The National Protection War (simplified Chinese: 护国战争; traditional Chinese: 護國戰爭; pinyin: Hù guó zhànzhēng), also known as the anti-Monarchy War, was a civil war that took place in China between 1915 and 1916. Only three years earlier, the last Chinese dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, had been overthrown and a Republic of China established in its place. The cause of the war was the proclamation by Yuan Shikai, the Republic's President, of himself as a new Emperor.