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The Warlord Era is the common term that refers to the time period of China beginning from 1916 to the mid-1930s, when the country was divided by various military cliques. Followed by the death of Yuan Shikai in 1916, and nominally ended in 1928 at the conclusion of the Northern Expedition with the Northeast Flag Replacement, beginning the "Nanjing decade". However, the division continues to exist into the 1930s, and remains until the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.

The warlords and military cliques of the Warlord Era are generally divided into the Northern Faction and the Southern Faction. The following is a list of cliques within each faction, and the dominant warlords within that clique.

Contents 1 Northern Faction 1.1 Fengtian clique 1.2 Anhui clique 1.3 Zhili clique 1.4 Shanxi clique 1.5 Guominjun 1.6 Shandong 1.7 Ma clique 2 Southern Faction 2.1 Yunnan clique 2.2 Old Guangxi clique 2.3 New Guangxi clique 2.4 Guangdong 2.5 Kuomintang 2.6 Sichuan 3 References

The cliques in the Northern Faction are evolved from the Beiyang system. Most of them were generals under Yuan Shikai. After the death of Yuan, they separated and formed cliques in their own sphere of influence.

Fengtian is the old name of Shenyang city, and was the political center of Manchuria. The headquarter of the military government in Manchuria is located here, thus, their clique is known by the name of the city.

Name		Years of dominance	Notes
Zhang Zuolin		1916 - 1928	Leader of the Fengtian Army, ruler of Manchuria
Zhang Xueliang		1928 - 1937	Successor of Zhang Zuolin
Guo Songling		1920 - 1925	General under Fengtian Army, went independent in 1925 and was killed.
Zhang Haipeng
Zhang Jinghui
Zhang Zongchang
Tang Yulin
Wan Fulin
Wu Junsheng
Yang Yuting

Name		Years of dominance	Notes
Duan Qirui		1916 - 1926	Leader of the Anhui Clique
Duan Zhigui
Jin Yunpeng
Lu Yongxiang
Xu Shuzheng
Zhang Jingyao

Name		Years of dominance	Notes
Cao Kun		1919 - 1924	Leader of the Zhili Clique
Wu Peifu		1919 - 1927
Feng Guozhang		1916-1919
Sun Chuanfang		1919 - 1927

Name		Years of dominance	Notes
Yan Xishan		1911 - 1949	Leader of the Shanxi Clique; Ruler of Shanxi

Name		Years of dominance	Notes
Feng Yuxiang		1924 - 1934	Leader of the Northwest

Name		Years of dominance	Notes
Han Fuqu		- 1938	Chairman of the Shandong Province; Was arrested and shot after abandoning his province when the Second Sino-Japanese War started.

Name		Years of dominance	Notes
Ma Bufang		1937 - 1945	Ruler of the Qinghai province
Ma Hongbin
Ma Hongkui		1932 - 1949
Ma Zhongying

The military cliques in the Southern Faction are generally regional revolutionary leaders that took over after the fall of Qing Dynasty in Xinhai Revolution.

The Yunnan Military Government was established on October 30, 1911, with Cai E elected as the military governor. This marked the beginning of the Yunnan clique.

Name		Years of dominance	Notes
Cai E		1911 - 1916	Leader of the Yunnan Army
Hu Ruoyu
Long Yun
Tang Jiyao

Guangxi province announced its independence on November 6, 1911. Originally, the revolutionaries supported the Qing Governor to remain in position. However, he later left the province, and Lu Rongting succeeded his position.

Name		Years of dominance	Notes
Lu Rongting		1912 - 1922
Chen Binghun
Shen Chunxuan
Shen Hongying

By 1924, the Old Guangxi clique was no longer effective, and was replaced by the New Guangxi clique.

Name		Years of dominance	Notes
Bai Chongxi		1923 -
Huang Shaoxiong		1923 -
Li Zongren		1923 -

Guangdong was independent on November 8. The Guangdong Army is mostly dominated by Chen Jiongming.

Name		Years of dominance	Notes
Chen Jiongming		1911-1924

Name		Years of dominance	Notes
Chiang Kai-shek
He Yingqin
Hu Hanmin
Liao Zhongkai
Sun Yat-sen
Wang Jingwei

Name		Years of dominance	Notes
Liu Wenhui
Liu Xiang
Yang Sen