The
Beiyang Army ' onMouseout='HidePop("67108")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Ocean">Ocean
An ocean is a large body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 75% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
Army") was a powerful, Western-style
ChineseChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
military force created by the
Qing DynastyThe Qing Dynasty , also known as the Manchu Dynasty, was the last ruling dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912...
government in the late 19th century. It was the centerpiece of a general reconstruction of China's
militaryA military is an organization authorized by its nation to use force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. As an adjective the term "military" is also used to refer to any property or aspect of a military...
system. The Beiyang Army played a major role in Chinese politics for at least three decades and arguably right up to 1949. It made the
Xinhai RevolutionThe Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution , also known as the 1911 Revolution or the Chinese Revolution, began with the Wuchang Uprising on October 10, 1911 and ended with the abdication of Emperor Puyi on February 12, 1912...
possible, and by dividing into
warlordA warlord is a person with power who has both military and civil control over a subnational area due to armed forces loyal to the warlord and not to a central authority. The term can also mean one who espouses the ideal that war is necessary, and has the means and authority to engage in war...
factions ushered in a period of regional division.
Origins under Li Hongzhang (to 1900)
The Beiyang Army was created from
Li HongzhangLi Hongzhang , Marquis Suyi of the First Class , GCVO, , also spelled Li Hung-chang, was a Chinese general who ended several major rebellions, and a leading statesman of the late Qing Empire...
's Anhui Army, which first saw action during the
Taiping RebellionThe Taiping Rebellion was a large-scale revolt in China from 1850 to 1864, during the Qing Dynasty, by an army led by heterodox Christian convert Hong Xiuquan...
. Unlike the traditional Green Standard or Banner forces of the Qing, the Anhui Army was largely a militia army based on personal, rather than institutional, loyalties. The Anhui Army was at first equipped with a mixture of traditional and modern weapons. Its creator, Li Hongzhang, used the customs and tax revenues of the five provinces under his control in the 1880s and 1890s to modernize segments of the Anhui Army, and to build a modern navy (the
Beiyang FleetThe Beiyang Fleet was one of the four modernised Chinese navies in the late Qing Dynasty. The navies were heavily sponsored by Li Hongzhang, who was the Viceroy of Zhili. The Beiyang Fleet soon became the dominant navy in East Asia before the onset of First Sino-Japanese War in 1894 - 1895...
). It is around this time that the term "Beiyang Army" began to be used to refer to the military forces under his control. The term "
BeiyangThe term Beiyang originated toward the end of the Qing Dynasty, and it referred to the coastal areas of Zhili , Liaoning, and Shandong in northeast China.Minister of Beiyang's position was to be hold by the Viceroy of Zhili...
", meaning literally "Northern Ocean", refers to the customs revenues collected in North China, which were used first to fund the
Beiyang FleetThe Beiyang Fleet was one of the four modernised Chinese navies in the late Qing Dynasty. The navies were heavily sponsored by Li Hongzhang, who was the Viceroy of Zhili. The Beiyang Fleet soon became the dominant navy in East Asia before the onset of First Sino-Japanese War in 1894 - 1895...
and later the Beiyang Army. However, funding was usually irregular and training by no means systematic.
By the mid-1890s the Beiyang Army was the best regional formation China could field. The
First Sino-Japanese WarThe First Sino-Japanese War was a war fought between Qing Dynasty China and Meiji Japan, primarily over the control of Korea...
(1894-1895) was fought almost entirely by the Beiyang Army, unsupported by the forces of other provinces. In the war the Beiyang Fleet, which included two
pre-DreadnoughtPre-dreadnought battleship is the general term for all of the types of sea going battleships built between the mid-1890s and 1905. Pre-dreadnoughts replaced the ironclad warships of the 1870s and 1880s...
battleships, was overwhelmed by the well-served quick firing guns of a lighter Japanese fleet. Similarly, on land, Japan's German-styled conscript army, led by academy trained professional officers, handily defeated the Beiyang Army.
