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How Did The Meiji Restoration Specifically Hold To The Modernisation Of Japan

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What impact and significance did the Meiji Restoration specifically hold to the modernisation of Japan?
The Meiji Restoration was significant part that provokes the response against the risk of Western imperialism. Europeans had been active in Japan since the 1500s, yet they had been generally expelled by the mid-1600s and to the great extent barring (except for Dutch merchants in Nagasaki) in the centuries since. Reports have reached Japan in the mid-1800s of how European powers were engraving China up into spheres of influence, and many Japanese samurai militantly opposed letting this happen to Japan.
The Tokugawa shoguns of the 1850s-60s, though were, increasingly perceived by many samurais as corrupt and too weak to resist Western intrusions. A substantial number of …show more content…

An example of such privileges was extra-territoriality (i.e. the foreign powers had the right to apply their own law to their nationals staying in Japan). All these gains were backed up by Western military superiority. Japan's national right was violated.
Economically, foreign imports into Japan increased greatly because of the low tariff fixed by the unequal treaties. By 1870, foreign imports reached 70% of all Japanese trade.
Cheap foreign goods, like English textiles, poured into Japan and ruined native Japanese handicraft industries. Japan suffered from an unfavourable balance of payments (i.e. imports far exceeding exports). Loans were extended to Japan by Westerners; in return, Westerners received more privileges.
Moreover, since gold was cheaper in Japan than in other places of the world (less than half the world price), foreigners bought from Japan vast quantities of gold. This outflow of gold, together with the economic imperialism of foreign imports, caused social miseries in the country. To counter the economic threats of imperialism, Japan had to be economically

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