Northern Expedition (1926–1927)

Northern Expedition
Part of Warlord Era, Chinese Civil War
Clockwise from top-left: Chiang inspecting soldiers of the National Revolutionary Army; NRA troops marching northwards; an NRA artillery unit engaged in a battle with warlords; people showing support for the NRA; peasants volunteer to join the expedition; NRA soldiers preparing to launch an attack.
Date 1926–1928 Location Southern to Northern China Result Victory of the National Revolutionary Army Nationalist government rule over the entire Republic of China Beginning of the First Chinese Civil War End of Beiyang government
Belligerents
Nationalist Government National Revolutionary Army Kuomintang Communist Party of China	Beiyang Government Fengtian clique Zhili clique
Commanders and leaders
Chiang Kai-shek Feng Yuxiang Li Zongren Bai Chongxi He Yingqin Yan Xishan Cen Chunxuan Zhou Enlai Ye Ting	Du Xigui V.K. Wellington Koo Zhang Zuolin Wu Peifu Sun Chuanfang
Strength
about 250,000	about 800,000

Northern Expedition
Traditional Chinese	國民革命軍北伐
Simplified Chinese	国民革命军北伐
Literal meaning	National Revolutionary Army northern expedition
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Guómín gémìng jūn běifá

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Guómín gémìng jūn běifá

Nationalist Government

Beiyang Government

The Northern Expedition was a Kuomintang (KMT) military campaign, led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, from 1926–28. Its main objective was to unify China under its own control by ending the rule of the Beiyang government as well as the local warlords. It led to the end of the Warlord Era, the reunification of China in 1928 and the establishment of the Nanjing government.

The Northern Expedition, also known as the Northern March, began from the KMT's power base in Guangdong province. In 1925 the May 30 Movement announced plans for a strike and protest against western imperialism and its warlord agents in China. At the same time the First United Front between the KMT and the Communist Party of China (CPC) was questioned after the Zhongshan Warship Incident in March 1926. Subsequent events made Chiang Kai-shek the paramount military leader of the KMT. Although Chiang doubted Sun Yat-sen's policy of alliance with the Soviet Union and the CPC, he still needed aid from the Soviet Union, so he could not break up the alliance at that time.

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