The period from 1868 to 1912 is known as the Meiji era in Japanese history. Japan significantly transformed from a feudal society to a modern, industrialized nation during this time in order to unify the country. Some of the fundamental changes that occurred were political changes, modernization, industrialization, military expansions, and cultural changes.
The Book: “The Making of Modern Japan”, written by Marius Jansen, highlights the main points on exactly why this big transformation took place and how it took place. It gives great detail on the events that occurred prior to the favorable Meiji period as well as the beneficial outcomes afterward.
One of the key factors that led to Japan’s Imperialism during this period was its desire to
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The first was the rise of the anti-Tokugawa sentiment. Many Japanese people, including the samurai, began to resent the Tokugawa Shogunate for its perceived weakness in dealing with foreign powers and its failure to modernize the country. This sentiment led to the growing unrest and rebellion across Japan. Secondly, the imperial court, which had been sidelined by the Tokugawa Shogunate, formed an alliance with the rebellious samurai. Together, they worked to overthrow the Shogunate and restore power to the emperor. The third reason that helped overthrow the government was the rebellions and uprisings. The alliance between the imperial court and the samurai led to a series of rebellions and uprisings across the country of Japan. These three reasons played a big role in the overthrowing of the Tokugawa Shogunate, which eventually led the last emperor of the government, Tokugawa Yoshinobu to resign in late 1867. At the end of the day, there were countless reasons why this occurred, but these were the …show more content…
Japan’s modernization efforts led to rapid industrialization, with the establishment of modern factories and the growth of a capitalist economy. The government actively encouraged economic development, and the country became a major exporter of goods such as textiles, silk, and ceramics. Which is a big turnaround from what they were previously because they were isolationists. They didn’t associate with anyone else except their own people. As japan quickie modernized, it also began to expand its military capabilities. The government invested heavily in the military, and japan engaged in several wars during this period, including the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War. In 1873, the Meiji government introduced a conscription system that required all able-bodied men to serve in the military for a period of three years. This helped to create a large standing army that could be mobilized quickly in times of war. They also actively sought to acquire modern weaponry from the West, including rifles, cannons, and warships. This helped to modernize the military arsenal and make it more effective in
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries industrialization was a big thing in Japan. This industrialization had economic, political and social effects on Japan. According to document 1, “The Constitution of the Empire of Japan: The Meiji Constitution (1890-1947)one political change was a written constitution was formed. In 1868 this constitution was created to show how Japan is a capable of deserving respect while keeping their own power.
It is hard to say what exactly caused the Japanese to attack but some say it was because Japan wanted more power, the U.S. was becoming stronger, and Japan was trying to expand.(Background essay) Japan wanted strength and power that they did not yet have. Although they
Japan’s rich history of power, wealth, and influence had many remarkable eras. One of the more notable periods in Japanese history was that of the Tokugawa Period (1600-1868). The Tokugawa Period was talked about in Musui’s Story, an autobiographical book, written by Kokichi Katsu. (Katsu ix) Katsu wrote Musui’s Story for three main reasons: to share how he had transformed from a low-ranking samurai to a well-known hero, to show his sense of self, and to serve as a cautionary tale for his descendants.
From 1868-1889, the Meiji Restoration period transformed the ‘backward’ nation of Japan and created the groundwork for a modern nation (Campbell). This government signed the Charter Oath in 1868, which committed them to modernization with clear Western influences, such as political participation from all classes, freedom to choose jobs without historical constraints, and permission for public discourse. Emperor Meiji and his progressive leadership also strove to advance Japan’s technology, to ‘keep up’ with Western prowess, particularly with the military. Similar to the Western ambitions of colonialization and expansion, Japan also adopted a new form of imperialism to expand its influence throughout East Asia (Hayes, 151). China and Korea were engaged for this purpose, with their biggest success being the Korean annexation.
