President Yuan Shikai’s death removed the last widely recognized central authority, accelerating the fragmentation of power among competing Beiyang military factions and provincial commanders that defined the Warlord Era.
General Zhang Xun seized Beijing and briefly restored the Qing dynasty by reinstalling Puyi, but the restoration collapsed within days as republican forces moved to retake the capital—illustrating the era’s volatile civil-military politics.
Republican forces defeated Zhang Xun’s restoration regime, ending the brief Qing revival and reaffirming that armed cliques—not constitutional processes—would decide political outcomes in North China.
Sun Yat-sen and allied politicians convened a rival government in Guangzhou, claiming to defend the provisional constitution against the Beijing-based Beiyang government—formalizing the North–South political split.
The Anfu Club was established as a pro–Duan Qirui political organization and became a key parliamentary vehicle for the Anhui clique, linking military power to legislative control in Beijing politics.
Student demonstrations in Beijing protested China’s treatment at Versailles and sparked nationwide activism, catalyzing new political and cultural currents that reshaped Republican-era politics during the warlord period.
A short but decisive war ended with Zhili and Fengtian forces defeating the Anhui clique, reshuffling control of the Beiyang government and demonstrating how quickly coalition politics could collapse into warfare.
Armed conflict erupted between the Zhili and Fengtian cliques for control of Beijing, reflecting the instability of the post-1920 coalition and the centrality of military force in national politics.
Renewed war between the Zhili clique and a Fengtian-led anti-Zhili alignment escalated the struggle for North China and set the stage for a major political rupture in Beijing.
During the Second Zhili–Fengtian War, Feng Yuxiang’s forces carried out the Beijing Coup, removing President Cao Kun and shifting the balance of power—an inflection point in Beiyang factional politics.
The Guominjun fought the Fengtian and allied Zhili forces in the last major civil war within the northern Beiyang order before the Northern Expedition, further weakening the Beijing-centered regime.
Beiyang government forces opened fire on demonstrators in Beijing, killing dozens. The massacre intensified public opposition to warlord rule and foreign pressure, underscoring the regime’s crisis of legitimacy.
The National Revolutionary Army launched the Northern Expedition to defeat the northern warlord coalitions and end the Beiyang government’s authority, transforming the warlord struggle into a nationwide reunification campaign.
Fighting between National Revolutionary Army forces and Japanese troops in Jinan escalated into a major incident, complicating the Northern Expedition and highlighting Japan’s expanding military involvement in China.
Japanese Kwantung Army officers bombed Zhang Zuolin’s train near Shenyang, killing the Fengtian leader. The assassination destabilized Manchurian politics and altered the endgame of the Northern Expedition.
National Revolutionary Army forces marched into Beijing, effectively ending the Beiyang government’s rule in the capital and marking a decisive turning point toward nominal national unification.
Zhang Xueliang announced that Manchuria would replace Beiyang flags with the Nationalist flag, symbolically aligning the Northeast with Nanjing and marking the formal end of the Northern Expedition and the Warlord Era’s 1916–1928 phase.
Warlord Era (1916–1928)
