Zhang Zhidong - Modernization of China's Military

Modernization of China's Military

Zhang created the Guangdong Naval and Military Officer's Academy and also created the Guangdong Victorious Army (Guangdong Sheng Jun), a regional yong-ying army, before 1894. He created the Hupei Military Academy (wubei xuetang) in 1896, where he employed instructors who came from the Guangdong Academy. The majority of the staff were Chinese. He hired some German officers to instruct.

While serving as the governor of Nanjing in 1894, Zhang had invited a German training regiment of twelve officers and twenty-four warrant officers to train the local garrison into a modern military force. After the First Sino-Japanese War, in 1896, Zhang was ordered by imperial decree to move to Wuchang to become the Viceroy of Huguang, an area comprising the modern provinces of Hubei and Hunan. Zhang drew on his experience in Nanjing to modernize the military forces under his command in Huguang.

In Wuchang, Zhang effectively trained and equipped modern units of sappers, engineers, cavalry, police, artillery, and infantry. Of the 60,000 men under his command, 20,000 men were directly trained by foreign officers, and a military academy was established in Wuchang in order to train future generations of soldiers. Zhang armed the troops with German Mauser rifles and other modern equipment. Foreign observers reported that, when their training was complete, the troops stationed in the Wuchang garrison were the equal of contemporary European forces.

During the Boxer Rebellion, Zhang Zhidong, along with some other Governors in China like Yuan Shikai who commanded substantial modernized armies, refused to join in the Imperial Court's declaration of war against the Eight Nation Alliance, Zhang assured the foreigners during negotiations that he would do nothing to help the Imperial Government.

Zhang's troops later became involved in Chinese politics. In 1911 the Wuchang garrison led the Wuchang Uprising, a coup against the local government that catalyzed the nation-wide Xinhai Revolution. The Xinhai Revolution led to the collapse of the Qing Dynasty and its replacement by the Republic of China.