Warlord China
	After World War I, the Nationalists and the Communists struggled for power in China and starts a civil war. However, during this conflict, a third force enters the civil war, which are several warlords and their regional armies. This is interesting, as in the previous dynasties, the Chinese government had feared that regional commanders would gain too much power and spin out of the government’s control. They had created a system that would keep a regional army loyal to China and not their regional commanders, however warlords still arose after 1916 and continued to be a role in the Chinese government until the establishment of the Communist government in 1949. This still leaves the question of how warlords appeared in China after World War I?
	In the 19th century, China was undergoing a silver and copper crisis. Silver and copper are at a bimetallic standard in the Chinese economy, and silver was becoming increasingly rare while copper was produced at increasing rates. This led to an inflation of copper and became a huge issue as many monetary transactions use copper as it can pay in smaller units of money. People began to lose money as they mostly owned copper, and eventually, 50% more copper was needed to equate the value of silver in China. With copper losing its value, everyone hung on to their remaining supply of silver, taking more of it out of circulation. When the Europeans came to China for trade, European saw value in spices, silk, medicine, tea, and so on, however the China was not interested in any European goods except silver. This forced every trader that wished to trade with China to use silver. This became an issue for the East India Company, a British trading company. The East India Company mainly dealt with tea and imported a lot of tea from China to deal with the growing demands of tea in the west. This cost a lot of silver and put the East India Company into debt. Chinese also initiated high tariffs and taxes, which only made the situation even more difficult. After searching for a solution, the East India Company resorted to opium. Opium was an ideal trade item since it was used as a medicine in China for thousands of years and simultaneously is an addictive drug, which made it extremely popular China. Massive amounts of silver were used to purchase opium, which in turn was used to buy tea from China. This quickened the outflow of silver from China, reducing the value of silver and copper even more with little to gain