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National Protection War
Date 25 December 1915 – 14 July 1916 Location South andSouthwest China Result Republican victory
Belligerents
Empire of China	Republic of China Yunnan clique Guizhou clique Old Guangxi clique
Commanders and leaders
Yuan Shikai Zhang Jingyao Ma Jizeng [zh] Cao Kun Feng Yuxiang Lu Jianzhang	Cai E Tang Jiyao Liang Qichao Li Liejun Lu Rongting Feng Guozhang
Strength
700,000+	200,000+

TheNational Protection War (simplified Chinese:护国战争;traditional Chinese:護國戰爭;pinyin:Hù guó zhànzhēng), also known as theAnti-Monarchy War, or theThird Revolution, was acivil war that took place inChina from December 1915 to July 1916. Following the overthrow of theQing dynasty three years previously, theRepublic of China was established in its place. The war was caused by PresidentYuan Shikai's proclamation of theEmpire of China, with himself as the Hongxian Emperor.

InYunnan, military leaders, includingTang Jiyao,Cai E andLi Liejun, declared their independence and launched military expeditions against Yuan Shikai. Yuan'sBeiyang Army experienced several defeats and fractured, which led other provinces in the south to declare independence as well. Eventually, under immense pressure from the entire nation, Yuan Shikai was forced to abdicate. He resumed his rule as president and died a few months later.

AfterYuan Shikai plotted the assassinations ofSong Jiaoren andChen Qimei, founders of theKuomintang,Sun Yat-sen launched theSecond Revolution against him. It was unsuccessful, andSun Yat-sen was forced to flee toJapan while the Kuomintang was dissolved. Between August and December 1915 supporters of Yuan began to clamor for the restoration of a Chinese monarchy. Yuan declared himselfemperor of thenew Chinese empire under the name Hongxian Emperor. The new empire was due to formally launch on 1 January 1916, when he intended to conduct the accession rites.

Shortly after Yuan Shikai proclaimed himself the Hongxian Emperor, Cai E andTang Jiyao rulers ofYunnan declared independence in the provincial capital,Kunming. The date was 25 December 1915. They organized the National Protection Army and began a military expedition against Yuan Shikai and his supporters to defeat the new Imperial China, and save theRepublic of China. Yuan Shikai sent 80,000 men in an attempt to attackYunnan, but his troops suffered a major defeat inSichuan province. Before this defeat,Guizhou andGuangxi provinces declared their independence between January^[1] and March 1916.Guangdong,Shandong,Hunan,Shanxi,Jiangxi andJiangsu followed suit and declared their independence shortly thereafter. Discord began to surface even inside the emperor's government in the national capital ofBeijing. Faced with mounting pressure, Yuan Shikai was forced to abdicate on 22 March 1916, but he returned to his office ofpresident and the war continued. He died soon after, on 6 June 1916. Eight days after his death, on 14 July 1916, the National Protection War was ended, with the provinces rescinding their declarations of independence. The independent provinces were controlled by warlords though, and so theWarlord Era began.

The governor ofXinjiang,Yang Zengxin, was a former Qing dynasty official who approved of the Yuan Shikai's monarchism and was against republicanism. Yang commanded thousands of Chinese Muslim troops. He ruled Xinjiang with a clique of Yunnanese, being from Yunnan himself. His subordinate Muslim generalsMa Fuxing andMa Shaowu were also Yunnanese. When some of the Yunnanese revolutionaries wanted to joinCai E in rebelling against Yuan Shikai, he beheaded them at a New Year's banquet in 1916.

Han Chinese and Aboriginal rebels launched theTapani incident uprising against Japanese rule in 1915 with the rebel leader Yu Qingfang telling people that Yuan Shikai's Beiyang army would come and help liberate Taiwan from the Japanese. The rebellion was ruthlessly crushed by Japanese authorities within weeks of the initial uprising.^[2]

The National Protection War symbolized the beginning of the separation between the North and the South after the establishment of the Republic of China. Yuan Shikai was a legitimate president of the Republic, but his attempt to become Emperor was thwarted by the military opposition of the southern provinces. Even after the end of Yuan's short-lived monarchy, theBeiyang government in Beijing was no longer able to maintain control over the military leaders of the southern provinces. After the death of Yuan, the Beiyang government lost its leadership over warlords in the provinces and infighting among cliques within the government began in earnest; meanwhile, Sun Yat-sen of theKuomintang created a military government inGuangzhou in the far south, leading to theprotection of the Constitution.

China'sWarlord Era would last for years untilChiang Kai-shek unified the country through theNorthern Expedition, theCentral Plains War and many other civil wars before the onset of theSecond Sino-Japanese War andChinese Civil War.

• Fairbank, John King; Twitchett, Denis (1983). The Cambridge History of China: Republican China 1912–1949, Part 1.Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-0521235419.
• Putnam Weale, Bertram Lenox (1917). The fight for the Republic in China. Dodd, Mead and Company. pp. 490.OCLC 1541271

• 1915 in China
• 1916 in China
• Civil wars in China
• Conflicts in 1915
• Conflicts in 1916
• Empire of China (1915–1916)
• Military history of Yunnan
• Warlord Era
• Wars involving the Republic of China

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