To what extent was Yuan Shikai responsible for China descending into the chaos and disorder of the warlord era?

Yuan shikai was responsible for the collapse in power of the Chinese state as he used brute force and used his military power to undermine the central state. He intimidated the national assembly when the GMD criticised him for co-operating with imperialist powers in 1913 when the imperialist powers agreed to give Yuan a loan in order to economically modernise. He reacted by surrounding the national assembly with troops  in order to insure he gained the votes he needed. This undermined the power of the national assembly and highlighted that Yuan shikai's army was one of the strongest. He also sent troops to the south in order to destroy the GMD and nationalists strongholds in the south. He undermined central state as he promised to introduce a democratic republican with no intention to do so. However he was not solely responsible. Yuan shikai was receiving increased support from the imperialists through loans and finances to economically modernise, he was unable to see that the imperialists only a favoured a authoritarian state so that they could continue to exploit china for their own advantage. Yuan shikai also had the support of the conservative elites as they did not want a democracy instead they wanted a a stable china within which they could maintain their power. The peasants also disagreed with a democracy, which further undermined the power of the Chinese state.

Regional militarism was encouraged by Yuan shikai as he used military power to assert his authority which set a precedent for opposition to do so as well such as Sun Yet Sen; started to form an army. Opposition began to realise they had to have sufficient military power in order to take over or stop Yuan shikai or other authoritarian leaders. He also placed his own generals in charge of provinces which gave further rise to regional militarism as it encouraged warlords to develop. Also Yuan made fatal error to try and become emperor, this caused opposition and forced provinces to declare independence as they did not want another dynastic ruler, this gave them reason and opportunity to expand their military which undermined regional militarism as they broke away from china in 1916.

However regional militarism was growing since the Qing dynasty. The Qing government had granted provinces permission to create regional armies to suppress rebellions. Dowager introduced self strengthening through which she increases the military strength of the imperial regime, which then produced Yuan shikai as a result. Chaos was further encouraged in the future due to imperialist promoting militarism through the opium wars, boxer rebellion and also defeat against Japan, such events glorified the military and gave rise to power. Foreign imperialists were also selling arms within china to simply anyone who could afford it, this encouraged the growth of warlords and violent behaviour.