Final Result

Before trying anything

npm install -g nodemon webpack concurrently bower

Why?:

Bower is used to handle front-end dependencies.
Nodemon is used to track server-side changes.
Webpack is used to build application using REACT and track front-end changes.
Concurrently is to run Nodemon and Webpack together so that you can track changes on both, front-end and back-end

Though mongoose is installed as a dependency, there's no actual implementation of a mongo connection. Feel free to remove/change it.

First install dependencies:

npm install
bower install

Afterwards, feel free to run:

npm start

Express renders index.html with NO DATA FROM THE SERVER.
The app can use AJAX to request something from the server API.
Within itself, the app uses routes in order to handle different components and such.