Yuan Shikai's ascendancy (1901–1908)
Li Hongzhang died in 1901 and was replaced by
Yuan ShikaiYuan Shikai was an important Chinese general and politician famous for his influence during the late Qing Dynasty, his role in the events leading up to the abdication of the last Qing Emperor of China, his autocratic rule as the...
, who took on Li's appointment as Viceroy of
ZhiliZhili was a northern province in China from the Ming Dynasty until the province was dissolved during the Republic of China in 1928.- History :...
and as Minister of Beiyang (北洋通商大臣). Yuan had been given command in 1895 of the brigade-sized
New Created ArmyThe New Armies were the modernized Qing armies, trained and equipped according to western standards...
. Many of his officers later became leading figures of the warlord period. They included
Zhang XunZhang Xun Qing-loyalist general who attempted to restore the abdicated emperor Puyi in 1917. He supported Yuan Shikai during his time as president....
(who attempted to restore the Qing dynasty in 1917),
Xu ShichangXu Shichang or was President of the Republic of China from October 10, 1918 to June 2, 1922.-Biography:...
(President of the Republic of China 1918–22),
Cao KunCao Kun was a military leader of the Zhili clique in the Beiyang Army, and trustee of the Catholic University of Peking.- Early life & Rise to leadership :Cao was born in a poor family in Tianjin...
(President 1922–24 and leader of the Zhili military clique),
Duan QiruiDuan Qirui was a Chinese warlord and politician, commander in the Beiyang Army, and the Provisional Chief Executive of Republic of China from November 24, 1924 to April 20, 1926. He was arguably the most powerful man in China from 1916 to 1920.- Early life :Born in Hefei as Duan Qirui , his...
("Prime Minister" during much of 1916–20 and leader of the Anhui military clique) and
Feng GuozhangFéng Guózhāng, a native of Hejian, Hebei. He was a Beiyang Army general and politician in early republican China. He founded the Zhili clique of warlords....
(President 1917–18 and founder of the Zhili clique).
Yuan Shikai oversaw the piecemeal reform of Qing military institutions after 1901. He founded the
Baoding Military AcademyBaoding Military Academy is a military academy in the early years of the Republic of China. Located in Zhili , it generated many important military leaders before the founding of the Whampoa Military Academy. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, half of China's 300 divisions where commanded by...
, which allowed him to expand the Beiyang Army. With the creation of the Commission for Army Reorganisation in December 1903, the Beiyang Army became the model on which the military forces of other provinces should be standardized. By 1905 Yuan had increased the Beiyang Army to six divisions. In October he held manoeuvres near
HejianHejian is a county-level city in the Cangzhou prefecture, in Hebei province, China. In 2004, Hejian population was ca. 770.000 inhabitants and the city territory was...
in central
ZhiliZhili was a northern province in China from the Ming Dynasty until the province was dissolved during the Republic of China in 1928.- History :...
using the newly completed Beijing-Hankou railway. Similar exercises where held the next year with
Zhang ZhidongZhang Zhidong was an eminent Chinese politician during the late Qing Dynasty who advocated for controlled reform...
's army in
Hubei' is a central province of the People's Republic of China. Its abbreviation is 鄂 , an ancient name associated with the eastern part of the province since the Qin Dynasty. The name Hubei means "north of the lake", referring to Hubei's position north of Lake Dongting...
. It was the unanimous opinion of foreign observers that the Beiyang Army was the largest, best equipped and best trained military force in China at the time that was not Western/Colonial.
The Beiyang Army under Manchu control (1909–1910)
The
Empress Dowager CixiEmpress Dowager Cixi
1 , popularly known in China as the West Dowager Empress , was from the Manchu Yehe Nara Clan...
died on 15 November 1908 and was succeeded by the three year old Puyi. The new regent, 2nd Prince Chun (醇親王), had Yuan Shikai dismissed the next year. Yuan bided his time in retirement, carefully maintaining his network of personal contacts in the Beiyang Army. At the time of the
1911 RevolutionThe Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution , also known as the 1911 Revolution or the Chinese Revolution, began with the Wuchang Uprising on October 10, 1911 and ended with the abdication of Emperor Puyi on February 12, 1912...
