After the formation of the KMT, Sun passed off the Provisional Presidency, and Yuan Shikai was officially elected into the Presidency in 1913 as part of an agreement to have the last emperor, Puyi , relinquished (Payne 63). During his rule, Yuan betrayed Sun and had the Kuomintang suspended. He also “ignored the provisional constitute and declared himself Emperor of China in 1915” (“Chinese Civil War”). This caused much dissatisfaction among Yuan’s supporters, who then declared themselves independent and created warlord states (“Chinese Civil War”). After Yuan’s death in 1916, China went into a decade of warlord rule.
During the Warlord Era , the formation of the CPC was starting to arise. Beginning with the May Fourth Movement in 1919, this had caused a rapid increase of Chinese nationalism (Poon). “The movement split into leftist and liberal wings, after intellectuals acknowledged the political establishment with China 's failure
Bibliography: "Mao Zedong." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001. Columbia University Press. 19 Apr 2008 . "The Chinese Civil War." Wikipedia. 2008. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. 20 Apr 2008 . mngfty "Zhang Zuolin." Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. 1994. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., . 18 Apr 2008 . Fenby, Jonathon. Chiang Kai-Shek: China 's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost. New York: Carroll & Graf Publisher 's, 2003. Kui-kwong, Shum. Zhu De (Chu Teh). St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1982. Payne, Robert. Chiang Kai-shek. New York: Weybright and Talley, Inc., 1969. Poon, Leon. "Republican China." Army Area Handbook 2008 22 April 2008 . Suyin, Han. Eldest Son: Zhou Enlai and the Making of Modern China, 1898-1976. New York: Hill and Wang, 1994. Tong, Te-kong, and Li Tsung-jen. The Memoirs of Li Tsung-jen. Boulder: Westview Press, 1979. Wertz, Richard R.. "Exploring Chinese History." Biographical Database (1998) 21 April 2008 .