Northern Expedition

Northern Expedition in modern Chinese history, the military campaign by which the Kuomintang party overthrew the warlord -backed Beijing government and established a new government at Nanjing. At the outset of the campaign in July, 1926, the Kuomintang controlled only Guangdong and Guangxi provs. It was allied with the smaller Communist party and was receiving aid from the Soviet Union. Communist activists spread out across SE China, fomenting strikes and thereby weakening the enemy's rear. By Mar., 1927, the Kuomintang armies (swelled by the defection of intact enemy units) had pushed back the warlord armies of Wu P'ei-fu and Sun Ch'uan-fang and had taken all of SE China including the economic centers of Wuhan and Shanghai. At this point, a struggle broke out between the right-wing Kuomintang commander in chief, Chiang Kai-shek , and the left-wing-controlled provisional government at Wuhan under Wang Ching-wei . Arguing that Communist activities were socially and economically disruptive and would slow the primary task of political unification under the Kuomintang, Chiang launched a purge of Communists. When he was stripped of command (Apr., 1927), Chiang formed a rival regime at Nanjing. Finally, in July, 1927, the Wuhan government also broke with the Communists, and in Feb., 1928, the two factions reunited at Nanjing under Chiang's leadership. The Kuomintang renewed the offensive against the remaining northern forces (notably the army of Chang Tso-lin ). Beijing was taken by the Kuomintang in June, 1928, and the national government was moved to Nanjing.

Bibliography: See H. R. Isaacs, The Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution (2d rev. ed. 1966); C. M. Wilbur, The Nationalist Revolution in China 1923-28 (1985).

Northern Expedition (1926–28) Military campaign in China waged by nationalist forces under the leadership of CHIANG KAI-SHEK to extend their power from their base in southern China to much of northern China by defeating local WARLORD armies, initially with military assistance from the Soviet Union. Shanghai and Nanjing were captured in March 1927 and Beijing finally fell on 8 June 1928. A nationalist government was established in Nanjing from 1928 to 1932. The Northern Expedition was notable both for the final emergence of Chiang Kai-shek as the sole leader of the nationalist KUOMINTANG and for his purge of the communists. This resulted in a series of unsuccessful communist risings in August 1927 and the first ten-year phase of the nationalist-communist civil war.

Northern Expedition (1926–8) A military campaign in which Chiang Kai- shek led his National Revolutionary Army out of its base in Guangzhou (Canton) in an attempt to unify China, to destroy the power of the many local warlords, and bring the country under unitary (i.e. his own) control. He set off with a National Revolutionary Army of around 150,000 men, composed of loyal officers trained at his Whampoa Military Academy, as well as more loosely organized units under warlords who recognized Chiang's authority. Initially, Chiang was supported also by Communist forces, as well as military and technical assistance from the Soviet Union. The campaign proved a major success, in that by 1927 Shanghai, the Yangatze Valley, and Nanjing (Nanking) had been taken, which enabled Chiang to set up a National Government at Nanjing. However, this had been achieved through a split with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), from whom the Guomindang had wrested control over Shanghai in a massacre. This fundamentally weakened Chiang, as his need to overcome the CCP deflected from his original intention to take control over the whole of China. Moreover, Chiang's military successes, which had been achieved with an army inflated to around 600,000 soldiers by early 1928, had been achieved with the compliance of many local warlords, many of whom supplied men and material for his campaign. In return, their allegiance to Chiang was often minimal. Despite Chiang's conquest of Beijing, therefore, his actual control over many areas was relatively weak.