To solve the problem of rough force control precision in electro-hydraulic proportional loading system, a cascade controller consisting of a dead-zone inverse compensation and a linear active disturbance rejection controller(LADRC) is proposed. Various disadvantages in the force control system are taken into account, including the non-linearity of the proportional valve dead-zone, hydraulic parameter perturbation, unknown external disturbances and so on. Based on the analysis of the mechanism of the electro-hydraulic proportional force loading system model, a second-order LADRC is designed, according to the relative order of the system. The "generalized disturbances" are estimated by a linear extended state observer (LESO) and compensated by a linear state error feedback control law(LSEF). In addition, the dead-zone inverse model is constructed to deal with the system output lag problem caused by the proportional valve dead-zone. The extensive comparative experiments show that the proposed approach improves the dynamic and static characteristics of the electro-hydraulic proportional loading system, achieves higher accuracy of force control, and possesses strong robustness and anti-interference, provides reference for engineering application. © 2020 Journal of Mechanical Engineering.