The Meiji period played a important role in Japan. The Meiji period was an important part of Japan’s changing western ways. According to the book The Meiji Restoration was a period of pollical and social revolution in Japan. Japan chose to remake themselves through
Before this industrialization in 1968, was the Boshin war, which was directly responsible for the Meiji Restoration, due to the fact that after the war, Japan wanted to have one central power, which resulted in Japan’s government wanting to become like an already successful government with one central power, America, however they did not want America’s culture, but merely the style of government, which resulted in Japan becoming much more western. Then after the war, the Meiji Restoration started, which was the new government taking over Japan, this started a westernization movement in Japan, and during this westernization, industrialization started, and then it settled all throughout Japan, building factories, and machines. Similar to this, Russia experienced the Crimean war, which was essentially a wake-up call for Russia to industrialize after it’s terrible loss to both Britain and France, to add to the losses, after that, Japan and Russia fought, and Russia lost horribly, which shocked the entire
Some historians believe the Ottoman Empire and Japan were relatively different from c. 1750 to 1900 due to the differing political structures, including the stability of each country’s government and means of operation in response to enlightenment philosophy and industrialization. However, due to both countries’ thriving economic structures because of similar reform changes and social resistance against conforming to modernization ideals, their development from c. 1750 to 1900, during which industrialization faced both countries, is drawn to be very similar to each other. To begin with, the adoption of western ideals and enlightenment principles widened the gap between the Ottomans and the Japanese. Not only did the Ottoman Empire suffer massive corruption in the 1800s, prompting its rapid decline, but it also experienced civil unrest across the country as a result of ethnic nationalism, resulting in a weak central government.
Japan’s disastrous actions before, during, and up to its historic surrender on 22nd September 1945, at the end of World War II, it is evident Japan bore responsibility for its downfall. Japan was responsible for its downfall through its aggressive territorial expansion due to a lack of resources and its extreme nationalist and militaristic values, making them disregard what they were doing as wrong. The pivotal event causing their downfall was the bombing of Pearl Harbor causing America to enter the war which led to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and its inevitable surrender. The road to Japan’s downfall can be traced to their aggressive territorial expansion which led to an increase in tension with the US.
Another change would be Japan's introduction of the shogunate which created a period of peace and order for Japan. The Tokugawa shogunate was created because Japan's government was decentralized and torn apart from warfare. It focused on reorganizing the government of Japan in order to
Japan’s economic development had been shaped in various ways, including Japanese internal forces, and external forces from other countries. Although during the Tokugawa era, the Japanese were very closed off from the world for 250 years, once Commodore Perry and the rest of America threatened Japan with war Japan was forced to open ports for trade. Due to the Japanese lack of weapons the trading environment was very biased on the side of America with unequal trade. The shogun was once a Samurai and is now almost in control of Japan.
During the Meji Period, Japan began to imitate European powers as they modernized their military. Fear of ending up like China, the Meji Restoration abolishing the strict class system ultimately unleashing their potential to compete with European powers. While Japan began to prosper, they lost their feudal governing system and rich cultural history in the process. Nevertheless, Japan soon became a prominent imperial power, assisting European countries with the Boxer Rebellion and colonizing nearby countries like Korea. Japan became a disliked country in Asia due to their imperialist goals and establishment of diplomatic relationships with Great Powers.
A series of military governments that ruled Japan from the 12th to the 19th centuries are referred to as the Japanese Shogunate, also known as the Bakufu. The shoguns, who held absolute military and political power, marked these eras of centralization,
“To guard against external influence, they also worked to close off Japanese society from Westernizing influences, particularly Christianity. When the Tokugawa shogunate grew increasingly weak by the mid-19th century, two powerful clans joined forces in early 1868 to seize power as part of an “imperial restoration” named for Emperor Meiji.” This restoration was the beginning of the end of feudalism, or the way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour, in Japan. The Tokugawa regime acted to exclude missionaries because of suspicion of foreign intervention and colonialism. Eventually, they issued a complete ban on Christianity in Japan.
But also change within the military occurred with the replacement of Samurai authority. Trying to be equal competitors in world power as their Western neighbors. Japan had gotten imperialist ideas from 1853 when the U.S. black ships steamed
When the Americans moved to Japan they started to influence the Japanese. One big way they were influenced was by their government. By 1886 Japan had modernized its government with the new emperor Meiji. This increased productivity in Japan. At this time the Japanese started to feel a strong sense of nationalism and had decided that they wanted to colonize Manchuria, however, the Russians had their eye on this country as well.