Why did the Qing Dynasty Fall? History of China 1895-1918 Documentary 3/10

In the 19th century China was defeated by the British, endured a number of rebellions, suffered from famines and floods and then were defeated by the Japanese. During it all millions of people died and the country became weaker and weaker. At the end of the first Sino-Japanese war in 1895, Japan took Taiwan, released Korea from Chinese influence only to later annex it themselves, plus the Japanese were also set to take Port Arthur in Manchuria. But the Russians, Germans and French intervened But the Russians didn't do this out of kindness, they wanted it for themselves and got support from their French ally in pressuring Japan to hand it over. Meanwhile Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany just sought to undermine the growth of an Asian power, and in fact Wilhelm had been a little bit obsessed with the growth of any Asian nation, and is credited with coining the term Yellow Peril. So these three nations formed the Triple Intervention and they were strong enough to force the Japanese to relinquish territory in 1895, and this ultimately humiliated them. This was especially bad as the Japanese then had to watch, as the Europeans began to claim Chinese territories. There was a rush for territory beginning in 1897, when in Shandong, German missionaries were killed in the Zhuyi incident. The Germans had for a while had their eyes on Shandong, and just a year earlier Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz had declared that it would be a good location for a future naval base. So the Germans quickly sent warships to the area and seized Kiachou Bay. They then forced the Chinese to lease the port for 99 years, and essentially all of Shandong fell into their sphere of influence, as they were given the right to build railway lines, mine for goods, and deploy troops as protection. This set off a chain reaction as foreign powers began to claim spheres of influence for themselves, similar in a way to the scramble for Africa, starting with Russia forcing China to hand over Port Arthur. Now China was forced into doing so because Russia had agreed to pay off the war indemnities to Japan as part of the Li-Lobonov treaty. This was debt trap diplomacy, and this is something that China has been accused of doing in recent years. After the Russians, the French took Guangzhou-Huang, challenging British Hong Kong, while the British took Huihui to challenge the Germans and Russians in the north. Had things continued this way, it seemed that the Russians would be given a free hand in taking over Manchuria, Xinjiang and the likes. Britain would set up a sphere of influence in the middle of China, France could expand in the south, and Germany would take Shandong. Plus, Japan had been eyeing up Fuzhou, forcing China to sign an agreement, preventing any other nation from putting it in their sphere of influence. And weirdly, even the Italians tried to claim San Mun Bay in 1899, but this was the only nation who the Chinese denied. Thankfully for China however, one man in particular changed all of this, John Hay, the Secretary of State in the USA. He sent diplomatic notes to the European powers, encouraging them to uphold the open door policy and not to break up China. This open door policy by the way just made sure that all nations were free to trade in China equally, and it seems that most nations just agreed with it. For instance, shortly afterwards, Britain and Germany signed the Yangtze agreement, agreeing not to divide China up into spheres of influence. Meanwhile, the scramble for colonies, along with the humiliation of the war with Japan, demonstrated that China had to do something to completely revolutionize their military, society, and even government. The Guangzhou Emperor in particular saw that reforms were needed to be made, and he launched the Hundred Days Reform. This would have seen changes to everything, but the military reforms were particularly important. Even though in the past they continued to introduce new training techniques and modern weapons, there was no central command, so separate armies and navies wouldn't coordinate during a war. For instance, even in 1895 they created the New Army, under the command of Yuan Shikai. But like past armies, their loyalty was to Yuan, not the country at large. So of course, these reforms had a lot of opponents, like Yuan Shikai, who would have lost some degree of power. But there was also Prince Yuan, who wanted to expel all foreigners, Ronglu, and the Empress Dowager Cixi. So to end the reforms, this group orchestrated a palace coup, and placed the Guangzhou Emperor under house arrest. So now you had conservatives ruling China, and foreign powers claiming further concessions building churches, and generally encroaching on Chinese land. Plus many