A report on Chiang Kai-shek, Northern Expedition and Republic of China (1912–1949)

Clockwise from top-left: Chiang inspecting soldiers of the National Revolutionary Army; NRA troops marching north; an NRA artillery unit in combat; civilians showing support for the NRA; peasants volunteering to join the expedition; NRA soldiers preparing to launch an attack.

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, commander-in-chief of the NRA, emerged from the Northern Expedition as the leader of the KMT and China.

Land controlled by the Republic of China (1946) shown in dark green; land claimed but uncontrolled shown in light green.

Sun Yat-sen and Chiang at the 1924 opening ceremonies for the Soviet-funded Whampoa Military Academy

Chiang Kai-shek prepares to leave Guangzhou. Those pictured include Mikhail Borodin, on the far left, Vasily Blyukher in military uniform on the right, and Chiang himself in uniform, to the right of Blyukher.

Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of the Republic of China.

Yuan Shikai (left) and Sun Yat-sen (right) with flags representing the early republic

Chiang (right) together with Wang Jingwei (left), 1926

NRA forces enter the British concession at Hankou, October 1926

Major Chinese warlord coalitions during the "Nanjing Decade".

Chiang during a visit to an air force base in 1945

Members of the National Pacification military government, from left to right: Pan Fu, Gungsangnorbu, Wu Junsheng, Sun Chuanfang, Zhang Zuoxiang, and Zhang Zongchang

China had been at war with Japan since 1931.

Chiang and Soong on the cover of Time magazine, 26 October 1931

Mikhail Borodin making a speech in Wuhan, 1927

Chinese Nationalist Army soldiers during the 1938 Yellow River flood

Nationalist government of Nanking – nominally ruling over entire China in 1930s

Feng Yuxiang meets with Chiang Kai-shek in Xuzhou on 19 June 1927

The Nationalists' retreat to Taipei: after the Nationalists lost Nanjing (Nanking) they next moved to Guangzhou (Canton), then to Chongqing (Chungking), Chengdu (Chengtu) and Xichang (Sichang) before arriving in Taipei.

After the breakout of the Second Sino-Japanese War, The Young Companion featured Chiang on its cover.

Shanxi warlord Yan Xishan started to fight the NPA in October 1927, strengthening the KMT military position

Nationalist government of Nanking – nominally ruling over entire China during 1930s

Chiang with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in Cairo, Egypt, November 1943

Beiyang warlord soldiers retreating by railway

Chiang and his wife Soong Mei-ling sharing a laugh with U.S. Lieutenant General Joseph W. Stilwell, Burma, April 1942

When Zhang Xueliang (right) decided to make peace with the nationalist government, his former subordinates Zhang Zongchang (middle) and Chu Yupu (left) unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow him.

The leaders of the Northern Expedition gather on 6 July 1928 at Sun Yat-sen's mausoleum in the Temple of Azure Clouds, Beijing, to commemorate the completion of their mission.

Boat traffic and development along Suzhou Creek, Shanghai, 1920

Chiang with South Korean President Syngman Rhee in 1949

Map of the Chinese Civil War (1946–1950)

Chiang with Japanese politician Nobusuke Kishi, in 1957

Chiang presiding over the 1966 Double Ten celebrations

Chiang with U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower in June 1960

The National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is a famous monument, landmark, and tourist attraction in Taipei, Taiwan.

Chinese propaganda poster proclaiming "Long Live the President"

Chiang Kai-shek and Winston Churchill heads, with Nationalist China flag and Union Jack

Statue of Chiang Kai-shek in Yangmingshan National Park, Taiwan

Chiang Kai-shek with the Muslim General Ma Fushou

Chiang Kai-shek as Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim

Mao Fumei (毛福梅, 1882–1939), who died in the Second Sino-Japanese War during a bombardment, is the mother of his son and successor Chiang Ching-kuo

Yao Yecheng (姚冶誠, 1889–1972), who came to Taiwan and died in Taipei

Chen Jieru (陳潔如, "Jennie", 1906–1971), who lived in Shanghai, but moved to Hong Kong later and died there

From 1928 until 1949 he served as leader of the ROC in mainland China, and from 1949 until 1975, as leader of the ROC in Taiwan.

- Chiang Kai-shek

The expedition was led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, and was divided into two phases.

