1859- Born on September 16; birth of the Chinese militarist who reached a position of great power in the Qing Dynasty
1912 -Became President of the Republic of China, and betrayed both regimes in his pursuit of personal power
1885-1894 -A protégé of Li Hongzhang, Yuan had risen as Li's proconsul in Korea
1895 -In the wake of the disastrous Sino-Japanese War, he was assigned the task of creating a modern army.
-Turning his creation, later known as the Beiyang Army, into a personal power base.
1898 -He won the favor of the dowager empress CIXI by refusing to support a coup by her adoptive son, the Guangzu emperor
1901-1907 -Appointed viceroy of Bejili province by the empress.
-As negotiator for the Qing in the 1911 revolution.
-He arranged the emperor's abdication when SUN YAT-SEN agreed to resign in Yuan's favor as head of the new Chinese republic.
- provisional president of China
- president of China
1914 -He ruled as a military dictator, altering the constitution to make himself president for life and unsuccessfully attempting to restore the Monarchy with himself as emperor (1915-16).
1915 - forced by Japan to accede to Twenty-One Demands
- declared himself emperor of China as Hung Hsien
1916- Died on June 6
Page last updated: 4:54am, 27