Beiyang Army
The Beiyang Army ( Northern Sea Army ) was a major unit in the Empire of China and the early Republic of China . It was set up by Yuan Shikai on the western model in response to the defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War . The army played a crucial role in the Xinhai revolution . It was Yuan Shikai's power base until his death. The warlords of the Northern Militarists emerged from the Beiyang Army .
background
As early as the civil war against the Taiping rebellion , regional armed forces were built up alongside the previous military system by military leaders entrusted with counterinsurgency operations. These were not directly based on Western models, but took over some forms of organization. The Anhui Army of Zeng Guofan and the Huai Army of Li Hongzhang carried the burden of the decisive battles against the rebels. Thereafter, the political leadership of the Manchu dynasty prevented further modernization and innovation of the armed forces because they viewed them as the source of a possible Han uprising against their rule.
Military modernization
After the defeat of the Empire in the First Sino-Japanese War against the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy , which was built on the Western model , the Chinese political leadership tried to reduce the technological and organizational deficit vis-à-vis Japan and the West with the self- strengthening movement. In this context, army units structured according to the western pattern were set up for the first time as New Armies ( Xinjun ). Zhang Zhidong set up such an army in Hubei . Yuan Shikai succeeded Li Hongzhang who held the central position of power in northern China and did the same. The name of the army derives from the administrative provinces in northeast China Hebei , Shandong and Liaoning , which were often subsumed under the term Beiyang (German: Northern Sea ).
Yuan Shikai's army, set up in Zhili in 1897 , initially comprised 7,000 men and was trained by German instructors. The Boxer Rebellion brought another military humiliation to China. The commanders of the New Armies were able to keep their troops out of the fighting. In 1901, the Dowager Empress Cixi initiated far-reaching reforms that also affected the military. Yuan's New Army was renamed the Beiyang Army and expanded to secure northern China. In 1904 the Qing government decided to expand the army based on the Western model from the existing modern new armies organized at the provincial level into a centralized army with modern institutions. The plan envisaged an army of 450,000 men organized in 36 divisions for 1922.
In 1906 the Beiyang Army comprised 5 divisions with 50,000 soldiers. Zhang Zhidong's army in Hubei consisted of one division.
Political role
In 1905, Sun Yat-sen founded the Oath Association in exile in Japan with the aim of overthrowing the Qing and establishing a modern nation-state in China. He also found some followers and supporters among officers of the New Armies . The Wuchang Uprising of the New Army of Hubei was the trigger for the Xinhai Revolution . In this, the Beiyang Army first fought the anti-monarchist rebels. Yuan Shikai eventually reached an agreement with Sun to overthrow the Qing and, with Sun's help, became the first President of the Republic of China.
The Beiyang Army provided the military power base for the political independence of the Northern Militarists in the warlord era of the republic following Yuan's death in 1916. In 1920, after the Anhui clique was defeated in the Anhui-Zhili War , the Beiyang Army was disbanded. Their personnel found themselves on the various sides of the Northern Militarists. After these had worn out in mutual battles, the National Revolutionary Army under Chiang Kai-shek was able to crush them in the northern expedition 1926-27.
Individual evidence
- ^ SCM Paine: The Sino-Japanese War of 1894 - 1895, Perceptions, Power and Primacy. New York, 2003, pp. 143-147
- ^ A b c d David S. Horowitz: Beyond the Marble Boat - The Transformation of the Chinese Military, 1850-1911. in David A. Graff, Robin Higham (Eds.): A Military History of China. Lexington, 2012
- ↑ Dieter Kuhn: The Republic of China from 1912 to 1938 - Draft for a political history of events. 3rd edition, Heidelberg, 2007 p. 41f
- ↑ a b Dr. Xiaobing Li: Beiyang Army in Xiaobing Li (Ed.): China at War - An Encyclopedia. London, 2012 22-24
- ^ Christoper R. Lew, Edwin Pak-Wah-Leung: Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Civil War. Lanham, 2013, 2nd edition, pp. 18f