Impact
Sun realized the failure of both movements was based his over reliance on the military forces of others. After the debacle, Sun found that the revolution needed its own military strength. With the help of the Soviet Union and the alliance with the Communist Party of China, Sun retook the Guangzhou government for the third time in 1923. However, protecting the provisional government was not its purpose. Instead, building a strong military base centered around the Whampoa Military Academy and creating a one-party state to defeat the warlords was its goal. This was behind the success of the Northern Expedition that led to the reunification of China.
Historical scholars fault the movements' reliance on legal campaign tactics. The National Assembly's extraordinary session lacked a quorum. Practically from the beginning the military government was not set up by the procedures of legitimate constitutional law. It completely lacked foreign recognition. It could barely maintain unity within itself, let alone claim to be the legitimate government of all China. Simply by creating a rival government, the integrity of the Republic was damaged and set precedents for rival governments in China down to the current day.
According to recent published studies, the first government in 1917 was funded by the German Empire which provided two million dollars because Sun had opposed China's entry into the First World War. The money allowed Sun to bribe the northern navy to defect and pay for the salaries of the National Assembly. He also used the money to buy the loyalty of the southwest due to the nearly mercenary nature of the warlords. Relations with the Germans became strained when it was revealed that they had supported the Manchu Restoration and that Sun refused to cooperate in the Hindu-German Conspiracy. With KMT activists being arrested abroad and Germany losing the war, Sun declared war against the Central Powers in the vain hope of garnering recognition and a seat at the Paris Peace Conference but the seat went to the Beiyang government instead. After the assassination of Tang Hualong by a Nationalist in Canada, several KMT overseas branches were banned. Sun Yat-sen also relied on gambling and selling opium to pay for his government which lacked practical revolutionary spirit.
Read more about this topic: Constitutional Protection Movement
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