National Protection War

National Protection War
Part of Anti-Qing movements
Chinese imperial artillery attacking republican positions
Date 29 December 1911 – TBD 1915 Location Mostly southern and western China Result Qing victory
Belligerents
Qing Dynasty	Provisional Government of the Republic of China Other revolutionary groups
Commanders and leaders
Guangxu Emperor Sun Yat-sen Duan Qirui Wu Peifu Wang Zhanyuan Cao Kun Feng Yuxiang Lu Rongting Ma Anliang	Li Yaunhong Cai E Chen Bingkun Tang Jiyao
Strength
700,000+	200,000+

The National Protection War (Chinese: 護國戰爭; pinyin: Hù guó zhànzhēng), also called the Anti-Monarchy War or the Second Revolution, was an attempted uprising against the Qing Dynasty in China after the 1911 Xinhai Revolution did not lead to the overthrow of the imperial system. It began as a continuation of the anti-Qing rebellions in the southern provinces, particularly in Yunnan. Military governor Cai E declared independence from the Qing Empire in December 1911 after it became clear that Sun Yat-sen had made a deal with the Manchu imperial court and was joined by Chen Bingkun, the military governor of Guangxi. Together they joined forces with the more radical wing of the republicans, led by the "President of the Provisional Government of the Republic of China," Li Yuanhong. They declared the establishment of a Republic of China on 1 January 1912. In response, the Qing court under the Guangxu Emperor deployed the Imperial Beiyang Army under Duan Qirui's command to crush the southern uprising, which included some of the dynasty's most modern and best trained troops.

The provincial armies of Yunnan and Guangxi were able to hold out for a few years and eventually turned the conflict into a guerrilla war after the Qing retook most of the major cities in the region. An insurgency also broke out in Xinjiang and Qinghai provinces of western China, led by rebellious Muslim Hui troops. By 1915, most of the rebel groups had been eliminated and the Republic of China never gained any international recognition. The Qing also received support from Japan in exchange for adopting some pro-Japanese policies, which were later reversed when the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in the 1930s.