The various 'cliques' aligned with either the Beiyang forces or with the renewed Kuomintang (now led by Chiang Kai-shek), and Chinese reunification was eventually achieved by the Kuomintang in 1928 with the creation of Nationalist China. His death in 1916 would begin a civil war now known as the ' Warlord Era' as the army split into numerous territorial governates and fought for control of the nation. Yuan Shikai could not maintain unity among the Beiyang, however, particularly after he declared himself Emperor of China in 1915. While the Kuomintang party led by Sun Yat-sen succeeded in the following elections, Yuan and the Beiyang Army suppressed it and forced Sun Yat-sen into exile. thus ushering in the creation of the Republic of China. With the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, the Beiyang Army simultaneously protected the Emperor as well as negotiated for his surrender. Yuan Shikai was appointed the commander of this new force by the Empress Dowager Cixi, and as it grew in importance and effectiveness Yuan grew more contemptuous of the Imperial dynasty.
The Warlord Era began in Qing China with the establishment of the ' New Army' in 1895 (later renamed to the 'Beiyang Army'), a modernization of the Chinese army following the loss to Japan in the First Sino-Japanese War.
