Third Party Warlords: who else besides the KMT/CCP could unite China?

Hendryk

Banned
The problem with warlords is that they had a serious dearth of legitimacy. The KMT had the legacy of the 1911 revolution (however limited their involvement in its actual outbreak) and Sun Yat-sen's mantle; the CCP had a sweeping vision of social change and a (pseudo-) scientific ideology claiming that they represented the inevitable march of history. The warlords only had raw power, meaning that they could muster grudging obedience, and perhaps a measure of personal loyalty from their direct underlings, but they couldn't count on active support from the population at large.

A warlord like Zhang Zuolin could have set up a stable regime in Manchuria, but China as a whole was beyond his grasp, and he squandered his assets vainly reaching for it. Wu Peifu was a reasonably competent man and he might have managed to hold on to perhaps nine or ten provinces, but I don't see him successfully conquering the southern Nationalist strongholds or Zhang's Manchuria. Neither had a party nor an ideology to grant them legitimacy beyond sheer military strength, and such strength comes and goes.

Feng Yuxiang's Guominjun is the closest a warlord came to setting up an ideological basis for his power, and it was a fairly cobbled-together thing, little more than a knock-off of the KMT. Maybe with a more cohesive ideology and a more systematic platform of social reform, plus backing from the USSR, it could have superseded the KMT altogether--having Sun die earlier and preempting the Northern Expedition might do the trick, but it's a long shot.
 
Well Japan could possibly do better in the Second-Sino War with whatever POD and reestablish a puppet Empire under Puyi or create an puppet Nationalist government like they did in OTL. But I guess that's cheating since they're not really a "3rd party warlord."
 
- This should be easier in TLs without a 2nd WW. Without it the communists (alternative: no Mao they continue to focus on the cities) would never have become so powerful. Now we butterfly away Chiang as Suns successor and wait for the strongest warlord to unify China.

- Yuan Shikais goverment could have survived (lives longer? more foreign support?), he had the capital, was and was formaly President giving him some legitimacy.

- Japan conquers most of China (Axis win 2nd WW or no American embargo). They then get tiered of the endless guerilla war and opt for a "chinesization" under a puppet/allied ruler.
 
Feng Yuxiang's Guominjun is the closest a warlord came to setting up an ideological basis for his power, and it was a fairly cobbled-together thing, little more than a knock-off of the KMT. Maybe with a more cohesive ideology and a more systematic platform of social reform, plus backing from the USSR, it could have superseded the KMT altogether--having Sun die earlier and preempting the Northern Expedition might do the trick, but it's a long shot.
What is 'Guominjun'? Aha! its roots are the same as KMT/GMD except for the last syllable.

If 'dang' is 'party'? what is 'jun'?
 
Actually addressing the OP.

I could easily see the KMT/GMD splitting down the middle. OTL, Chiang/Jiang wrenched the whole party rightwards (or rather raised the right wing into power), IIRC.

A situation where the right/left split actually splits the organization could easily have one of the parties (possibly the one that takes a new name) forging a new coalition - either with the CCP or possibly with a couple of the major warlords (although THAT would have its own problems).
 

yourworstnightmare

Banned
Donor
- Yuan Shikais goverment could have survived (lives longer? more foreign support?), he had the capital, was and was formaly President giving him some legitimacy.
Except, I think Yuan's dream to become emperor kind of ruined it for him (and of course his sudden death).
 
As a sidenote: as impressively comprehensive Wikipedia's articles on the Warlord era and various warlord factions and personalities are, are there any good books in English that do a survey of them and cover them? I'm thinking maybe one of those specialist military hobbyist texts might do so, but perhaps I'm being too optimistic about Western understanding of the subject.
 

Hendryk

Banned
As a sidenote: as impressively comprehensive Wikipedia's articles on the Warlord era and various warlord factions and personalities are, are there any good books in English that do a survey of them and cover them? I'm thinking maybe one of those specialist military hobbyist texts might do so, but perhaps I'm being too optimistic about Western understanding of the subject.
If you're thinking about the Osprey books, there's one that gives a general overview of the 1911-1949 period but is light on details, and focuses mostly on technical stuff like weapons and uniforms. Another book on the topic has recently been published but I haven't read it yet.

While not an exhaustive survey, Edward McCord's The Power of the Gun : The Emergence of Modern Chinese Warlordism is a very interesting analysis of the socio-political conditions that led to the rise of the warlords in post-1911 China. I have relied on it for the early chapters of my TL.
 
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