Yuan Shikai

Born to wealth in Xiangcheng county in 1859, Yuan failed the imperial exams and turned soldier, posted to Korea in 1882 where he helped put down the Gapsin Coup and became de facto governor of the Qing protectorate. Recalled in 1894, he built the Beiyang Army into China's most effective force while backing late Qing reforms - though Hundred Days' Reformists accused him of betrayal, which won him Empress Dowager Cixi's favor and promotion to Viceroy of Zhili in 1902. After the 1911 Wuchang Uprising the Qing summoned him from forced retirement; he brokered a deal with Sun Yat-sen - Sun would step aside if Yuan secured the abdication - and became provisional president, then formal president. In 1913 he crushed Sun's Second Revolution, dissolved the assembly, and outlawed the Kuomintang. In December 1915 he proclaimed himself emperor, triggering the National Protection War; by March 1916 he'd abdicated, having reigned barely twelve weeks. He died of kidney failure three months later at 56, leaving a splintered government and China sliding toward warlord chaos.