RISE OF MODERN JAPANCh 15.3

THE BIG IDEA

• Competition Among Countries Western intervention opened Japan to trade, and the interaction between Japan and Western nations led to a modern industrial Japanese society.

JAPAN RESPONDS TO FOREIGN PRESSURE

• MAIN IDEA

• Under military pressure from the United States, Japan signed the Treaty of Kanagawa, which opened two ports to Western trade.

• Ruling for 200 years, the Tokugawa shogunate kept relations with outside countries at a minimum and carried on a policy of isolationism.

•Western nations wanted Japan to open their ports to trade.

•U.S. President Millard Fillmore sent Commodore Matthew Perry to Japan.

•Concessions were made by shogunate officials, and they signed the Treaty of Kanagawa with the United States.

•The Treaty Approved:

•The return of shipwrecked American sailors

•The opening of two ports to Western traders

•The establishment of a U.S. diplomat in Japan

•A group of samurai warriors called the Sat-Cho opposed opening foreign relations with the West and forced the shogun to promise to end foreign relations.

•The Sat-Cho attacked the shogun’s palace at Kyōto, resulting in the collapse of the shogunate system and the beginning of the Meiji Restoration.

• The Big Idea

• The Meiji government attempted to modernize Japan’s political, economic, and social structures.

THE MEIJI RESTORATION

•The young emperor, Mutsuhito, called his reign the Meiji, meaning “Enlightened Rule.”

•The Sat-Cho held the real power and moved the capital from Kyōto to Edo.

•The new leaders stripped the daimyo of their land and created prefectures. (territories)

•The result was a political system modeled after Imperial Germany. It was democratic in form, but authoritarian in practice.

•A new imperial army with modern weapons was created that was based on required military service.

•A new educational system, based on the American model, was created, and foreign specialists were brought to Japan to teach.

•WESTERNIZATION !

• The Main Idea

• By the early 1900s, Japan strengthened its military and started building an empire.

JOINING THE IMPERIALISTS

•The Japanese needed raw materials and wanted to expand by obtaining colonies, as the Europeans had done.

• Japan controlled the Ruyku Islands

•The Japanese next forced the Koreans to open their ports to Japanese trade.

•China and Japan went to war over influence in Korea. Japan won, resulting in Korea’s independence.

•The Russo-Japanese War made Japan one of the world’s great military powers.

• (Conflict over port cities and who could use them)

•Some Americans began to fear the rise of Japanese power. In 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt stopped Japanese immigration into the United States.

• The Main Idea

• The culture of Western nations greatly influenced Japanese traditional culture.

CULTURE IN A ERA OF TRANSITION

•From literature to architecture, the Japanese modeled Western styles and techniques

•Western technology strongly influenced traditional Japanese culture:

• Japanese authors began translating Western novels.

•Writers began to imitate Western styles, such as Realism.

•The Japanese invited technicians, engineers, architects, and artists from Europe and the United States to teach modern skills in Japan.

•By the end of the nineteenth century, many Japanese began a return to Japanese traditions.