Chinese people were of course unaware of the secret agreements being made that would maintain China's open door policy. So in Shandong, a new anti-foreign group emerged, the Fists of Harmony and Justice. Like secret organizations beforehand, like the Big Sword Society, they used martial arts to not only practice for war, but also entice people to join them. For instance, they would often demonstrate how they could survive gunshots, but it was probably more likely that there was not enough force in the shot to kill anyone. They also claimed to have magic powers, could even turn invisible at times, and cheat death. And under the leadership of Zhang Dicheng, they amassed a following of over 100,000 men. Plus because of their martial arts background, they were given the title of boxers in the west. Initially, the boxers clashed with the Qing government forces at Senluo temple in 1899. After all, they saw the Qing government as weak for allowing foreigners to enter China. But after this battle, they decided not to undermine the government and they used the slogan, support the Qing, destroy the foreigners. In return for this, Cixi issued edicts defending them and this allowed the boxers to spread out, killing Christians and burning churches on their way to Beijing. Over 400 foreign troops entered Beijing, but they were left trapped as the boxers cut the railway line to Tianjin in June 1900. Plus Qing troops, notably the Muslim Gansu Braves, joined the boxers and both began attacking foreigners and burning churches in Beijing. The Gansu Braves, by the way, were created to deal with Muslim rebellions out in the west, and were under the leadership of the powerful Ma family. But since coming to Beijing, they had helped in the palace coup and remained vehemently anti-foreign. Somewhere between 100,000 and 300,000 men joined the boxers in laying siege to the foreign legation quarter, while 2,000 foreign troops landed in Tianjin. These troops came from 8 different nations, Britain, USA, Japan, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, and Russia. However, they had not asked permission to land, which upset the Qing dynasty, who now saw it as an invasion. So, the Qing decided to fully align themselves with the boxers. This new Boxer-Qing alliance was able to halt the foreign relief expedition at Langfang, and then the siege of the legation quarters officially began. The foreign legation quarters, by the way, were located right next to the Forbidden City, where the Empress Dowager lived, and only around 400 troops protected the 400 foreign civilians and the 3,000 Chinese Christians that lived there. Meanwhile, in the north, 100,000 Russian troops moved into Manchuria. They crushed the boxers, who were harassing the construction of the Russian railway line in the region, and in Tianjin, 50,000 more troops from the 8 nations set out to Beijing, but without train lines as they had been destroyed, so they only made it to Beijing in mid-August. Once there, they crushed the Chinese, ending the 55-day long siege and the rebellion at large. The Empress Dowager by that point had already fled the city, and there was no desire to continue the war. The resulting peace treaty forced the Chinese to pay war reparations and give western powers even more enclaves and concessions. In the north, Russia continued to occupy Manchuria, and this resulted in the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War a couple years later. As the Empress Dowager was already gone, Li Hongzhang, the great military leader, reformer and statesman, signed the Boxer Protocols in 1901, agreeing to pay a huge sum of money to foreigners just before he died. The United States, by the way, used their share of indemnities to create a university in Beijing, the Tsinghua University, which is often ranked the best universities in Asia today. After crushing the rebellion, foreigners were now largely allowed to roam across most of China, with some exceptions. For instance, in Tibet, they often banned missionaries and the likes, so the British launched an expedition there in 1903. But this expedition started without any authorization from London, and was largely born out of a fear that Tibet was becoming more closely aligned to Russia. This was all part of the larger great game between the Russians and British, and the British rulers in India were worried. So, they marched into Tibet and forced them to become a British protectorate. But at the end of this expedition, the government in London quickly handed it over to the Qing government. Now, Tibet before this expedition was acting virtually independent. As the Qing government faced numerous rebellions and began to get weaker and weaker, the Dalai Lama had begun to assert more of his own authority. But following the expedition, the resulting treaties allowed missionaries