The years immediately following the Revolution of 1911, when Yuan Shih-k'ai was president of the first Chinese republic emphasizes the beginnings of warlordism. It also stresses the continuities with the pre-revolutionary years and sees the Revolution of 1911 as an early climax in a nationalist movement to invigorate politics and society. The ambiguity of the revolutionary aftermath began with the negotiated settlement of the revolution itself. The social conservatism of the 1911 Revolution and the scope given to gentry power in the new order make understandable such politics among those most oppressed. It was apparently believed, at least by Yuan Shih-k'ai, that the switch to a monarchy would keep the Japanese, with their own monarchical proclivities, at bay until the war ended. It appears that the two failed political experiments of the early republic liberal government and dictatorship contributed to each other's destruction. Yuan's dictatorship collapsed with themonarchy.