First United Front

The First United Front, also known as the KMT–CCP Alliance, of the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was an alliance formed in 1923 and dissolved in 1927 to end warlordism in China. Together they formed the National Revolutionary Army and set out in 1926 on the Northern Expedition. In its three years of alliance, both the CCP and the KMT gained much strength while banding together against their mutual enemy of Western imperialism and warlordism. The KMT established its organization throughout many provinces and largely eradicated the northern threat of the Beiyang Army, notably its generals Sun Chuanfang and Wu Peifu, overall greatly extending its influence. The CCP joined the KMT as individuals, making use of KMT's superiority in numbers to help spread communism and establishing their foundation of support for their later struggle with the KMT in the Chinese Civil War. However, tensions remained between the two groups as both parties wanted to advance their opposing ideologies. In 1927, KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek purged the Communists from the Front while the Northern Expedition was still half-complete. This initiated a civil war between the two parties that lasted until the Second United Front was formed in 1936 to prepare for the coming Second Sino-Japanese War.