- Northern Expedition

Commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army (from which he came to be known as a Generalissimo), he led the Northern Expedition from 1926 to 1928, before defeating a coalition of warlords and nominally reunifying China under a new Nationalist government.

- Chiang Kai-shek

General Chiang Kai-shek, who became the Chairman of the Kuomintang after Sun's death and subsequent power struggle in 1925, began the Northern Expedition in 1926 to overthrow the Beiyang government.

- Republic of China (1912–1949)

Before his death in March 1925, Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Republic of China and co-founder of the KMT, was supportive of Sino-Soviet co-operation, which had involved forming the First United Front with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

- Northern Expedition

15 related topics with Alpha

Kuomintang

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Major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan).

The Revolutionary Army attacking Nanjing in 1911

The KMT reveres its founder, Sun Yat-sen, as the "Father of the Nation"

Venue of the 1st National Congress of Kuomintang in 1924

Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Kuomintang after Sun's death in 1925

KMT flag displayed in Lhasa, Tibet in 1938

The National Revolutionary Army soldiers marched into the British concessions in Hankou during the Northern Expedition

Nationalist soldiers during the Second Sino-Japanese War

The retrocession of Taiwan in Taipei on 25 October 1945

The former KMT headquarters in Taipei City (1949–2006), whose imposing structure, directly facing the Presidential Office Building, was seen as a symbol of the party's wealth and dominance

Pan-blue supporters at a rally during the 2004 presidential election

Kuomintang public service center in Shilin, Taipei

Lien Chan (middle) and Wu Po-hsiung (second left) and the KMT touring the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing, People's Republic of China when the Pan-Blue coalition visited the mainland in 2005

KMT headquarters in Taipei City before the KMT Central Committee moved in June 2006 to a much more modest Bade building, having sold the original headquarters to private investors of the EVA Airways Corporation

KMT Kinmen headquarters office in Jincheng Township, Kinmen County

KMT Building in Vancouver's Chinatown, British Columbia, Canada

KMT branch office in Pingzhen District, Taoyuan City

The KMT maintains offices in some of the Chinatowns of the world and its United States party headquarters are located in San Francisco Chinatown, on Stockton Street directly across the Chinese Six Companies

KMT Eastern U.S. headquarters is in New York Chinatown

KMT office of Australasia in Sydney, Australia

From left to right, KMT members pay tribute to the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Beijing in 1928 after the success of the Northern Expedition: Generals Cheng Jin, Zhang Zuobao, Chen Diaoyuan, Chiang Kai-shek, Woo Tsin-hang, Yan Xishan, General Ma Fuxiang, Ma Sida and General Bai Chongxi

It was the dominant party in China during the Republican Era from 1928 to 1949, when most of the Chinese mainland was under its control.

From 1926 to 1928, the KMT under Chiang Kai-shek successfully led the Northern Expedition against regional warlords and unified the fragmented nation.

Warlord Era

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Period in the history of the Republic of China when control of the country was divided among former military cliques of the Beiyang Army and other regional factions from 1916 to 1928.

Zhang Zuolin (left) and Wu Peifu (right), two of the most powerful strongmen of the Warlord Era

Control of railroads was of great importance to the warlords.

Zhang Zongchang, one of the most infamous Chinese warlords

Bandits in northwestern China, around 1915

Warlord soldiers train with dao swords sometime in the 1920s. Some warlord armies, especially those in southern China, were badly armed, paid and supplied, and often lacked even basic necessities, such as guns, ammunition, and food.

Zhang Zuolin with two of his sons, both wearing expensive miniature uniforms

Renault FT of the Fengtian clique during Northern Expedition

This military symbol was based on the Five Races Under One Union flag.

Map of the campaigns of the Northern expedition of the Kuomintang

In course of the Central Plains War, several warlords attempted to overthrow Chiang Kai-shek's newly formed Nationalist government; despite the defeat of the anti-Kuomintang forces, warlords continued to remain in power in much of China until the 1940s

In historiography, the Warlord Era began in 1916 upon the death of Yuan Shikai, the de facto dictator of China after the Xinhai Revolution overthrew the Qing dynasty and established the Republic of China in 1912.

The Warlord Era ended in 1928 when the Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek officially unified China through the Northern Expedition, marking the beginning of the Nanjing decade.

