First United Front participant Kuomintang
The First United Front (simplified Chinese: 联俄容共; traditional Chinese: 聯俄容共; pinyin: Lián É Róng Gòng; lit. 'Ally with Russia and incorporate the Communists'; alternatively simplified Chinese: 联俄联共; traditional Chinese: 聯俄聯共; pinyin: Lián É Lián Gòng), also known as the KMT–CCP Alliance, of the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was formed in 1924 as an alliance to end warlordism in China. Together they formed the National Revolutionary Army and set out in 1926 on the Northern Expedition. The CCP joined the KMT as individuals, making use of KMT's superiority in numbers to help spread communism. The KMT, on the other hand, wanted to control the communists from within. Both parties had their own aims and the Front was unsustainable. In 1927, KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek purged the Communists from the Front while the Northern Expedition was still half-complete. This initiated a civil war between the two parties that lasted until the Second United Front was formed in 1936 to prepare for the coming Second Sino-Japanese War.Fall
The First United Front was formed so the KMT and the CCP could join to strengthen China. The initial aim was to help defeat the warlord threat (through the Northern Expedition of 1926–28), but both parties actually had ulterior motives with this alliance. The CCP formed it mainly so it could spread communism within the KMT and its members, while Chiang's aim was to control the Communist Party from the inside. Having said that, he was also the main reason the relationship fell apart, due to his desire to control the Communist Party, ultimately leading to the disintegration of the First United Front. After purging the Communists and Soviet advisors from Whampoa and his Nationalist army during the 1926 "Canton Coup", Chiang went on to kill a large number of Communist forces in mid-1927, an event known as the Shanghai massacre. The massacre occurred about halfway through the Northern Expedition, ultimately ruining the First United Front and resulting in the Chinese Civil War. The Civil War was later postponed when the two sides formed the Second United Front to combat the Japanese in the Second Sino-Japanese War.