, command of the Beiyang Army was supposedly in the hands of the Manchu minister Yinchang. In reality Yuan Shikai still had the ability to manipulate it due to the loyalties of its officers to him personally. Four divisions were located in Zhili, the 3rd Division being in
ManchuriaManchuria is a historical name given to a vast geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria either falls entirely within China, or is divided between China and Russia...
and the 5th Division in
ShandongFor the people of Shandong, see Shandong people' is a coastal province of eastern People's Republic of China. Its abbreviation is Lǔ, after the state of Lu that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....
. Almost all the officers were ethnically Chinese, many of whom were returned students from Japan. Armament was not standardized, but was better in that respect than either before or later. Most of the infantry were armed with either the standard 1896 Japanese rifle or the
MauserMauser is a German arms manufacturer of a line of bolt-action rifles and pistols from the 1870s to present. Their designs were built for the German armed forces, but have been exported and licensed to a number of countries since the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as being a...
7.9 mm.
The 1911 Revolution
The events of the revolution demonstrated that the Beiyang Army, which formed the core of the 36-division
New ArmyThe New Armies were the modernized Qing armies, trained and equipped according to western standards...
, was absolutely the dominant military force within China. Controlling the fragmented loyalties of its formations was the key to political power in post–1911 China. The insurrection which actually set off the 1911 Revolution
took place in WuchangThe Wuchang Uprising of October 10 1911 started the Xinhai Revolution, which led to the collapse of the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China .-Background:...
on 10 October. On 12 October Yinchang was ordered to take two Beiyang Army divisions down the Beijing-Hankou Railway to suppress the uprising at Wuchang. He attacked the revolutionary army commanded by
Huang XingHuang Xing or Huang Hsing , Chinese revolutionary leader, militarist and statesman, was the first army commander-in-chief of the Republic of China. As one of the founders of the Kuomintang and the Republic of China, his position was next to Sun Yat-sen. Together they were known as Sun-Huang...
on 27 October.
Covered by their own field artillery and the guns of the imperial fleet, the Beiyang infantry attacked with a cloud of skirmishers followed by a line of close order company fronts. These textbook tactics were soon to be discredited in the intense fighting of the
First World WarWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, but against an undisciplined revolutionary with no machine guns, they worked perfectly.
On the same day Yuan Shikai was ordered to take command of the forces at Wuchang. He refused, instead securing high commands for his two most trusted associates, Feng Guozhang and Duan Qirui. Fighting continued in Hubei for another month as Yuan negotiated with the dynasty and the revolutionaries using the Beiyang Army as a weapon of coercion. The end result was that he was elected as provisional
President of the Republic of ChinaThe President of the Republic of China is the head of state of the Republic of China . The Republic of China was founded in 1911 governing China...
.
Beiyang clique in power (1911–15)
During the period 1911–15, Yuan Shikai remained the only man who could hold the Beiyang Army together. He and his followers strongly resisted any attempt by the
KuomintangThe Kuomintang of China , translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party, is a political party of the Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan since the 1970s. It is the founding and the ruling political party of the ROC...
(KMT) to insert outsiders into their chain of command. They negotiated a £25 million (sterling) loan from a five-power banking consortium to support the Beiyang Army despite the uproar from the KMT. In 1913 Yuan Shikai appointed four of his loyal lieutenants as military governors in southern provinces: Duan Qirui in Anhui, Feng Guozhang in Jiangsu, Li Shun in Jiangxi and Tang Xiangming in Hunan. The unified Beiyang military clique now attained its maximum extent of territorial control. It exercised firm control over North China and the
Yangtze RiverThe Yangtze River, or Chang Jiang , Tibetan: Bri-chu, is the longest river in China and Asia, and the third-longest in the world, after the Nile in Africa and the Amazon....
provinces. Throughout 1914, it supported Yuan in making revisions to the constitution to give himself treaty and war-making powers as well as substantial emergency powers.