to enter the region. So, the Tibetan Lamas orchestrated a rebellion in 1905, massacring a number of French Catholics and converts. So, the Qing sent in troops to subdue the rebellion, and Tibet was brought back into the fold, albeit very temporarily. Meanwhile, in Manchuria, Japan went to war against the Russians. They successfully drove the Russians out of Manchuria, and took Port Arthur and southern Sikhalin. Eventually, the Japanese would begin to encroach into Manchuria themselves. But this Russo-Japanese war caused panic in China, and even Europe and North America. Meanwhile, as for the Chinese government, Empress Dowager Cixi had already returned to power shortly after the rebellion, and on her return, she was more welcoming of foreigners, often inviting ambassadors and their wives to dinner. She also implemented the late Qing reforms, and sent ambassadors abroad to learn from the great powers. Some of the reforms that she made included the abolition of the imperial examinations, but by now, they were lagging far behind the Japanese. So, Yuan Shikai, the leader of the new army, began to look to build alliances. Notably, he wanted to create an alliance with the German Kaiser and the United States. In fact, he very nearly succeeded in doing so, and put his political reputation on the line to secure it. However, the Americans under Teddy Roosevelt backed away from the alliance, and shortly afterwards, Cixi and the Guangzhou Emperor both died in 1908, and Yuan was removed from power. The Guangzhou Emperor was in fact poisoned, and it's believed Cixi killed him, knowing that she was about to die, as she was worried he'd try bring back his radical reform attempts. Cixi therefore handpicked his successor just before dying. This was Puyi, the nephew of the Guangzhou Emperor. Although he was just a child, he was particularly cruel, and would flog eunuchs every day, but he didn't rule for long. Ever since the Sino-Japanese War, anti-Qing groups were growing in strength. All the way back in 1895, Sun Yat-sen, a Christian who had studied in Hawaii, created the Revive China Society, and he tried to start a in Guangzhou from his base in British Hong Kong, but the plans were discovered, and most of the leaders were arrested. Then, during the Boxer Rebellion, he tried to start another rebellion of his own, but this, the Huizhou Uprising, also failed. So, in 1905, in exiled Tokyo, Sun Yat-sen united many anti-Qing groups under the leadership of his new secret society, the Tongmen Hui. From America, Malaysia, and Japan, they gathered many supporters among the exiled communities. Plus, many officers and soldiers also supported them, especially those in China's new army who wanted to modernize China and prevent any further foreign incursions. But, they also got the backing of local gentry, who felt disenfranchised by the Qing political system, and the new group of intellectuals who had studied abroad. But, the Tongmen Hui's first attempt to start a revolution in 1910 in Guangzhou also failed. Sun Yat-sen's republican ideals, however, were far from the most radical. After the Boxer Rebellion, the government began sending students abroad to study, and most of them went to Tokyo, but there was a sizable group who went to Paris. These students brought back ideas of socialism and even anarchism to China, and they laid the foundations of the Communist Party. For instance, the founders of the Communist Party, like Chong Tzu Hsu, went over to study in Tokyo, while one of the early anarchists, Li Si Cheng, went to Paris and became radicalized. Li, in fact, opened up a soybean factory and used this as a way to finance other students travelling to Paris and learning more about anarchism and the likes. This eventually became the Diligent Work Frugal Study Movement, and thousands of Chinese took up the opportunity to study abroad. Some of these people you may have even heard of, like Dong Zhaopeng, the future leader of Communist China, Zhou Enlai, the first Premier of the People's Republic, Li Fucheng, the Vice Premier, and Li Lishan, a member of China's Central Committee, and many many more. Some may not be well known, but they were incredibly influential, like Zhu Te Li, who became Mao's teacher, and Cai Heshen, a friend of Mao. Cai, by the way, also went on a visit to Moscow, and convinced Mao of the Bolshevik success and that they were the best ally to have. But, equally, Russian anarchism had just as large an impact on Chinese leaders as socialism did. For instance, there was Wang Jingwei, an early ally of Sun Yat-sen, and he formed the Chinese Assassination Corps, which, as you can guess, planned to assassinate the rulers of China in order to bring about reforms. This was inspired by Russia's People's Will group, who killed Tsar Alexander II, but you can also compare it to the well-known Black Hand