Yuan Shikai

Yuan Shikai (; 16 September 1859 – 6 June 1916) was a Chinese general and politician who served as the second provisional president of the Republic of China and head of the Beiyang government from 1912 to 1916. A major political figure during the late Qing dynasty, he spearheaded a number of major modernisation programs and reforms and played a decisive role in securing the abdication of the Xuantong Emperor in 1912, which marked the collapse of the Qing monarchy and the end of imperial rule in China. Born to an affluent family in Henan, Yuan began his career in the Huai Army. He was sent to Joseon to head a Qing garrison in Seoul and was appointed imperial resident and supreme adviser to the Korean government after thwarting a palace coup in 1885. He was recalled to China shortly before the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War, and received command of the first New Army, which paved the way for his rise to power. In 1898, Yuan formed an alliance with Empress Dowager Cixi and helped bring an end to the Guangxu Emperor's Hundred Days' Reform. Promoted to Viceroy of Zhili in 1902, Yuan quickly expanded the Beiyang Army into the best trained and most effective military force in China. He played an active role in the Late Qing reforms, which included the abolition of the imperial examination. Yuan fell from power upon the death of Cixi in 1908 and was forced into exile, but he retained the loyalty of the Beiyang Army and as such remained an influential figure. On the outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising in 1911, Yuan was recalled to court, appointed Prime Minister of the Imperial Cabinet and tasked with suppressing the rebels. After brief fighting, he entered into negotiations with Sun Yat-sen's revolutionaries and arranged for the abdication of the child emperor Puyi, leading to the fall of the Qing dynasty. In return, Yuan was elected president of the new republican government in 1912 after Sun resigned in his favor. Yuan's desire for dictatorial power brought him into conflict with the National Assembly and the Kuomintang (KMT), provoking a second revolution which was decisively crushed. He then outlawed the KMT and dissolved the National Assembly. In December 1915, in an attempt to further secure his rule, Yuan restored the monarchy and proclaimed himself as the Hongxian Emperor. The move was met with widespread opposition from the general populace, many of his closest supporters in the Beiyang Army, as well as foreign governments.