Angel, tiger, dog are nicknames about 3 commanders of Beiyang Army by newspapers in then: Angel is
Duan QiruiDuan Qirui was a Chinese warlord and politician, commander in the Beiyang Army, and the Provisional Chief Executive of Republic of China from November 24, 1924 to April 20, 1926. He was arguably the most powerful man in China from 1916 to 1920.- Early life :Born in Hefei as Duan Qirui , his...
, tiger is
Wang ShizhenWang Shizhen was a Chinese general and politician of the Republic of China.-Biography:Wang was born in Zhengding, Hebei in 1861. He was the Minister of War in the Republic of China three times, 1915-1916 and twice in 1917. He was the Premier of China from 1917 to 1918....
, dog is
Feng GuozhangFéng Guózhāng, a native of Hejian, Hebei. He was a Beiyang Army general and politician in early republican China. He founded the Zhili clique of warlords....
.
In December 1915, Yuan declared himself Emperor. This was opposed by almost all the generals and officers of the Beiyang Army, from Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang down. More importantly, many outlying provinces such as
YunnanYunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately 394,000 square kilometers . The capital of the province is Kunming...
openly opposed him. Yuan Shikai was forced to back down from his imperial designs. Both Duan and Feng refused to support Yuan in power any further and in the end the only prominent Beiyang general to remain loyal was the irrepressible Zhang Xun. Yuan died soon afterward. After Yuan Shikai's death the Beiyang Army split into cliques led by Yuan's principal proteges. Duan Qirui's Anhui clique and the Zhili clique founded by Feng Guozhang, but led after Feng's death by Cao Kun and
Wu PeifuWu Peifu or Wu P'ei-fu , was a major figure in the struggles between the warlords who dominated Republican China from 1916 to 1927.- Early career :...
, were the principal Beiyang cliques. Disunited, the power of the Beiyang Army was challenged by provincial armies such as
Yan XishanYan Xishan, was a Chinese warlord who served in the government of the Republic of China.-Biography:Yen received his formal military training first in China and later at Imperial Japanese Army Academy...
's forces in Shaanxi and
Zhang ZuolinZhang Zuolin was the warlord of Manchuria from 1916 to 1928. He successfully invaded China proper in October 1924 in the Second Zhili-Fengtian War. He gained control of Beijing, including China's internationally recognized government, in April 1926...
's Fengtian clique.
Fragmentation of the Beiyang army (1916–18)
Pressure from the Beiyang commanders prevented any political figure of the left from taking up power in the
Republic of ChinaThe Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan, is a state in East Asia that has evolved from a single-party state with full global recognition and jurisdiction over China into a democratic state with limited international recognition and jurisdiction only over Taiwan and minor islands, though it...
government. For almost a decade after Yuan's death, the agenda of the leading Beiyang warlords was to reunify China by first reuniting the Beiyang Army and then conquering the lesser provincial armies.
For a period from mid-1916, the ultraconservative Beiyang general Zhang Xun managed to maintain the unity of the army via collegial contacts and negotiation. As Yuan Shikai had done, the Beiyang generals used their military power to intimidate the
parliamentThe National Assembly of the Republic of China refers to several parliamentary bodies that existed in the history of the Republic of China. The National Assembly was originally founded in 1913 as the first legislature in Chinese history, but was disbanded less than a year later as President Yuan...
into passing the legislation they wanted. Following a dispute with President
Li YuanhongLi Yuanhong was a Chinese general and political figure during the Qing dynasty and the republican era. He was twice president of the Republic of China.- Early history :...
over a loan from Japan in early 1917, Duan Qirui declared independence from the government along with most of the other Beiyang generals. Zhang Xun then occupied Beijing with his army, and on 1 July shocked the Chinese political world by proclaiming the restoration of the Qing dynasty. All the other generals condemned this and the restoration soon collapsed. The elimination of Zhang Xun soon afterwards destroyed the balance of power between the rival factions of Feng and Duan and inaugurated a decade of high warlordism.
