Meiji Restoration and Industrialization

Tokugawa Shogunate �(1603-1868)

• Emperor as figurehead
• Daimyo (nobles) dominated Japan
• Shogun – military dictator
• Appointed by Emperor
• Usually most powerful Daimyo

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• Tokugawa Shogunate
• Elevated Samurai
• Placed commoners below others
• Isolated Japan and kept foreigners out

Commodore Perry “opens up” Japan (1853)�

Meiji Restoration

• Japan restores imperial rule under Emperor Meiji after hundreds of years of military rule by the Shoguns.
• The government undertakes rapid political, economic, and military reforms in order to “catch up” to the West.
• Increased foreign trade and diplomatic connections lead to a lot of selective cultural borrowing.
• Japan remains inwardly culturally conservative while becoming outwardly modern and western.

Japanese Woodblocks

WHAT DOES EACH SHOW ABOUT JAPAN’S INDUSTRIALIZATION AND WESTERNIZATION EFFORTS?

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Consider identity, culture, and technology’s role in each.

What made Japanese Modernization possible?

• Conservative Shogunate overthrown
• Willingness to embrace western technology and knowledge
• Willingness to remake society
• Japan attracted less attention than China from western nations
• Development of Japanese Exceptionalism

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• Outwardly progressive, inwardly conservative society.

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Japanese Imperialism

Growth of the Japanese Empire

1868 – Meiji Restoration

1871 – Iwakura Mission – brought back ideas for reform

1894 – First Sino-Japanese War – denied the Liaodong Province after their victory in the war by European powers.

1900 – Boxer Rebellion relief force alongside Europeans and America

1902 – Anglo-Japanese Treaty – Naval and military cooperation

1904 – Russo-Japanese War – Conquered Liaodong peninsula

1910 – Annexation of Korea

1915 – Invaded German holdings in Asia during World War I

1923 – Washington Naval Treaty – Japan’s navy limited in size.

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