Clockwise from top: communist troops at the Battle of Siping; Muslim soldiers of the NRA; Mao Zedong in the 1930s; Chiang Kai-shek inspecting soldiers; CCP general Su Yu inspecting the troops shortly before the Menglianggu campaign

Chinese Civil War

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Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Commander-in-Chief of the National Revolutionary Army, emerged from the Northern Expedition as the leader of the Republic of China.

NRA troops firing artillery at Communist forces

Japanese occupation (red) of eastern China near the end of the war, and Communist bases (striped)

Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong met in Chongqing in 1945.

Shangdang Campaign, September–October 1945

Map showing Three Campaigns during the Chinese Civil War

Nationalist warplanes being prepared for an air raid on Communist bases

The PLA enters Beijing in the Pingjin Campaign.

Mao Zedong's proclamation of the founding of the People's Republic in 1949

Communist conquest of Hainan Island in 1950

"Forget not that you are in Jǔ"--a rock in Quemoy Island with Chiang Kai-shek's calligraphy signifying the retaking of one's homeland

Monument in memory of the crossing of the Yangtze in Nanjing

Lockheed U-2C 56-6691 wreckage (pilot Chang Liyi) on display at the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution, Beijing

The situation in China in 1929: After the Northern Expedition, the KMT had direct control over east and central China, while the rest of China proper as well as Manchuria was under the control of warlords loyal to the Nationalist government.

Map showing the communist-controlled Soviet Zones of China during and after the encirclement campaigns

Route(s) taken by Communist forces during the Long March

A Communist leader addressing survivors of the Long March

Situation in the winter of 1948 and 1949

Taiwanese side "Reunification under the Three Principles of the People“.

thumb|The Soviet Red Army invaded Manchuria in August 1945.

Chinese Communist soldiers march north to occupy rural Manchuria, 1945.

The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang (KMT)-led government of the Republic of China (ROC) and forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), lasting intermittently after 1927.

The war is generally divided into two phases with an interlude: from August 1927 to 1937, the KMT-CCP Alliance collapsed during the Northern Expedition, and the Nationalists controlled most of China.

In 1923, Sun sent Chiang Kai-shek, one of his lieutenants, for several months of military and political study in Moscow.

Beiyang government

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Republic of China between 1912 and 1928.

The first Congress of the Republic of China in 1915

Yuan Shikai's inauguration as the provisional president.

The Yuan Shikai "dollar" (yuan in Chinese), issued for the first time in 1914, became a dominant coin type of the Republic of China.

Duan Qirui, Chief Executive of the Republic of China

The Beijing bell and drum towers ceased being official timepieces after the coup.

The flag of the Kuomintang and the new national flag crested on a building in Harbin, Manchuria.

The Beiyang government, officially the Republic of China , sometimes spelled Peiyang Government and also known as the First Republic of China, refers to the government of the Republic of China which sat in its capital Peking (Beijing) between 1912 and 1928.

His successor Chiang Kai-shek defeated the Beiyang warlords during the Northern Expedition between 1926 and 1928, and overthrew the factions and the government, effectively unifying the country in 1928.

(clockwise from top left)Imperial Japanese Navy landing force in military gas masks in the Battle of Shanghai

Japanese Type 92 heavy machine gunners during Operation Ichi-Go

Victims of the Nanjing Massacre on the shore of the Qinhuai River

Chinese machine gun nest in the Battle of Wuhan

Japanese aircraft during the bombing of Chongqing

Chinese Expeditionary Force marching in India

Second Sino-Japanese War

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Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Allied Commander-in-Chief in the China theatre from 1942 to 1945

Japanese troops entering Shenyang during the Mukden Incident

A baby sits in the remains of a Shanghai train station on 'Bloody Saturday', 1937

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek announced the Kuomintang policy of resistance against Japan at Lushan on 10 July 1937, three days after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident.

Japanese landing near Shanghai, November 1937

Japanese troops in the ruins of Shanghai

Soviet embassy in Nanjing is being burned down by arson on 1 January 1938.

A Chinese POW about to be beheaded by a Japanese officer with a shin gunto

National Revolutionary Army soldiers during the 1938 Yellow River flood

Map showing the extent of Japanese occupation in 1941 (in red)

Theaters (military operational regions) of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army from late 1938 to early 1940

Wang Jingwei and officers of the Collaborationist Chinese Army

Chinese soldiers in house-to-house fighting in the Battle of Taierzhuang, March–April 1938

National Revolutionary Army soldiers march to the front in 1939.