group in Serbia, who assassinated Franz Ferdinand in 1914. Plus, Wang Jingwei, by the way, would later lead the Kuomintang, and then, later, the Japanese puppets date in China. The Chinese assassins didn't really have any success, but while tensions were boiling over in China, these groups began debating the best path for the country. Maybe a grassroots effort, educating the people, or a dictatorship of the people, leading them down the right path. Obviously, communism won out, but these early anarchists clearly inspired China's version of communism. Many of the communist leaders were, initially, followers of Peter Kropotkin, a Russian anarchist. He advocated for worker-run enterprises, free from a centralized government. This can be seen as similar, albeit bastardized, to the people's communes set up in the CCP. Plus, the Cultural Revolution in the 20th century very much favoured a revolution from below, as no secret police enforced it, so it was very much led by the people. And one of their slogans was, doubt everything and overthrow everything, so at least a little bit inspired from the anarchist past. Anyway, back in China around 1910, many railway lines were being built in the country, largely by foreign companies. Initially, the Qing allowed local governments to build their own, but the rights to do so were soon sold off to the foreigners in order to make money and decrease building time. But when they sold the rights in Sichuan, this led to a large protest in August 1911, led by the Railway Protection Movement. Soldiers from nearby Wuhan were sent to help quell the protests, and the revolutionaries from the Literary Society and Progressive Association began to make preparations to take advantage of the situation. However, while making bombs, one went off, and police investigating the explosion found a list of all revolutionaries in the area. Many of these were in the army. So, fearing reprisals, the soldiers of the new army that had remained in Wuhan mutinied, seized the government building, and created the Hebei government in early October. They also allegedly dragged army commander Li Yuanhong out of hiding from beneath his bed. And, although initially hesitant, the revolutionary success encouraged him to join them. This seems to have happened across the country, as soldiers saw this as a chance for change, and to remove the Manchus from government. So, telegrams were then dispatched to fellow revolutionaries, who simultaneously rose up. In a couple months, the Tongwenhui and their allies took over cities like Shanghai, Changsha, and Xi'an, and also a lot of provinces like Guangxi, Guangdong, Shandong, and Sichuan. Many of which declared their independence. Also to the north in Mongolia, the Qing government had introduced policies which encouraged Han migration to the area, and this, along with heavy taxes, encouraged the nobles to demand their independence. So, they too had exploited the situation, and under the Bogdakhan, the leader of the Mongolian Buddhists, they declared independence without much opposition. But Mongolia was divided, as the Russians sent troops into Tuva, and in Inner Mongolia, they had a larger Han population, and chose to remain under Chinese rule. Tibet too would also look to break free from the Chinese, and ever since the British expedition, Chinese officials had returned to administer the region. But the 13th Dalai Lama kicked them all out, meaning it too had essentially become independent. But in the far west, Xinjiang remained under Chinese control, thanks to Ma'an Liang. He was a Muslim, but had previously helped the Qing crush the Dungan rebellion in 1895. And he was a particularly brutal leader, often massacring his fellow Muslims in defense of the dynasty. But his tactics worked, as he managed to stop the rebels pushing west, and he kept control of Xinjiang. With most of the country once again rebelling, the government was being ran by Yi Kuan, as the Puyi emperor was just a toddler at the time. Yi Kuan held the newly created title of prime minister, and he had some success in dealing with the rebels. For instance, he sent Yuan Shikai and his Beiyang army to deal with the rebels, and they were able to defeat them in Wuhan. But Yi Kuan stepped down in early November, and Yuan Shikai became the new prime minister, just before Nanjing fell to the rebels in early December. Now in control of most of the country, the rebels looked for a new leader. And just then, Sun Yat-sen arrived in Nanjing, won the election, and was made president of the new Provisional Republic of China. Sun Yat-sen introduced a number of new ideas, like the Zhongshan suit. This was aimed to go against both the Manchu and foreign forms of dress, and it would later be adopted by the communists later on. But Sun Yat-sen still lacked the military to challenge Yuan Shikai's