After the abdication of the Qing (Manchu) Empire in 1911, a Republic was established in China under the provisional leadership of the political philosopher Sun Yat-sen. Circumstances forced Sun to hand over the presidency to Yuan Shikai (1859–1916), a Beijing warlord and Qing official, in exchange for the promise of the Qing Emperor’s abdication. Sun had long been recognized as the architect of republicanism in China, having been a revolutionary-in-exile for decades, and the foremost ideologue of modern state formation in China throughout the latter years of Manchu rule. Leadership of the new republic ought to have fallen to him and would have if the concerns of “realpolitik” had not intervened.