Eighth Route Army Commander Zhu De with a KMT "Blue Sky, White Sun" emblem cap

115th Division of the Eighth Route Army Lieutenant General (NRA rank) Lin Biao in NRA uniform

War declaration against Japan by the Chongqing Nationalist Government on 9 December 1941

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Madame Chiang with Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell in 1942, Burma

A United States poster from the United China Relief organization advocating aid to China.

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill met at the Cairo Conference in 1943 during World War II.

I-16 with Chinese insignia. The I-16 was the main fighter plane used by the Chinese Air Force and Soviet volunteers.

Flying Tigers Commander Claire Lee Chennault

A "blood chit" issued to American Volunteer Group pilots requesting all Chinese to offer rescue and protection

Free Thai, American and Chinese military officers in China during the war

The India–China airlift delivered approximately 650,000 tons of materiel to China at a cost of 1,659 men and 594 aircraft.

French colonial troops retreating to the Chinese border after the Japanese coup d'état in March 1945

WWII victory parade at Chongqing on 3 September 1945

Japanese troops surrendering to the Chinese

The Chinese return to Liuzhou in July 1945.

China War of Resistance Against Japan Memorial Museum on the site where the Marco Polo Bridge Incident took place

The Taiwan Strait and the island of Taiwan

Casualties of a mass panic during a June 1941 Japanese bombing of Chongqing. More than 5,000 civilians died during the first two days of air raids in 1939.

Japanese war crime against a Chinese POW

Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces with gas masks and rubber gloves during a chemical attack near Chapei in the Battle of Shanghai

Chinese suicide bomber putting on an explosive vest made out of Model 24 hand grenades to use in an attack on Japanese tanks at the Battle of Taierzhuang

The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan.

For the purpose of unifying China and defeating the regional warlords, the Kuomintang (KMT, alternatively known as the Chinese Nationalist Party) in Guangzhou launched the Northern Expedition from 1926 to 1928 with limited assistance from the Soviet Union.

Later in the same year, Zhang decided to declare his allegiance to the Nationalist government in Nanjing under Chiang Kai-shek, and consequently, China was nominally reunified under one government.

Sun Yat-sen

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Sun Yat-sen (back row, fourth from right) and his family

Sun (second from left) and his friends the Four Bandits: Yeung Hok-ling (left), Chan Siu-bak (middle), Yau Lit (right), and Guan Jingliang (關景良, standing) at the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, circa 1888

Plaque in London marking the site of a house at 4 Warwick Court, WC1 where Sun Yat-sen lived while in exile

Letter from Sun Yat-sen to James Cantlie announcing to him that he has assumed the Presidency of the Provisional Republican Government of China, dated 21 January 1912

A letter with Sun's seal commencing the Tongmenghui in Hong Kong

Interior of the Wan Qing Yuan featuring Sun's items and photos

The Sun Yat-sen Museum in George Town, Penang, Malaysia, where he planned the Xinhai Revolution.

The Revolutionary Army of the Wuchang uprising fighting in the Battle of Yangxia

"Portrait of Sun Yat-sen" (1921) Li Tiefu Oil on Canvas 93×71.7cm

(L-R): Liao Zhongkai, Chiang Kai-shek, Sun Yat-sen and Soong Ching-ling at the founding of the Whampoa Military Academy in 1924

Sun Yat-sen (seated) and Chiang Kai-shek

Sun (seated, right) and his wife Soong Ching-ling (seated next to him) in Kobe, Japan in 1924

Chinese generals at the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in 1928 after the Northern Expedition. From right: Cheng Jin (何成浚), Zhang Zuobao (張作寶), Chen Diaoyuan (陳調元), Chiang Kai-shek, Woo Tsin-hang, Yan Xishan, Ma Fuxiang, Ma Sida (馬四達), and Bai Chongxi.

