Meiji Restoration

Meiji restoration

Anti-foreign domains were primarily in the west

Once they lose to the west they also lose the motivation to fight western culture and expel the barbarian

Coalitions of the west go to war with the Tokugawa in the south east to delegitimize them and create a new government with the emperor as the head.

The emperor has a symbolic significance

Restoration of imperial power

Emperor Meiji

Reigned from 1868 - 1912

Bold embracing of western culture and society

Becomes a constitutional monarch

Not a hands on government

Everything the meiji restoration does is for the emperor and legitimized by the governor

Political centralization

Abolished feudal domains

The map of Japan is redrawn to have states

Capital in Tokyo (Eto), main administrative center

Abolished the status hierarchy

To create a national identity you can't have class divisions

Everyone is equal under the rule of the emperor

Constitutional Democracy

1889

Ordinary people can now vote for people to represent them in a national congress

Japanese parliament

Men (of a certain age and tax bracket) can only vote

One of the first non-western countries with a democracy

Ito was the author of the constitution

Ito Hirobumi

he was a former samurai (founding father of the meiji period)

Architect of the modern japanese state

Institutional Change

China is still representative of the best part of east asian traditions

Continue to borrow things from foreign societies

Instead of looking to China they are now looking to the West

Army is inspired by the German/Prussian conscript commoner army

Navy is inspired by the British because they have the strongest navy

The constitution was modeled off the German constitution, Ito was inspired by Otto Von Bismark

Meiji Era Economy

Economic slogan "rich nation, strong army" - these two elements are inseparable

State sponsored industrialization

Government works together with the private sector

The industries are no longer owned by the government

National goals and private profit

Silk was the major product with demand from the rest of the world

The profit from the silk industry was given to less successful products

Done by women from rural areas

Fukuzawa Yukichi

Former samurai

Observed the west first hand

Interpreter of the west to ordinary people

Believed there was no stopping the western world and the Japanese have to follow it or potentially be destroyed

Believes the old government is standing in the way of progress

Truth and principles is education, science and progress

Culture of the Meiji Era

Culture change is westernization such as the portrait style

Industrialization is done by back breaking workers especially coal miners who don't see the benefits of the change

Meiji foreign policy

Long term goal is to achieve equality with the west

Japan wants to become leaders in Asia and eclipse the power of China

Sino Japanese War

1894 - 1895

The Japanese is bursting with confidence because their reforms were successful

Li Hongzhang represented the Ching at the treaty after the war

Ito Hirobumi represented the Japanese at the treaty meeting

Common culture of imperial benevolence

Russo Japanese War

1904 -05

Fighting over influence over Korea and Manchuria

Massive victory for the Japanese

Another boost to Japanese confidence

First time a non western power beat a western country

Japan becomes a military leader for China and Korea

Building an Empire

Start to build a colonial empire

Taiwan becomes a Japanese colony in 1896 (Sino-Japan)

South Manchuria (Chinese mainland) colony in 1906 (Russo-Japan)

Korea becomes a Japanese colony in 1910

Japanese directly controlled these colonies

Building systems that look like the west