Beiyang Army

The Beiyang Army (Chinese: 北洋軍; pinyin: Běiyáng-jūn; literally "North Ocean Army") was a powerful, Western-style Imperial Chinese Army created by the Qing Dynasty government in the late 19th century. It was the centerpiece of a general reconstruction of China's military system. The Beiyang Army played a major role in Chinese politics for at least three decades and arguably right up to 1949. It made the Xinhai Revolution possible, and by dividing into warlord factions (Chinese: 北洋軍閥; pinyin: běiyáng jūnfá) ushered in a period of regional division.

Read more about Beiyang Army:  Origins Under Li Hongzhang (to 1900), Yuan Shikai's Ascendancy (1901–1908), The Beiyang Army Under Manchu Control (1909–1910), The 1911 Revolution, Beiyang Clique in Power (1911–15), Fragmentation of The Beiyang Army (1916–18), High Warlordism (1919–1925), Northern Expedition

Famous quotes containing the word army:

    I was interested to see how a pioneer lived on this side of the country. His life is in some respects more adventurous than that of his brother in the West; for he contends with winter as well as the wilderness, and there is a greater interval of time at least between him and the army which is to follow. Here immigration is a tide which may ebb when it has swept away the pines; there it is not a tide, but an inundation, and roads and other improvements come steadily rushing after.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)