A report on Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek and Warlord Era

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

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

Control of railroads was of great importance to the warlords.

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

Zhang Zongchang, one of the most infamous Chinese warlords

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

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

Bandits in northwestern China, around 1915

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

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.

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

Chiang during a visit to an air force base in 1945

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

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

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

Renault FT of the Fengtian clique during Northern Expedition

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Map of the campaigns of the Northern expedition of the Kuomintang

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

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

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

(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

Chiang with South Korean President Syngman Rhee in 1949

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

Map of the Chinese Civil War (1946–1950)

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.

Chiang with Japanese politician Nobusuke Kishi, in 1957

Statue in the Mausoleum, Kuomintang flag on the ceiling

Chiang presiding over the 1966 Double Ten celebrations

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

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.

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

Chinese propaganda poster proclaiming "Long Live the President"

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

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

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

Sun Yat-sen tribute in Tiananmen Square, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

Born in Chekiang (Zhejiang) Province, Chiang was a member of the Kuomintang (KMT), and a lieutenant of Sun Yat-sen in the revolution to overthrow the Beiyang government and reunify China.

- Chiang Kai-shek

The Nationalist Kuomintang government of Sun Yat-sen based in Guangzhou began to contest Yuan's Beiyang Government based in Beijing as the legitimate government of China.

- Warlord Era

He soon went to exile in Japan for safety but returned to find a revolutionary government in the South as a challenge to the warlords who controlled much of the nation.

- Sun Yat-sen

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.

- Warlord Era

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

- Sun Yat-sen

His successor, Zhang Xueliang, accepted the authority of the KMT leadership, and the Northern Expedition officially concluded, completing Chiang's nominal unification of China and ending the Warlord Era.

- Chiang Kai-shek

7 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

The party originated as the Revive China Society, founded by Sun Yat-sen on 24 November 1894 in Honolulu, Republic of Hawaii.

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

Republic of China (1912–1949)

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Commonly recognised as the official designation of China from 1912 to 1949, when it was a country in East Asia based in Mainland China, prior to the relocation of its central government to Taiwan as a result of the Chinese Civil War.

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

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

Major Chinese warlord coalitions during the "Nanjing Decade".

China had been at war with Japan since 1931.

Chinese Nationalist Army soldiers during the 1938 Yellow River flood

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.

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

Boat traffic and development along Suzhou Creek, Shanghai, 1920

Sun Yat-sen, the founder and its provisional president, served only briefly before handing over the presidency to Yuan Shikai, the leader of the Beiyang Army.

So began the Warlord Era: a decade of decentralized power struggles and prolonged armed conflict.

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.

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.

Northern Expedition

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Military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the "Chinese Nationalist Party", against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926.

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

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.

NRA forces enter the British concession at Hankou, October 1926

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

Mikhail Borodin making a speech in Wuhan, 1927

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

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

Beiyang warlord soldiers retreating by railway

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.

The purpose of the campaign was to reunify China, which had become fragmented in the aftermath of the Revolution of 1911.

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

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).

Beiyang government

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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.

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.

After his death, the army split into various warlord factions competing for power, in a period called the Warlord Era.

Its legitimacy was seriously challenged in 1917, by Sun Yat-sen's Canton-based Kuomintang (KMT) government movement.

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: 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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Fought between the Kuomintang -led government of the Republic of China (ROC) and forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), lasting intermittently after 1927.

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.

Following the collapse of the Qing dynasty and the 1911 Revolution, Sun Yat-sen assumed the presidency of the newly formed Republic of China, and was shortly thereafter succeeded by Yuan Shikai.

Yuan was frustrated in a short-lived attempt to restore monarchy in China, and China fell into power struggle after his death in 1916.

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

Nanjing Road (Nanking Road) in Shanghai after the Shanghai Uprising, hung with the Five Races Under One Union flags then used by the revolutionaries in Shanghai and Northern China.

1911 Revolution

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The 1911 Revolution, or Xinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China.

Sun Yat-sen with members of the Tongmenghui

Prince Qing with some royal cabinet members

The Iron Blood 18-star flag, used during the Wuchang Uprising

Map of uprisings during the 1911 Revolution

Chen Qimei, military governor of Shanghai

One of the old buildings occupied by the Guangfuhui in Lianjiang County, Fujian

1911 battle at Ta-ping gate, Nanking. Painting by T. Miyano.

Seal of the President of Provisional Government of Republic of China

Tang Shaoyi, left. Edward Selby Little, middle. Wu Tingfang, right.

Sun Yat-sen in 1912 at one of the historic crossroads with the Five Races Under One Union flag and the Iron Blood 18-star flag

On 1 January 1912, the National Assembly declared the establishment of the Republic of China, with Sun Yat-sen, leader of the Tongmenghui (United League), as President of the Republic.

Yuan's failure to consolidate a legitimate central government before his death in 1916, led to decades of political division and warlordism, including an attempt at imperial restoration.

Other units, led by Chiang Kai-shek and Yin Zhirei (尹銳志), captured most of the government offices.

First United Front

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The First United Front (alternatively ), also known as the KMT–CCP Alliance, of the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was formed in 1924 as an alliance to end warlordism in China.

In 1927, KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek purged the Communists from the Front while the Northern Expedition was still half-complete.

During the time of warlords, Sun Yat-sen kept the idea of a united Chinese republic alive.