of Taiwan ||
 * China || People's Republic of,  a country in E Asia. 1,221,591,778; 3,691,502 sq. mi. (9,560,990 sq. km).  //Capital://  Beijing. ||

warlord map

Yuan Shikai as a president (1912-16)

Yuan Shikai was the first president of China. At first he held a National Assembly, which was a place for elections for a parliament. After Guomindang won the majority of the votes, Yuan Shikai ignored the assembly and became a dictator. Yuan Shikai's next move was making himself Emperor. However 3 groups of people(Guomindang, the Japanese government, and generals in Yuan's army) opposed him so he couldn't become emperor. He later died because of kidney failure. After that, the warlord era began.



Kuomintang

Koumintang means the Chinese National People's Party. Kuomintang was a nationalist party that was founded in 1894. The leader of Kuomintang was Sun Yatsen during the warlord era. At first the Koumintang started out as a small group. Sun Yatsen found supporters in Tokyo, and was ready to overthrow the Qing dynasty. After the monarch fell, Yuan Shikai and Sun Yatsen were competing for leadership. Sun Yatsen won the mojority of voted in the National Assembly, 1912. Yuan Shikai then ignored the National assembly and decided to become a dictator. Yuan Shikai won the "war" against Koumintang, and he became leader. After Yuan declared he was to become emporer in 1915, many many people opposed him, and one of them was Koumintang. Yuan Shikai later died of kidney failure and then came the warlord era. In this era Koumintang controlled the south province of Guangzhou. But because of their communist campaign they became powerful and re-united China.

Symbol of Guomindang

Warlord era

After Yuan Shikai's death there was no leader that is popular enough to take his place. The result of that is the collapse of the central government in Beijing. Many powerful leaders came out and took provinces for their own dividing china in to 9 parts. This is where the warlord begin these warlords fought each other to conquered the provinces that they want. Most of the warlords were generals that opposed Yuan Shikai. There was another party that opposed Yuan Shikai, they were the Koumintang, and they were powerful because they won the people's hearts. Other warlords fought for territory and power but Koumintang focused on getting popular and building up in the "big league". By that, I mean that Koumintang was planning to lead China, not just control some provinces.



Compare and Contrast - P.T. and Smile Compare and Contrast China's warlord era 1912-1927 with the Russian Revolution era 1917-1923 Comparing- Both eras were similar. It all started out when a leader of a country was killed or overthrown. The country went in chaos and another kind of system was brought up. In Russia, the Tsar was killed, Yuan Shikai failed to revive the monarchy system and soon died of kidney failure. The second similarity is that Russia had a revolution and in China there were rebellions, which is almost the same as a revolution. Contrast- In Russia, the red and the white army fought. In China, many warlords fought for territory and power. In China, the "powerful" party was Koumintang, which had won the peasants hearts. They had little army and territory, but they didnt treat the peasants like dirt bags. The other warlords had army and territory, but were not popular at all. In Russia, the leading party was the Red Army. The Red Army had military power and they controlled a lot of factories in the cities, so the factories could help them produce weapons and equipment they needed. Overall, both eras were similar, and there aren't that many differences.

Pre-Communist China and China under Communist rule Unit Two- The Rise of Communism home