5.5 - Meiji Japan

Sengoku period (1467-1568)

Warring states period

Tokugawa Shogunate

1600 - Tokugawa Ieyasu unified Japan

1603 - Tokugawa Ieyasu named Shogun (military dictator)

(Unofficially) Moved capital from Kyoto to Edo (modern day Tokyo)

Sakoku policy (1603–1867)

• Sakoku = "chained country" or "locked country"

• implementing strict isolationism to ensure domestic stability and curb foreign influence, particularly Christianity and Western colonialism.

• Anti-Colonialism

1635 Edics

• Sakoku policy

• Travel Ban

  • Japanese ships were forbidden from leaving for foreign countries, and no Japanese could go abroad.

• Death Penalty for Returnees

  • Any Japanese returning from overseas, or attempting to go abroad, was to be executed.

• Restriction of Trade

  • Japan did not completely close its borders but severely restricted commerce.

• Banned Christianity

Commodore Matthew Perry

• United States Navy officer

• Sent to Japan to end Japan’s isolation

  • US sent 4 warships to tell Japan to end their isolation policies or else the will come back in a year with more warships

  • Japanese were afraid so the signed the Treaty of Kanagawa

Treaty of Kanagawa (1854)

• Opened 2 ports to U.S. ships

  • Extraterritorial rights - laws of home nation apply, not the host nation

• People were not happy (humiliated) so they went to Emperor Mutsuhito (at the time Emperor was just a figurehead) and he overthrows the Shogun, ending the Tokugawa Shogunate

Emperor Mutsuhito

• Ended the Tokugawa Shogunate

• Reign known as: Meiji = “Enlightened rule”

• Studied western ways

  • Sent diplomats to Europe and North America to study Western ways

  • Modeled government and army off of Germany

  • Modeled navy off of Britain

  • Adopted American system of universal public education (and schools for women)

  • Followed Western style of industrialization

• Incorporated westernization into their society

Meiji Society

• underwent a rapid, state-led transformation from an isolated, feudal shogunate into a modern, industrialized world power

• adopted Western technology, military systems, and education

• Western = more refined

Meiji Government

• The japan government is elected by the people. He played a sacred and modernized role as well.

• “enjoy freedom of religious beliefs” could have been inspired by the 1st amendment of the American Bill of Rights.

• The idea of having a Parliament is adapted from western companies.

Meiji Economy

rapid industrialization, transforming from a feudal agricultural society into a modern industrial power

Meiji Military

transformed Japan from a decentralized, feudal society protected by samurai into a centralized global superpower featuring a modernized army and navy

Sino-Japanese War (1894)

Results: Japanese victory

• drove China out of Korea

• destroyed the Chinese navy

• Japan gained a foothold in Manchuria

• gave Japan its first colonies: Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands

Russo-Japanese War 1904

• 1903 - Japan offered to stay out of Manchuria if Russia stayed out of Korea. Russia declined.

• 1904 - Japan launched a surprise attack on Russia, driving Russian troops out of Korea and destroying the Baltic fleet

• Result: Decisive Japanese victory, which led to a peace treaty (Treaty of Portsmouth)

Treaty of Portsmouth

• Facilitated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt

• Gave Japan captured territories

• Forced Russia to withdraw from Manchuria and stay out of Korea

• Led to Japanese attacking and annexing Korea