Comprehensive Guide to the Chinese Warlord Era

Abstract

The Chinese Warlord period, from 1916 to 1928, was a time of intense political fragmentation and military government following the collapse of the Beiyang government, which succeeded the better-known Republic of China established by Sun Yat-Sen after the Chinese Revolution.  This period is often overlooked in the West as an interim between the Chinese Revolution and the Second Sino-Japanese War, yet it is more than that, and its role in Chinese history is pivotal. Throughout these twelve years, China was fractured into multiple military governments led by warlords. These warlords would group and form cliques or alliances that often merged warlord territory. As a result of the collapse of the constitutional government that Sun Yat-Sen and Yuan Shikai (a former Qing statesman) agreed to, multiple militarymen who held great political office in the young republic filled the power void, making China greatly disunified. This led to casualties totaling the hundreds of thousands, which consisted of both civilian and military deaths. This paper analyzes secondary sources such as academic papers. This paper narrows down the warlord period into three distinct cliques: the Anhui, the Zhili, and the Fengtian. By doing so, it simplifies the period while highlighting its historical significance. The warlord period was pivotal for China’s fate: it not only weakened the country, which made it more susceptible to Japanese invasion, but also led to the rise of the Kuomintang, which, in turn, facilitated the communist takeover. This research is important because these events are overlooked, and by providing a general overview of the period, readers could gain a better understanding of this pivotal time in Chinese history.