Episode 32 - The First Years of the Republic of China

The Chinese Revolution

Yuan Shikai promised to respect China's constitutional republic. A mutiny by unpaid members of the Beiyang Army causes riots in Beijing and other cities. Yuan avoids moving to Nanjing. He de-mobilizes provincial troops and wins a power struggle with the Chinese Premiers. Yuan Shikai puts his own men in important positions.

The Guomindang (KMT) is founded and wins the first election after the 1911 Revolution. Song Jiaoren, KMT's leader, expects to be the new Premier. Instead, he is assassinated. Yuan's followers are implicated and the KMT blames Yuan himself.

Yuan moves troops into strategic locations, uses a new foreign loan to pay troops loyal to him and replaces KMT provincial governors. When they resist with the 1913 revolution, Yuan is ready and his troops quickly suppress the insurrection.

Yuan Shikai consolidates power further in bloody repressions. The KMT is banned and even elected representatives are killed in the crackdown. Yuan Shikai, with loyal troops looking on, is elected President of China by the remaining members of Congress after midnight, on a third ballot. Yuan's power seems supreme. But within 3 years, he will be almost without support.

"Kuomintang of China" by Kautsmenhal is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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