Feng Guozhang went to Beijing to assume the presidency after securing the appointment of his protege as military commander in Jiangxi, Hubei and Jiangsu. These three provinces became the bases of strength of the
Zhili military cliqueThe Zhili clique was one of several mutually hostile cliques or factions that split from the Beiyang clique during the Republic of China's warlord era. This fragmentation followed the death of Yuan Shikai, who was the only person capable of keeping the Beiyang Army together...
. Duan Qirui resumed his position of Prime Minister; his Anhui (sometimes called Anfu) clique dominated the Beijing area. Using Japanese funding to build up his so-called "War Participation Army", Duan continued to struggle with Feng Guozhang.
Feng was eventually eliminated from political life in 1918, when
Xu ShichangXu Shichang or was President of the Republic of China from October 10, 1918 to June 2, 1922.-Biography:...
, the Beiyang elder statesman, became President. His deputy Cao Kun replaced him as leader of the Zhili clique. At the end of
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, Duan dominated the Chinese representation at the
Treaty of VersaillesThe Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
and used the Shanghai peace conference in 1919 to bring pressure on the non-Beiyang militarists supporting
Sun Yat-senSun Yat-sen was a Chinese revolutionary and political leader. As the foremost pioneer of Republican China, Sun is frequently referred to as the Father of the Nation. Sun played an instrumental role in overthrowing the Qing Dynasty in October 1911, the last imperial dynasty of China...
's government in
GuangzhouGuangzhou , in English formerly known as Canton and also known as Kwangchow, is a sub-provincial city and the capital of Guangdong Province in the southern part of the People's Republic of China.It is a port on the Pearl River,...
. He continued to receive
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese funding for his army (renamed "National Defence Army"), for which he was willing to grant Japan legal succession to the German rights in Shandong (see
May Fourth MovementThe May Fourth Movement was an anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement growing out of student demonstrations in Beijing on May 4, 1919 protesting the Chinese government's weak response to the Treaty of Versailles, especially the Shandong Problem...
).
High warlordism (1919–1925)
Before May–June 1919, some combination of fighting and negotiation among the major Beiyang leader was expected to lead to military unification, which in turn would permit the restoration of the constitutional political processes that Yuan Shikai had disrupted. By 1919 the three major northern military cliques had cemented, two of them —
AnhuiThe Anhui clique was one of several mutually hostile cliques or factions that split from the Beiyang Clique in the Republic of China's Warlord era. It was named after Anhui province because several of its generals including its founder, Duan Qirui, was born in Anhui...
and
ZhiliThe Zhili clique was one of several mutually hostile cliques or factions that split from the Beiyang clique during the Republic of China's warlord era. This fragmentation followed the death of Yuan Shikai, who was the only person capable of keeping the Beiyang Army together...
— directly from the Beiyang Army and the third —
FengtianThe Fengtian Clique was one of several mutually hostile cliques or factions that split from the Beiyang Clique in the Republic of China's warlord era. It was named for Fengtian Province and led by Zhang Zuolin...
, under Zhang Zuolin — from an amalgamation of Beiyang and local troops. They and their imitators on a smaller scale were willing to get money and arms from any source in order to survive and the weaker factions would combine against the stronger.
The history of the major warlord wars down to 1925 recount the failure of any of the military commanders in China to centralise political and military power to any degree. In a situation resembling the period of the
Five Dynasties and Ten KingdomsFive Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms was an era of political upheaval in China, beginning in the Tang Dynasty and ending in the Song Dynasty. During this period, five dynasties quickly succeeded one another in the north, and more than 12 independent states were established, mainly in the south...
, most of South China remained beyond Beiyang control, to become the incubator for both the KMT and
Communist Party of ChinaThe Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and the ruling political party of the People's Republic of China and the world's largest political party...
movements.
