Nationalist government

The Nationalist government (Chinese: 國民政府) was the government established by the Kuomintang (KMT) in Guangzhou after the reorganization of the Army and Navy Marshal stronghold. Following the Northern Expedition, the government was able to defeat and overthrow the Beiyang government and become the legitimate government of China with its capital settled in Nanjing since 1927. The Nationalist government lasted until 20 May 1948 when it dissolved itself and was replaced by a constitutional government following the promulgation of a formal constitution. During the period the KMT-led government ruled China as an one-party state.

Following the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen was elected to be China's provisional president and founded the Provisional Government of the Republic of China. To preserve national unity, Sun ceded the presidency to military strongman Yuan Shikai, who established the Beiyang government. After a failed attempt to install himself as Emperor of China, Yuan died in 1916, leaving a power vacuum which resulted in China being divided into several warlord fiefs and rival governments. After the end of the Northern Expedition in 1928, they were nominally reunified under the Nationalist government in Nanjing, led by Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang initially governed the country as a de facto, and sometimes also de jure, military dictator. The government was in place until it was replaced by the current Government of the Republic of China in the newly promulgated Constitution of the Republic of China of 1947.