💰 Heavy taxes
Warlords needed money to pay their soldiers, so they taxed peasants again and again. Some collected taxes years in advance. Some forced farmers to grow opium poppies because opium could be taxed.
The Fall of the Qing, Warlordism and Chaos, 1900-34 » China Under the Warlords and the May the Fourth Movement
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: Paper 2 Section B, Breadth study B4, Key topic 1
- Why China split into regions run by warlords after 1916
- What warlord rule meant for ordinary people
- Why the Versailles decision on Shandong made Chinese students furious
- What the May the Fourth Movement did and what new ideas it spread
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Unlock This CourseChina breaks up: the warlords
By 1914 Yuan Shikai ruled China as a dictator. In December 1915 he even announced that he would become emperor. There was so much opposition, including from his own generals, that he gave up the idea in March 1916. He died in June 1916.
Yuan's strength had come from his army. When he died, nobody could control it. His generals, and other military leaders, kept their soldiers and took control of whole provinces. They are called warlords. A warlord had his own army, collected his own taxes and made his own rules. Some warlords joined together in groups, called cliques. The best known were the Anhui, Zhili and Fengtian cliques. The Fengtian clique was led by Zhang Zuolin, who ruled Manchuria.
The government in Beijing was still the one other countries recognised, but it was weak. It changed often and was controlled by whichever clique held the city. This period, from 1916 to the late 1920s, is often called the warlord era.
Key terms:
- Warlord: a military leader who controls a region with his own army and ignores the central government.
- Treaty of Versailles: the 1919 peace treaty with Germany that ended the First World War.
- Boycott: to refuse to buy or use something as a protest.
- New Culture Movement: a movement from about 1915 of Chinese writers and teachers who wanted to replace old traditions with new ideas.
- Vernacular: the everyday spoken language, used in writing instead of the old formal language.
What warlord rule meant for ordinary people
Most Chinese people were poor farmers, and for them warlord rule was a disaster.
⚔️ Fighting and fear
Warlords fought one another over land and cities. Farmers were dragged into armies, crops were seized and villages were looted. Unpaid soldiers and bandits made life even more dangerous.
There was also no strong government to build railways, schools or flood defences, or to stand up to foreign powers. Many Chinese people wanted a united and strong China, and this is the background to everything that followed in the 1920s.
The Shandong problem
China joined the First World War on the Allied side in 1917. It sent labourers, well over 100,000 of them, to work behind the lines in France. Many Chinese hoped this would win them fair treatment when the war ended.
The problem was Shandong, a province on China's coast. Germany had held land and a railway there. In 1914 Japan, which was also on the Allied side, seized the German holdings. In 1915 Japan had pressed China to accept the Twenty-One Demands, which would have given Japan great influence in China. Yuan Shikai's government accepted most of them in May 1915, which Chinese people saw as a national humiliation. Japan then won secret promises of support for its claim to Shandong from Britain and France.
At the peace conference in Paris, China asked for Shandong to be returned. Chinese hopes were raised by President Wilson's talk of self-determination (the right of a people to decide how they are governed). But in the Treaty of Versailles, the Allies gave the German rights in Shandong to Japan instead. News of the decision reached China in early May 1919.
The May the Fourth Movement
On 4 May 1919 about 3,000 students from Beijing universities gathered outside the Gate of Heavenly Peace (Tiananmen). They marched to the area where foreign embassies stood, shouting against the treaty. They also attacked officials they saw as friendly to Japan. They burned the house of Cao Rulin, a government minister, and beat up another official. Police arrested more than 30 students.
The protest spread across the country:
- Students in many cities held demonstrations and strikes.
- In Shanghai in June, shopkeepers and factory workers joined in, with strikes and a boycott of Japanese goods.
- Under this pressure the government released the students and dismissed three officials, including Cao Rulin.
- China's delegation in Paris refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles.
It was a rare victory, and it showed that students, merchants and workers could force a government to listen. Shandong came back under Chinese control in 1922, after a separate agreement.
The new ideas
The protest grew out of the New Culture Movement. Writers and teachers such as Chen Duxiu, who started the magazine New Youth in 1915, argued that old traditions were holding China back. They called for "Mr Democracy" and "Mr Science". Writers such as Hu Shi urged people to write in the vernacular, so that ordinary people could read. After 1919 these ideas spread widely, including ideas about women's rights, and some thinkers became interested in the communism of the new Russian government. The next lessons show how this led to the founding of the Chinese Communist Party.
Change and continuity
What changed and what stayed the same
Changed: a new kind of politics began. Students and townspeople protested in the streets, and nationalism (pride in and loyalty to your nation) became a mass force.
Stayed the same: warlords still ruled most of China. The poor farmers still suffered, and the country was still weak and divided.
Common mistakes
Common mistakes
- Saying the movement was against the Chinese government only. It was mainly against the Versailles decision and Japan, though it also attacked officials seen as friendly to Japan.
- Saying the warlords were part of the Qing government. They rose after Yuan Shikai's death in 1916, when the Qing had already gone.
- Thinking the movement was only a one-day event. The 4 May march began a wider movement of strikes, boycotts and new ideas.
- Giving one cause only in a "two causes" question. That can never score more than half marks.
Exam-style question
Explain TWO causes of the May the Fourth Movement of 1919. [8 marks]
Model answer
One cause was the decision at the Treaty of Versailles about Shandong. China had joined the Allies in 1917 and sent labourers to France, so many Chinese expected fair treatment. Instead the peace treaty gave the former German rights in Shandong to Japan. When this news reached China in early May 1919 it caused outrage, and about 3,000 students marched in Beijing on 4 May. The decision was the immediate trigger for the protest.
A second cause was resentment of Japan and of China's weak government. Japan had presented the Twenty-One Demands in 1915, and Yuan Shikai's government had accepted most of them. Since his death in 1916 China had been divided between warlords, so Chinese people felt that their leaders could not defend the country. The students therefore attacked officials they thought were friendly to Japan, such as Cao Rulin, whose house was burned. This shows how years of anger at foreign pressure and a weak government led to the movement.
What lifts this to the top level: two causes, each with precise facts such as dates and names and a clear link showing how the cause led to the movement.
Exam tip
For "Explain TWO causes", write two separate paragraphs. Name the cause, add a fact such as a date or a name, then end by saying how it led to the event you were asked about.