Betrayed Ally: China in the Great War

The Great War helped China emerge from humiliation and obscurity and take its first tentative steps as a full member of the global community. In 1912 the Qing Dynasty had ended. President Yuan Shikai, who seized power in 1914, offered the British 50,000 troops to recover the German colony in Shandong but this was refused. In 1916 China sent a vast army of laborers to Europe. In 1917 she declared war on Germany despite this effectively making the real enemy Japan an ally. The betrayal came when Japan was awarded the former German colony. This inspired the rise of Chinese nationalism and communism, enflamed by Russia. The scene was set for Japan’s incursions into China and thirty years of bloodshed. One hundred years on, the time is right for this accessible and authoritative account of China’s role in The Great War and assessment of its national and international significance. AUTHORS: Christopher J. Anderson has written many articles on military history, and is the author of The U.S. Army Today, Patton’s Third Army and The Fall of Fortress Europe in the G.I. Series. Frances Wood studied Chinese at the universities of Cambridge, Peking and London and was Curator of the Chinese collections at the British Library until 2013. Her published works include The Blue Guide to China, Did Marco Polo Go to China?, The Silk Road: two thousand years in the heart of Asia, The Forbidden City, No Dogs and Not Many Chinese and Picnics Prohibited. 32 b/w illustrations