l landlords. The taxing system was extremely unfair and corrupt, and in some areas, people had to pay taxes years or even decades in advance. What made things worse for the poor was the emergence of regional warlords after the fall of Emperor Ch'ing in 1912. Military leaders claimed regions for themselves and maintained their own private armies. Petty differences sometimes led to attacks and small struggles, which not only destroyed the lives of many of the peasants caught in the middle, but also destroyed any hopes for a united China. Many of these warlords were backed by foreign interests. Foreign countries such as Japan and Great Britain had a long history of interference in China. After the Opium War of 1842, the Chinese were forced to allow Britain and other countries to create concessions, which were self-governing areas of foreign influence inside the Chinese mainland. Many countries saw great potential in China, and so they forced trade relations onto them. When Yüan Shih-kai, the leader of the post-monarchical government, died in 1916, Civil War ensued. After World War I, one of the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles gave Japan Shandong province, and this infuriated the Chinese populous. The people looked to Sun Yat-sen and his Kuomintang (KMT) or National People's Party for help. The KMT was at that moment embroiled in the Civil War with the warlord-supported government in Beijing. When Sun asked for foreign aid, however, the only country willing to help him was the newly-formed Soviet Union, and even their help was conditional: the newly formed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) must be allowed to join with the KMT. Sun Yat-sen agreed, and in 1926, the Kuomintang Northern Expedition led by Chiang Kai-shek defeated the warlord-backed Beijing government. Sun died in 1927 however, and Chiang quickly reversed Sun's policy towards the communists and began what came to be known as the "White Terror". Th...