Northern Expedition

The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the "Chinese Nationalist Party", against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926. 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. The first phase ended in a 1927 political split between two factions of the KMT: the right-leaning Nanjing faction, led by Chiang, and the left-leaning faction in Wuhan, led by Wang Jingwei. The split was partially motivated by Chiang's Shanghai Massacre of Communists within the KMT, which marked the end of the First United Front. In an effort to mend this schism, Chiang Kai-shek stepped down as the commander of the NRA in August 1927, and went into exile in Japan. The second phase of the Expedition began in January 1928, when Chiang resumed command. By April 1928, the nationalist forces had advanced to the Yellow River. With the assistance of allied warlords, including Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang, nationalist forces secured a series of decisive victories against the Beiyang Army. As they approached Beijing, Zhang Zuolin, leader of the Manchuria-based Fengtian clique, was forced to flee, and was assassinated shortly thereafter by the Japanese. His son, Zhang Xueliang, took over as the leader of the Fengtian clique, and in December 1928, announced that Manchuria would accept the authority of the nationalist government in Nanjing. With the final piece of China under KMT control, the Northern Expedition concluded successfully and China was reunified, heralding the start of the Nanjing decade. In the 1920s, the Beiyang government based in Beijing was internationally recognised as the legitimate Chinese government. Much of the country, however, was not under its control, being ruled by a patchwork of warlords. The Kuomintang (KMT), based in Guangzhou (Canton), aspired to be the party of national liberation.

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Warlord Era

The Warlord Era was a 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. 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. Yuan's death created a power vacuum that spread across the regions of Sichuan, Shanxi, Qinghai, Ningxia, Guangdong, Guangxi, Gansu, Yunnan and Xinjiang.

Beiyang government

The Beiyang government (), officially the Republic of China (), sometimes spelled Peiyang Government, or just China, was the government of the Republic of China which sat in its capital Beijing between 1912 and 1928. It was internationally recognized as the legitimate Chinese government during that time. The name derives from the Beiyang Army, which dominated its politics with the rise of Yuan Shikai, who was a general of the Qing dynasty. After his death, the army split into various warlord factions competing for power, in a period called the Warlord Era.

Three Principles of the People

The Three Principles of the People (; also translated as the Three People's Principles, San-min Doctrine, or Tridemism) is a political philosophy developed by Sun Yat-sen as part of a philosophy to improve China made during the Republican Era. The three principles are often translated into and summarized as nationalism, democracy, and the livelihood of the people (or welfarism). This philosophy has been claimed as the cornerstone of the nation's policy as carried by the Kuomintang (KMT); the principles also appear in the first line of the national anthem of the Republic of China.