Beiyang army, and was fearful that a prolonged civil war would encourage further foreign encroachment. So in early 1912, with the help of foreign powers, the two sides entered peace negotiations. Sun Yat-sen agreed to hand over control of southern China to Yuan, but Yuan had to force Puyi to abdicate and set up a republic. The Tongmen Hui would form the nucleus of what would become the Kuomintang, and when the first democratic elections took place, the Kuomintang under Song Zhaoren defeated the likes of Li Yuanhong. The KMT therefore controlled both of the new houses of government, and Song tried to limit the powers of President Yuan Shikai. But Song was soon assassinated. Although it was never proven that Yuan orchestrated the assassination, it's widely believed he did so. The KMT then began to be persecuted, so Sun Yat-sen fled again to Japan and called for a second revolution. However, this was a complete failure. Before they had time to really even begin, Yuan and his new prime minister, Duan Qirui, had completely crushed them. In the wake of his success, Yuan dissolved parliament in early 1914 and gave himself unlimited powers. Many of his chief supporters were then given provinces to rule over as military governors, which lay the foundation of the warlord period in the coming years. But almost as soon as this was over, WWI erupted. By this point the Japanese had already fully annexed Korea back in 1910, and now they moved to take German-controlled Qingdao. But the Japanese went even further, as they sent 21 demands to the Chinese. These included granting the Japanese control over railways and mines in Shandong, concessions in Manchuria, access to ports along the entire Chinese coast, and a collection of other things. In essence, Japanese influence in China was set to expand. But the most controversial demands were to force the Chinese to give Japanese advisors control over China's finances and politics. This would essentially turn China into a puppet of the Japanese. The Chinese obviously wanted to try and keep these demands secrets, but they became public knowledge and a wave of anti-Japanese sentiment swept across China and Yuan's credibility was diminished. This is because he gave in to most of the demands, except allowing Japanese advisors into the government. Yet this still damaged his reputation and was seen as a great humiliation. So to assert his authority in the country, he held an assembly, which was largely made up of his supporters, and they voted to make him emperor. This had some backing domestically and internationally. For instance, many believed that the revolution was just a way to oust the Manchus, and now, under a Han emperor, the realm should stabilize and thrive. Internationally, the Japanese in particular were happy to see Yuan become emperor, as he had already worked with them before, and the British hoped for a stable China to encourage trade, so they set up a group of international bankers and began to loan him money. Yuan Shikai therefore became the Hong Shan Emperor in 1916. But this was met with huge protests across the country. Sensing the tide turn against him, many of his old supporters like Zhuang Kirai and Xu Shiqiang resigned. These two men in particular would go on to create their own political factions, while in Yunnan, the military governor Cai Yi rebelled. This began the National Protection War, as the governors of Guizhou and Guangxi followed suit. Yuan then gave up his crown after just under 90 days and he died shortly afterwards. Li Yuanhong was then made the new president. Li had fought against the Qing during the rebellion of 1911, but had been a supporter of Yuan against Sun Yat-sen during the second revolution, and he remained in Yuan's government. In fact, Li and Yuan's children got married to strengthen their political ties, but Li refused to take the title of prince, which meant he was favoured by the republicans to take over. But just before dying, Yuan had nominated three successors. Li was on this list, but so too was Zhuang Kirai and Xu Shiqiang, but neither of the latter wanted the position. Instead, Zhuang Kirai served alongside Li, and he held far more real power than the ruling president. But the two men fell out over whether or not to join in the first world war. Li was more reluctant, but Zhuang wanted a seat at the peace table and, ideally, to claim German concessions. To force China into entering the war, Zhuang resorted to essentially scaring and bullying the parliament in deciding with him. So, Li forced him to resign in early 1917, but Zhuang was unwilling to give up all power. He fled to Tianjin, taking with him most of his forces and many other cabinet ministers. With no strong allies or supporters, Li asked a general named Zhangshun for assistance. Zhangshun had been loyal to Yuan and before that the Qing