The Study Of The Constitution-protecting Campaign Under The Perspective Of The Historical Political Geography

From the perspective of the local-space scale of historical political geography and with the help of the research paradigm of the contemporary political geography,this article aims to discuss the military and political issues in the early years of the Republic of China.During that time,the bridge to the interaction of local politics is the geographical relationship and personal connections under the geopolitical perspective.And the interaction between politics and geography involved with the political being(point)-personal connections(line)-geopolitics(area)plays an important role in the change of geopolitical patterns.In the Revolution of 1911,the administrative pattern that the north and south were ruled separately basically at the boundary of Yangtze Valley was established.After the Second Revolution(1913),the Peiyang forces came into confrontation with the three provinces including Yunnan,Kweichow and Kwangsi.After the Campaign to defend the Republic(1915)and the Campaign of Constitution Protecting(1917-1922),the "military-administrative self-que" in southwest resulted in the confrontation between the north and southwest.All these administrative patterns are the result of the local figures' changing based on situations and interests.The National Assembly for upholding the constitution and the military government were established by Sun Yat-sen and other revolutionaries heading down south,which is a kind of political behavior of supporting the Republic and upholding the Provisional Constitution.However,the geographical relationship,personal connections and the sense of birth place which constitute the cohesive force of the regional figures and political parties in the southwest cannot supply the military government led by Sun Yat-sun enough room to grow in the southwest region.And finally,the southwest forces of Kwangsi and Yunnan and Political Clique of the National Assembly were joined up to reorganize the government into the government of the presidential system.In the war to uphold the constitution,the local figures of Yunnan,Kwangsi and Kwangtung confronted with the north forces in Szechwan,Hunan and Fekien respectively to gain geographical opportunities and they broadened their room to grow in the Military-Administrative Division consisting of three levels of military-administrative organizations including the provincial military governor,the regional military governor and the garrison.The Campaign of Provinces-Federated Autonomy in the late of the Campaign of Constitution Protecting also showed that the regional figures in southwest self-ruled the province and self-preserved the territory under their control by combining the geopolitical situation and the history of the"independence".