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How Did The Meiji Restoration Influence The Westernization Of Japan

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The Meiji Era of Japanese history was a significant period of time that saw the shifting of Japan into a Western-oriented nation. In order to maintain pace with surrounding countries and their development, the Japanese consolidated their approach in order to compete and benefit from other nations. Beginning in 1868, this long-term event initially intended to shift Imperial rule to Japan. Beginning in 1868 and although there had been an emperor prior to the Meiji restoration period, this era strengthened the political system under the Emperor of Japan. The Japanese mainly relied on imported ideals during restoration in order emulate Western nations who, in the Japanese eyes were advanced and powerful. Due to the fact that Western nations were involved in Imperialism prior to and during the same time as the Meiji period, the wealth and power the European nations gained stood out to the Japanese. …show more content…

Apart from people from the West coming into the country, the Japanese travelled to other nations across the world in order to gain ideas that would attempt to be implemented throughout the Japanese society. The Kumamoto Band grew from the many Japanese people who supported the Westernization of Japan. Comprised of Doshisha University students who converted to Christianity, they hired the American educator of Leroy Lansing Janes in the hopes of influencing Japanese society (Notehelfer 248). Apart from the Kumamoto Band, there were many other bands established in Japan for similar ideas. Throughout the Meiji Period, the Kumamoto Band attempted to change Japanese mindset and society in order to reflect Western values so that they would remain competitive amongst other

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Japan didn’t open to foreigners until the mid-19th century. Japan quickly realized the situation and began to modernize and westernize as fast as possible. Japan wanted to be strong enough to resist domination of western imperialists who wanted Japan for their own. Japan also wanted to become the strongest Asian country. Japan’s tactics of rapid modernization succeeded, and kept the country and government independent of foreign control.

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Japan had first created a plan to bring new order in Asia of 1938 (Doc.C). Time went by and in the beginning of 1941, Japanese high schools and colleges were required to teach about the new world order idea to help everyone understand the process (Doc. A). Japan believed that the old order of both the Europeans and the American controlled systems was crumbling. They believed that their new order led by their emperor would take over and replace the old order (Doc. A).

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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.

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The societies of Tokugawa Japan (c.1603-1867C.E.) and medieval Europe (c.1000-1500C.E.) had two things in common; a feudal system. A feudal system is something that features hierarchies or social structures. The feudal system normally starts with a religion, which is at the very top of the social pyramid, then it’s the King or monarch for Europe and the shogun for Japan, then there are the nobles for Europe and the daimyos for Japan. As we go down the pyramid there are the warriors, like the knight in Europe and the samurai in Japan, then there are the peasants. The peasants were included in both eras and are at the lowest part of the pyramid.

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1920s- In the 1920s Japan became progressively more democratic when i 1925 all men got the right to vote(Women didn’t get the right to vote until 1945). Their interested with the ideal of economic liberalism also grew. Japan tried this economic ideal but they soon became frustrated because of the barriers in their trading set up when the economic depression hit the western nations. (Ignore that it was to protect the western colonial market.)

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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

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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

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December 7th, 1941 United States soldiers died because of japan's attack Pearl Harbor. On December 7th, 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor a U.S. naval base in Hawaii. 361 planes struck airfields and naval bases in Hawaii (Background Essay). Japan was angry at America for getting in their way. The United States with Franklin D. Roosevelt as president were hoping for only the inevitable war against Germany.

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Both the governments of Mughal in India and Tokugawa in Japan seem important in their own right. Mughal in India began to embrace Christianity under the rule of Akbar. India allowed the visitation of Europeans. Europeans could come and learn without any opposition. This was a new beginning for both civilizations.

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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.

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The United States, another western country, decided to flex its influence and conquer a large portion of land from Mexico in 1848 and gain many different islands from the Spanish in the Spanish-American War in 1898. Another country who took advantage of imperialism was Japan, whom was a very recently modernized state after the outcome of the Battle of Shiroyama in 1877. Their first act was in the Sino-Japanese war in 1894 in which they conquered the peninsula of Korea from the weakening Chinese Republic. Secondly they beat the Russians in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 which game them a tremendous amount of confidence.

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During the Tokugawa Shogunate, did the emperor have any power? If so, what? When the emperor Tokugawa Shogunate came into power he continued with, and made bigger changes to what Hideyoshi had started. He disarmed peasants, removed a lot of the source of rebellion that seemed to haunt Japan.

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Imperialism in Japan Background: Japan prior to the Meiji restoration was ruled in a hierarchy very similar to other European countries. The hierarchy was that of lords, samurai and then peasants. The Japanese equivalent to a king at the time was a military dictator called a shogun. During this time the capital was Kyoto and the shogun was part of the Tokugawa clan. That is why this period is referred to as the Tokugawa Shogunate.

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“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.

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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

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