Yuean was succeeded as president by Li Yuean-hung. Meanwhile five
provinces had declared themselves independent. Foreign pressure on China
steadily grew. She was forced to declare war on Germany, and though this
made no practical difference to the war, it enabled the European powers
to penetrate further into China. Difficulties grew to such an extent in
1917 that a dictatorship was set up and soon after came an interlude,
the recall of the Manchus and the reinstatement of the deposed emperor
(July 1st-8th, 1917).

This led to various risings of generals, each aiming simply at the
satisfaction of his thirst for personal power. Ultimately the victorious
group of generals, headed by Tuan Ch'i-jui, secured the election of Feng
Kuo-chang in place of the retiring president. Feng was succeeded at the
end of 1918 by Hsue Shih-ch'ang, who held office until 1922. Hsue, as a
former ward of the emperor, was a typical representative of the gentry,
and was opposed to all republican reforms.

The south held aloof from these northern governments. In Canton an
opposition government was set up, formed mainly of followers of Sun
Yat-sen; the Peking government was unable to remove the Canton
government. But the Peking government and its president scarcely counted
any longer even in the north. All that counted were the generals, the
most prominent of whom were: (1) Chang Tso-lin, who had control of
Manchuria and had made certain terms with Japan, but who was ultimately
murdered by the Japanese (1928); (2) Wu P'ei-fu, who held North China;
(3) the so-called "Christian general", Feng Yue-hsiang, and (4) Ts'ao
K'un, who became president in 1923.

At the end of the first world war Japan had a hold over China amounting
almost to military control of the country. China did not sign the Treaty
of Versailles, because she considered that she had been duped by Japan,
since Japan had driven the Germans out of China but had not returned the
liberated territory to the Chinese. In 1921 peace was concluded with
Germany, the German privileges being abolished. The same applied to
Austria. Russia, immediately after the setting up of the Soviet
government, had renounced all her rights under the Capitulations. This
was the first step in the gradual rescinding of the Capitulations; the
last of them went only in 1943, as a consequence of the difficult
situation of the Europeans and Americans in the Pacific produced by the
Second World War.

At the end of