dynasty, so loyal in fact that he kept his queue haircut. So, as you can expect, he was one of many who were still monarchists, and he hatched a plan to bring the monarchy back to power. The other monarchists, by the way, included ethnic Mongols and Manchus and many ex-Qing officials, plus thousands or indeed millions of people who felt that the republic had in fact brought more problems to China. So, as Zhuang Qirai began calling for provincial leaders to join him in a rebellion, Zhang marched on Beijing beforehand. In July 1917, he entered the Forbidden City where the deposed Emperor Puyi was still living and proclaimed him emperor once again. Li panicked, appointed Feng Guozhang as president and Duan as premier once again, and then he fled to the embassy district. Duan then quickly had to move on to Beijing with his troops, where he easily overwhelmed the royalists and even bombarded the Forbidden Palace and restored the republic. So now, the monarchists were crushed, Li had resigned, and power was shared between Feng and Duan. But there was even more problems. As far to the south, Sun Yat-sen had arrived in Guangzhou and telegrammed the military governors that had taken part in the National Protection War. This included most of the military governors in the south, and once again they rebelled, this time as part of the Constitutional Protection Movement. Together they set up a hunter to oppose the Beijing government, but in Beijing, Duan still brought China into the First World War. No Chinese soldiers were actually sent to fight on the fronts in Europe, but Chinese played a crucial part in the war effort, even when they were a neutral country. Largely, the Chinese were unable to take part in any fighting, but the Chinese Labour Corps was established. This saw tens of thousands of workers volunteer to join the war for very little pay, and they spent their time digging trenches, repairing roads and the likes. But all of this could have been looked at as an extension of the old coolies. Now today this is quite an offensive term, but it was the name of the tens of thousands of Chinese labourers who took low paying jobs around the world in the aftermath of the abolition of slavery. Many thousands went to the British colonies, the United States and the likes, but in the middle of the 19th century, Latin America was a popular destination. Over 100,000 travelled to Peru for instance, and there the mortality rate was somewhere between 30 and 50%, as they worked in the mines and were often treated very much like slaves. But during World War I, there was a different feeling. Many Chinese left to see that Europe was not as advanced or great as they had been led to believe, and many were then educated by the Paris anarchists. Plus, it served as a point of pride for many republicans and socialists. As Chen Duxiu wrote, while the sun does not set on the British empire, neither does it set on Chinese workers abroad. But the whole war was a bit of a disaster for Duan. China wasn't given much of a say in the results of the war, and during the war, he tried to destroy Sun Yat-sen's forces in the south. This went against the wishes of his president, Fengguo Zhang, who favoured a And once again, Duan was forced to resign. But once again, he was unwilling to admit defeat and leave politics, so he began to gather his supporters and deploy troops into Beijing, to force Feng into appointing him premier once again. One of Duan's greatest allies at this time was Zhang Zhaolin, who began his career as a bandit, but rose to become the military governor of Manchuria. Feng obliged and Duan was appointed premier, but Feng didn't remain president for much longer. He finished his five-year term in late 1918 and died shortly afterwards. But his followers and the followers of Duan formed two rival cliques. To prevent either clique coming to power, Zhu Xingchang was made the new president, but he had to spend most of his time playing these two groups against one another. Feng's followers had formed the Ji Li clique, which, as you'd expect, had most of their support from the generals in and around Ji Li. Duan and his followers formed the Anhui clique, and he decided to take loans from the Japanese to bolster his own army and fight against Sun Yat-sen's forces in the south. In return for these loans, which totaled 145 million yen, Duan recognized Chinese claims to the old German colony in Shandong. And these, the Nishihari loans, were given by Japanese Prime Minister Teruhuchi Masataki. And when they were made public, there was obviously a great deal of backlash. Inspired by the Russian Revolution, many Chinese began to take to the streets and protest as part of the May the 4th movement. This was initially started by many of the people who had studied in Paris, but soon thousands of students joined in, and workers