Statue in the Mausoleum, Kuomintang flag on the ceiling

Lu Muzhen (1867–1952), Sun's first wife from 1885 to 1915

Aerial perspective of Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall in central Singapore. Taken in 2016

Sun Yat-Sen monument in Chinatown area of Los Angeles, California

Sun Yat-Sen plaza in the Chinese Quarter of Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Sun Yat-sen tribute in Tiananmen Square, 2010

Sun Yat-sen Memorial Centre, George Town, Penang, Malaysia

A marker on the Sun Yat-sen Historical Trail on Hong Kong Island

Sun Yat-sen (born Sun Te-ming; 12 November 1866 – 12 March 1925), also known as Sun Yat-sun, Sun Chung-shan, Sun Yi-hsien, Sun Wen, Sun Jih-hsin, Suen Yat-sen, Suen Yat-sun, Sun Yixian and Sun Rixin, was a Chinese statesman, physician, and political philosopher, who served as the first provisional president of the Republic of China and the first leader of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party of China).

He did not live to see his party unify the country under his successor, Chiang Kai-shek, in the Northern Expedition.

Map showing the province of Henan and two definitions of the Central Plain (中原) or Zhōngyuán

Central Plains War

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The flag of the Kuomintang and the flag of the Republic of China crested on a building in Harbin, Manchuria

NRA Generals in Beijing after Northern Expedition

Map showing the situation of China during the Central Plains War in 1930

The Central Plains War was a series of military campaigns in 1929 and 1930 that constituted a Chinese civil war between the Nationalist Kuomintang government in Nanjing led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and several regional military commanders and warlords that were former allies of Chiang.

After the Northern Expedition ended in 1928, Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang, Li Zongren and Zhang Fakui broke off relations with Chiang shortly after a demilitarization conference in 1929, and together they formed an anti-Chiang coalition to openly challenge the legitimacy of the Nanjing government.

While Chiang emerged as the paramount leader of the Republic of China, the reunification soon ran into issues as different factions in the Kuomintang disagreed over demilitarization at a military conference in 1929.

Nationalist government

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Land controlled by the Republic of China (1945) shown in dark green; land claimed but uncontrolled shown in light green.

Organisational chart of the KMT regime (1934).

Headquarters of the National Government in Nanjing

KMT troops rounding up Communist prisoners for execution

The Nationalist government, officially the National Government of the Republic of China, also known as the Second Republic of China but most commonly known simply as the Republic of China, refers to the government of the Republic of China from 1 July 1925 to 20 May 1948, led by the Kuomintang (literally the "Nationals' Party").

They were nominally reunified in 1928 by the Nanjing-based government led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, which after the Northern Expedition governed the country as a one-party state under the Kuomintang, and was subsequently given international recognition as the legitimate representative of China.

Yan Xishan

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Chinese warlord who served in the government of the Republic of China.

Yan Xishan in the early 1920s, shortly after taking power in Shanxi.

Yan Xishan's soldiers in Liaozhou (now Zuoquan County) in 1925 during the war with Henan warlord Fan Zhongxiu.

Chinese troops marching to defend the mountain pass at Xinkou.

During the siege of Taiyuan, Yan told foreign journalists that he and his followers would swallow cyanide pills before they let the PLA take Shanxi. Many of his followers committed suicide when Taiyuan fell.

Yan retired from public life in 1950. He spent much of his retirement writing, analyzing contemporary political issues and promoting Yan Xishan Thought.

Yan Xishan's tomb in Shilin District, Taipei.

Yan's inability to resist Yuan's military domination of northern China was a factor contributing to Sun Yat-sen's decision not to personally pursue the presidency of the Republic of China, which was established after the end of the Qing dynasty.

In order to resist the domination of Manchurian warlord Zhang Zuolin, Yan allied himself with the forces of Chiang Kai-shek in 1927, during the Nationalists' Northern Expedition.

Feng Yuxiang

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Warlord and a leader of the Republic of China from Chaohu, Anhui.

Feng Yuxiang was in front of the iron armored vehicle captured by the Fengtian clique

Feng Yuxiang, Chiang Kai-sek and Yan Xishan, 1928, erstwhile allies prior to the outbreak of the Central Plains War

Feng Yuxiang on the cover of Time, 2 July 1928

Feng Yuxiang on the cover of The Young Companion, December 1937.

Tomb of Feng Yuxiang at the foot of Mount Tai in Shandong.

He joined the Nationalist Party (KMT), supported the Northern Expedition and became blood brothers with Chiang Kai-shek, but resisted Chiang's consolidation of power in the Central Plains War and broke with him again in resisting Japanese incursions in 1933.

In October 1928 Feng Yuxiang was appointed as Vice President of the Executive Yuan and War Minister of the Republic of China by President Chiang Kai-shek.