List of warlords and military cliques in the Warlord Era

The Warlord Era was a historical period of the Republic of China that began from 1916 and lasted until the mid-1930s, during which the country was divided and ruled by various military cliques following the death of Yuan Shikai in 1916. Communist revolution broke out in the later part of the warlord period, beginning the Chinese Civil War. The era nominally ended in 1928 at the conclusion of the with the Northeast Flag Replacement, beginning the "Nanjing decade". However, "residual warlords" continued to exist into the 1930s under de jureKuomintang rule, and remained until the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Historians and scholars estimate the number of warlords in this entire period is roughly to be around over 1,000 warlords.

The warlords and military cliques of the Warlord Era are generally divided into the Northern factions and the Southern factions. The following is a list of cliques within each faction, and the dominant warlords within that clique.