went on strike. This made it particularly momentous in Chinese history, as the working class were entering politics and uniting with the middle class to pressure the government, something that had rarely been seen before. These strikes and protests continued in major cities like Shanghai and Beijing, despite many of the leaders being arrested. As their anger was directed against the Japanese, they boycotted Japanese goods, and even burnt their products. Also, the homes of officials who were willing to sign the Treaty of Versailles were attacked. So eventually, the government relented, fired a couple of officials, and refused to sign the treaty, making this a partial victory for the protesters. But Japan still kept their new colonies, and in the midst of this movement, new ideas started to emerge. For instance, as western democracies began to be seen as hypocritical, many began to look into other political movements. So, it is widely believed that the Communist Party was born as a result of these protests. As Mao himself said, the cultural reform movement, which grew out of the May the 4th movement, was only one of the manifestations of this revolution. A powerful camp made its appearance in the bourgeois democratic revolution, a camp consisting of the working class, the student masses, and the new national bourgeoisie. In these respects, the May the 4th movement went a step beyond the revolution of 1911. And, as Mao mentioned cultural reform, you can also see the beginning of the ideas of the Cultural Revolution way back in 1919. Many protesters during the May the 4th movement demanded tearing down old structures, destroying ancient ideas of Confucius and the likes, and moving into a new era. This iconoclasm would of course be put into practice by the Communists once they came into power. But, Duan's attention had been drawn to the North and Mongolia. Mongolia, as mentioned before, had become an independent state during the Xinhai Revolution of 1911. But, in 1915, the Russians and Chinese agreed that Mongolia should remain under Chinese influence. However, the ongoing Russian civil war began to spill over the borders, and Duan hoped to put an end to these threats, plus repair his image as a patriot after the May the 4th movement. So, he planned to occupy Mongolia and bring it back under Chinese authority. However, just to remind you, Duan was still not president, he was just the premier. The president was still Zhu Xichang, but Duan's Japanese loans let him build a huge private army, and he was going to use it to occupy Mongolia. The Mongolians on the other hand had quite a small army, and they were unsuccessful in fighting back the Chinese. So, the Bogdakan was forced to kowtow to the invaders. But, this just started a whole host of new problems. In Mongolia, this marked the beginning of what would be a communist revolution, but one aligned to the Bolsheviks in Russia, not to the Chinese. Meanwhile, in China, many didn't see this as a great triumph for Duan. In fact, many people grew fearful of it, Duan Zhoulin in particular. As he was the ruler of Manchuria, he saw the arrival of Duan's troops on his borders as a threat, and he decided to move against his old ally. He formed an alliance with Cao Cun, the leader of the Jilik League, and together they started the Jili-Anhui War in 1920. To fight in this war, Duan had to withdraw all of his troops from Mongolia, and this just allowed a white Russian to move in and take over. This white Russian was Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, and he restored the Bogdakan back to power, and he had some pretty bold ambitions, like restoring the Mongolian Empire. But now, China was about to enter the warlord period, and were left far too weak to retake Mongolia. So, by 1920, the Anhui and Jili Cliques were at war, Zhang Zhoulin and his Fengtian Clique joined in, Sun Yat-sen and his southern generals were in open rebellion, out in the west, Tibet had become all but an independent state, in Xinjiang, the military governor Yang Zhengxin was aligning with the white Russians, around Gansu and Qinghai, the Muslim Ma Clique, descendants of the Gansu Braves, ruled autonomously, and the rest of China was divided between competing warlords, often switching allegiances, fighting one another, and, generally, tearing up the country. In the middle of all this, you had growing communist socialists and anarchists, and more lords would emerge all the time, like Zhang Zhongchang in Shandong, who was described as the dog meat general, or there was Feng Yuxiang, the Christian warlord. China would therefore remain in a constant state of disorder until the KMT moved north in the 1930s, but, really, with the Republic of China in Taiwan and the People's Republic on the mainland, China would never be a fully unified state ever since this period.