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The Rise of Japan, 1868-1920
How did Japan become a modern and imperial power?
Tokyo in late 19th century Tokyo in the 1920s
Feudal Japan Japan in 1942
Geography
The Emperor
• From the Yamato clan
• Considered “divine”
• (8-9th C) Height of power
Tokugawa Shogunate (1600-1868)
• Real power in the hands of shogun or military leader
Policy of Seclusion (1635-1853)
• Closed off from the rest of the world
• Trade with the Dutch
• Limited knowledge of the West
Emperor
Warrior Class: Shogun
Warrior Class: Daimyos
Warrior Class: Samurai
Peasants
Artisans
Merchants
Opening of Japan, 1853
Commodore Matthew Perry
• Four “Black Ships” • A letter from the American President
• Demanded ports for American ships seeking provisions
The “West” Meets the “East”
Japanese Perspective of First Encounter
Japanese artist
American artist
Images of Gifts Exchange
Japanese artist
Japan on the road to modernization
• Preexisting conditions for
modernization
– commercialized economy – literate population – experienced samurai
bureaucracy – small and well-governed
country
• Defensive modernization
The Meiji Restoration, 1868
• The Shogunate was abolished.
• A group of middle-ranking samurai “restored” the Meiji Emperor to the throne. • Formed a government and implemented massive modernizing reforms
Meiji Reforms
• Abolished the feudal system • Constitutional monarchy • Power in the hands of the Meiji oligarchy
– Genro (extra constitutional advisors to the emperor)
Military Reforms
1875
1896
• European-style military structure and a modern navy • Universal military conscription
Reforms in Education
• Mass education system
• Modification of the Confucian approach
• Emphasis on science and technology
• Japanese tradition reinforced
Economic Modernization
• Industrialization
• Emphasis on export
• Silk
• High taxes on peasants
• Poor working conditions
SILKWORM FACTORY (ca. 1880-1920).
Silk Reeling Machine, 1877
Raw Silk Production and Export from Japan 1868 to 1913
Period Production annual average (tons)
Exports annual average (tons)
1868-1872 1026 646
1883 1687 1347
1889-1893 4098 2444
1899-1903 7103 4098
1909-1913 12460 9462
Coal Production in Japan in Various Years from 1875 to 1913
Year Coal Production (metric tons)
1875 600,000
1885 1,200,000
1895 5,000,000
1905 13,000,000
1913 21,300,000
Steamships and Trains
1873 18 miles of track 1914 7100 miles of track
The question of Imperialism (sink or swim)
• India and China under British domination
• Africa divided by European powers
• Latin America dominated by the United States
• Need for access to raw materials and markets
• The answer for Japan: expansionism
First Sino-Japanese War 1894-1895
Japan won Acquired Taiwan Forced free trade on China
The Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)
Liaodong Peninsula
For the first time, a non-Western country defeats a Western one.
Korea annexed in 1910
Japanese History - Timeline
1600-1867 Tokugawa (Edo) Period
1853 Commodore Perry arrives in Japan
1868 Overthrow of the Shogunate
1890 Meiji Constitution adopted
1894-95 Sino-Japanese War
1904-5 Russo-Japanese War
1910 Japan annexation of Korea
1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria
1937 Japanese invasion of China
1941 Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor
1945 U.S. drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
1945-present Contemporary Japan