Northern Expedition - legacy

Question 1

NE - partial success

Answer 1

• 10 October 1928 Chiang = Chairman of govt in Beiping
• controlled only 5 provinces n the Yangzi regon
• The only faction destroyed during the expedition was the Zhili clique
• The tug-of-war between the centre and the provincial barons was too deeply embedded to be undone by a single military campaign, however successful - Fenby

Question 2

NE - bribery

Answer 2

• new regime = 30% foreign aid missapropriated
• warlord troops persuaded to surrender by bribery
• The victories that made the warlords retreat were won by arms and bribery, not evangelism or the masses. - Fenby
• Feng Yuxiang paid $2 millon/month

Question 3

NE - legitimization of warlord armies

Answer 3

• Demobilisation proved unsuccessful, as various wars were fought with regional warlords in 1929 and 1930s
• militarily, the NE solved little.. Warlordism was not vanquished
• The political and military fudge that made the competing forces involved in the NE co-operate in the march on Baiping laid the basis for the civil warfare that broke out almost immediately following the declaration of victory - VNDV
• In return for an acceptance of his overall military leadership and the legitimacy of the Nanjing Government, Chiang proposed that four Branch Political Councils be established in Wuhan, Canton, Kaifeng and Taiyuan and that there would be four Group Armies.
• Accepted 16 February 1928
• Chiang invited back to govt on 1 Jan 1928

Question 4

NE - association with criminal gangs

Answer 4

• Big Ears Du’s criminal empire alloweed to expand
• Children wprking 11 hours a day
• 1 in 12 houes in Shangha = brothel
• 100,000 gangsters

- new National Govt was tainted by its association with criminal gangs = VdV

• can’t implement labour legislation because factories run by GG -

half of China’s factory workers were n Shanghai

Question 5

NE - entrenchment of cultures of violence/military

Answer 5

• The harvest of the Northern Expedition was the entrenchment of nasty cultures of violence - VdV
• military nature of theregime was accentuated, as was the sense of living in permanent crisis. - Fenby
• Constant warfare had destroyed railway tracks in the north and, increasingly, Chiang made sure that new lines were laid mainly for military purposes.
• During the 1929-32 famine, the Nationalist Government refused to ship food to impacted areas as they feared that warlord rivals would steal it, leading to thousands of rural casualties while the cities remained stocked with food.