History Paper 1: Meiji Restoration

Who dominated political and military power during the Tokugawa era?

The shogun.

What role did the emperor retain in Kyoto during the Tokugawa era?

Ceremonial and religious authority.

What were the two main categories of daimyo based on historical loyalty to the Tokugawa?

Fudai and tozama.

What was the sankin kotai system?

The alternate attendance system requiring daimyo residence in Edo at regular intervals.

What was the main purpose of alternate attendance?

To keep daimyo under surveillance and drain their resources.

How did the role of samurai change during the long Tokugawa peace?

They increasingly became administrators rather than battlefield warriors.

When did Tokugawa Ieyasu defeat his rivals and become shogun?

1600-1603.

What was the long-term weakness of the Tokugawa system?

Limited adaptability as economic and social change contradicted the rigid formal order.

What economic problems did Tokugawa peasant households face?

High taxes crop failure famine debt and poor local administration.

What financial issues affected samurai in the early 1800s?

Debt and underemployment due to fixed stipends.

How did the merchant class challenge the Tokugawa status order?

They gained wealth and economic importance despite their low formal status.

What did peasant uprisings in the late Tokugawa period typically target?

Specific grievances rather than seeking to overthrow the entire system.

What restricted occupational and geographic mobility in Tokugawa Japan?

Hereditary status rules.

Why was the Tokugawa government revenue system unstable?

It depended heavily on agriculture and fluctuated with harvest conditions.

What is Rangaku?

The study of Western knowledge through Dutch contacts.

How did Tokugawa merchants contribute to later Meiji industrialization?

They supplied capital and business expertise.

What did the US want from Japan in 1853?

Access to Asian trade and ports for supplies and assistance.

Who commanded the US naval expedition to Japan in 1853?

Commodore Matthew Perry.

What made President Millard Fillmores request to open Japan a credible threat?

Perrys visible display of steam-powered naval force with four warships.

How did the bakufu respond to Perrys arrival?

They consulted daimyo exposing political uncertainty and division.

What did the Convention of Kanagawa do in 1854?

It began a new US-Japan treaty relationship but did not instantly create complete free trade.

What does sonno joi mean?

Revere the emperor expel the barbarians.

What did the Mito school intellectual Aizawa Seishisai warn about?

Foreign threats.

How did reformers believe Japan should respond to Western pressure?

By studying and adopting Western arms education and industry.

How did the opening of Japan affect domestic politics?

Foreign policy became a weapon to attack shogunal weakness.

What was the Ansei Five-Power Treaties system of 1858?

A treaty system expanding foreign commercial access and privileges in Japan.

What is extraterritoriality?

Foreign nationals being subject to foreign rather than Japanese courts.

How did tariff restrictions impact Japan?

They limited Japans economic sovereignty by removing its ability to set its own customs duties.

What was the domestic consequence of the unequal treaties for the Tokugawa?

They discredited the bakufu by making its weakness visible.

What 1862-63 event led to British pressure on Satsuma?

The Richardson/Namugi incident.

What domains were central to the anti-bakufu coalition?

Satsuma and Choshu.

When did Satsuma and Choshu form their secret alliance?

1866.

Who was the last Tokugawa shogun who resigned in 1867?

Tokugawa Yoshinobu.

What was the Boshin War?

The civil war beginning in 1868 between shogunal and imperial forces.

What provided ideological authority for the rebellion against the Tokugawa?

Imperial legitimacy representing the emperor as rightful authority.

What was the personal name of the Meiji emperor?

Mutsuhito.

Why was Emperor Mutsuhitos youth significant when he took power in 1867?

It increased the importance of the experienced senior Meiji leaders advising him.

What was the purpose of the 1868 Charter Oath?

To state broad reform principles and associate imperial rule with consultation and foreign learning.

How was the Meiji emperors public image managed?

It deliberately combined Japanese imperial tradition with Western dress and modern institutions.

Who were the Meiji oligarchs?

A small group of senior leaders dominating early Meiji government mostly from Satsuma and Choshu.

Name three key Meiji state-builders.

Kido Koin Okubo Toshimichi and Ito Hirobumi.

What major political change occurred in 1871?

Domains were abolished and replaced by prefectures.

Why was the abolition of domains important?