Northern Expedition
The
KuomintangThe Kuomintang of China , translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party, is a political party of the Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan since the 1970s. It is the founding and the ruling political party of the ROC...
established the
National Revolutionary ArmyThe National Revolutionary Army was the Military Arm of the Kuomintang from 1925 until 1947, as well as the national army of the Republic of China during the KMT's period of party rule beginning in 1928...
with the help of the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
and
Communist Party of ChinaThe Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and the ruling political party of the People's Republic of China and the world's largest political party...
. Chiang Kai-Shek then launched the Northern Expedition in 1926 to attempt to bring the warlords under his control. Some warlords of the Beiyang Army were defeated by it and the
National Revolutionary ArmyThe National Revolutionary Army was the Military Arm of the Kuomintang from 1925 until 1947, as well as the national army of the Republic of China during the KMT's period of party rule beginning in 1928...
gradually took the dominance in
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
. The
warlord eraThe warlord era is the period in the history of the Republic of China, from 1916 to 1928, when the country was divided among military cliques, a division that continued until the fall of the Nationalist government in the mainland China regions of Sichuan, Shanxi, Qinghai, Ningxia, Guangdong,...
would officially end by 1928, when most of the warlords were either defeated or allied with the Kuomintang, although it was often in name only. The
Chinese Civil WarThe Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China . The war began in April 1927, amidst the Northern Expedition,. The war represented an ideological split between the Western-supported Nationalist KMT and the Soviet-supported Communist CPC...
that had resulted from a fallout between Chiang and the communists, was already underway by this time. In 1930 the
Central Plains WarCentral Plains War was a civil war within the factionalised Kuomintang that broke out in 1930. It was fought between the forces of Chiang Kai-shek and the coalition of three military commanders who had previously allied with Chiang: Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang, and Li Zongren...
began after some of the allied warlords became discontent with the Kuomintang and attempted to overthrow Chiang. These warlords eventually faltered, but the lack of cooperation and rivalry still proved to last through much of the years following, eventually leading to the demise of Chiang's regime over mainland China in the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
Sources
http://www.123exp-history.com/t/03764295754/
http://www.spock.com/q/%22Beiyang-Army%22
http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?showtopic=19878
http://indopedia.org/Beiyang_Army.html
See also
- Warlord era
The warlord era is the period in the history of the Republic of China, from 1916 to 1928, when the country was divided among military cliques, a division that continued until the fall of the Nationalist government in the mainland China regions of Sichuan, Shanxi, Qinghai, Ningxia, Guangdong,...
- Beiyang government
The Beiyang government or warlord government collectively refers to a series of military regimes that ruled from Beijing from 1912 to 1928 at Zhongnanhai. It was internationally recognized as the legitimate Government of the Republic of China...
- Military history of China
Ever since Chinese civilization was founded by the Xia Dynasty , organized military forces have existed throughout China. The recorded military history of China extends from about 2200 BC to the present day...
- History of the Republic of China
The history of the Republic of China begins after the Qing Dynasty in 1912, when the formation of the Republic of China put an end to over two thousand years of Imperial rule. The Qing Dynasty, also known as the Manchu Dynasty, ruled from 1644 to 1912...
- National Revolutionary Army
The National Revolutionary Army was the Military Arm of the Kuomintang from 1925 until 1947, as well as the national army of the Republic of China during the KMT's period of party rule beginning in 1928...
- Whampoa Military Academy
The Nationalist Party of China Army Officer Academy , commonly known as the Whampoa Military Academy , was a military academy in the Republic of China that produced many prestigious commanders who fought in many of China's conflicts in the 20th century, notably the Northern Expedition, the Second...
- Xinhai Revolution
The Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution , also known as the 1911 Revolution or the Chinese Revolution, began with the Wuchang Uprising on October 10, 1911 and ended with the abdication of Emperor Puyi on February 12, 1912...
----