It gave the central government in Tokyo direct administrative reach and sharply reduced regional autonomy.

What happened to daimyo after domains were abolished?

They lost hereditary territorial rule but were compensated and often remained elite.

How did the Meiji state change landownership?

Land became private property that could be bought sold and rented.

What was a negative social consequence of Meiji land reform?

Poor farmers could lose land through debt and become tenant farmers.

What was the Iwakura Mission of 1871-1873?

A diplomatic and study mission to the US and Europe led by senior officials.

What diplomatic goal did the Iwakura Mission fail to achieve?

The renegotiation of the unequal treaties.

What did the Iwakura Mission delegates study abroad?

Government law education industry infrastructure and social institutions.

What strategy did the Iwakura Mission encourage?

Selective Westernization choosing and adapting useful foreign institutions.

How did the Meiji government accelerate industrialization in the 1870s?

By investing in railways telegraphs postal services and model enterprises.

What were zaibatsu?

Large diversified business groups like Mitsui and Mitsubishi.

What industry was central to Meiji export growth?

The textile industry relying heavily on female labor.

By 1890 how extensive was the Japanese rail network?

It reached about 1400 miles.

What was the yen?

The national currency introduced in 1871 to replace fragmented domain-era money.

How was the 1873 land tax calculated and paid?

It was based on assessed land value and paid in cash.

How did the 1873 land tax strengthen the Meiji state?

It made government revenue more predictable to finance the army and infrastructure.

What was the Matsukata deflation?

A falling-price policy in the 1880s that increased pressure on indebted farmers.

Where did the 1889 Meiji Constitution locate sovereignty?

In the emperor who was described as sacred and inviolable.

Who was the central statesman responsible for drafting the constitutional system?

Ito Hirobumi.

Whose foreign constitutional models influenced the Meiji Constitution?

German and Prussian ideas.

What was the Imperial Diet?

The national representative legislature created by the 1889 Constitution.

What was the Freedom and Peoples Rights Movement?

A movement demanding broader political participation and challenging oligarchic government.

What were Jiyuto and Kaishinto?

Early political parties founded in 1881 and 1882.

What percentage of the population was eligible to vote in the first 1890 election?

About 1 percent due to a highly restricted tax-based franchise.

What was the 1890 Imperial Rescript on Education?

A statement emphasizing morality loyalty and service to the emperor-centered state.

How many peasant disturbances occurred in the first decade of Meiji rule?

Roughly 190.

What 1884 rural rebellion grew from silk-price collapse debt and deflation?

The Chichibu Incident.

Did peasant protest threaten the survival of Meiji rule?

No because the government effectively used police and military repression.

Why did samurai lose their military monopoly?

Universal conscription introduced commoners into a national army.

What economic loss fueled samurai grievances in 1876?

Stipend conversion which ended their hereditary income.

Who led the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion?

Saigo Takamori.

What did the defeat of the Satsuma Rebellion demonstrate?

It confirmed state consolidation showing the conscript state was stronger than the old warrior order.

What major diplomatic success did Japan achieve in July 1894?

Britain signed a revised treaty agreeing that extraterritoriality would end in 1899.

What economic restriction remained after the 1894 treaty revision?

Tariff autonomy remained limited.

What was civilization and enlightenment?

A Meiji concept linking progress to modern Western knowledge.

How did traditional Japanese arts like Kabuki fare during Westernization?

They survived and often became more consciously valued.

How did the state reconcile rapid change with national identity in the 1890s?

By promoting an emperor-centered identity that framed Western methods as tools serving Japan.

What 1894 Korean uprising helped trigger the Sino-Japanese War?

The Tonghak rebellion.

What did Japan gain from the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki?

Taiwan an indemnity commercial gains and the removal of Chinese influence from Korea.

What was the Triple Intervention?

Russian German and French pressure forcing Japan to return the Liaodong Peninsula in 1895.

What did the Triple Intervention reveal about Meiji Japans status?

That despite military success it remained vulnerable to stronger Western powers.

How did the Meiji transition solve the problem of political fragmentation?

Through domain abolition prefectures and the creation of a central government.

What were the unresolved costs of Meiji modernization?

Rural hardship labor exploitation restricted political participation and new imperial problems