The Transformation of Japan
1750-1914
Map of Daimyos
• Here
The Tokugawa Shogunate
• 1603-1867
• Military governors of Japan
• Centralized feudalism
• Balanced bureaucracy and samurai
From Tokugawa to Meiji
• Crisis and reform in early 19th C
– Crisis: crop failure, high taxes, rising rice
pricesprotests and rebellions
– Bakufu tried conservative reforms, resisted
• Stressed Japanese culture
• Kept abreast of Western science & technology
• Some commercial growth, but rural protests
– Shortages of funds led to reform movements
• Weakened the shogunate
• Made Japan vulnerable to external threats
From Tokugawa to Meiji
• Foreign pressure to end closed door policy
– 1844, British, French, US requests for entry
rebuffed
• They had demanded for open trade
– 1853, Commodore Perry shows up in Tokyo Bay
– Japan forced to accept unequal treaties w/ US
& the West
– 1856 western consuls & open ports
– Shogunate (bowed to the west) vs. Dimyos
(maintain isolation)both appealed to the
emperor
From Tokugawa to Meiji
• The end of Tokugawa rule followed
these humiliations
– Widespread opposition to shogun rule
– Dissidents rally around emperor in Kyoto
• “Restoration” of the emperor
The Meiji Restoration
• Meiji Restoration, 1868
– After brief civil war,
armies defeated by
dissident militia
• Samurai class defeats
shogun & restores
“imperial” rule
– Boy emperor Mutsuhito,
or Meiji, regained
authority
– End of nearly 7 centuries
of military rule
Meiji Reforms
• Welcomed foreign enterprise
– Fukuzawa Yukichi studied western constitutions
and education
– Ito Hirbumi helped build Japanese constitutional
government
• Abolition of the feudal order
– Daimyo and samurai lost status &
privilegesgov’t took over payments to the
samurai
– Districts restructured to break up feudal domains
(no more daimyos)
– New conscript army ended samurai power
• Rebelled in 1877, but lost
Meiji Reforms
• Revamping the tax system
– Converted grain taxes into a fixed monetary tax;
more reliable state income
– Assessed taxes on potential of arable land
• Constitutional government, the “gift” to the
people, 1889
– Emperor remained supreme limiting the rights of
the people
– Less than 5% of adult males could vote
– The Diet was an opportunity for debate and
dissent
Meiji Reforms
• Remodeling the economy and
infrastructure
– Transportation: RR, telegraph, steamships
– Education: universal primary & secondary;
competitive universities
– Industry: privately owned, government
controlled arms industry
– Zaibatsu: powerful financial cliques
– 1894—new nobility class formed; civil
service exams issued
Meiji Reforms
• Costs of economic development born by
Japanese people
– Land tax costs peasants 40%-50% of crop yield,
provided 90% of state revenue
– Peasant uprisings crushed
– Labor movement crushed; Meiji law treated
unions & strikes as criminal
• Industrial power in a single generation
– Ended unequal treaties in 1899
– Defeated China in 1895 and Russia in 1904
Industrial Revolution in Japan
• Military reforms to modernize army
• Lack of capital led to industrialization
• Ministry of industryeconomic
development
• Factories to develop new technologies
• Introduction of private enterprise
• Selling manufactured goods abroad
Imperial Japan
• Resented the unequal treaties of 1860s,
vowed to become imperial power
• Early expansion to nearby islands
– 1870s, to the north: Hokkaido, Kurile islands
– 1879, to the south: Okinawa and Ryuku islands
• Bought British warships, built up navy,
established military academies
– 1876, imposed unequal treaties on Korea at
gunpoint
– Made plans to invade Japan
Imperial Japan
• The Sino-Japanese War (1894-95)
– Rebellion in Korea: Chinese army sent to
restore order, reassert authority
– Meiji leaders declared war against China,
demolished Chinese fleet
– China forced to cede Korea, Taiwan,
Pescadores Islands, Liaodong peninsula
Imperial Japan
• The Russo-Japanese War (1904-05)
– Russia also wanted Liaodong peninsula,
Korea, Manchuria
– Japanese navy destroyed local Russian
forces; Baltic fleet sent as reinforcements
– Japan is now a major imperial power
Imperialism in China and
Japan
• 1600s-1700s—policy of isolation
from West. Foreign powers only
allowed in 1 trade city
• mid-1800s—after winning
Opium War, Britain forced
China to sign unequal treaties,
opening more ports to trade.
Other nations demand trade
• 1860s—Britain & France force
trade concessions; spheres of
influence
• 1880s-1890s—Open Door
Policy, US trading rights; Boxer
Rebellion
• Early 1900s—Qing dynasty fell
during Nationalist Revolution
• 1600s-1700s—policy of isolation
from West. Only 1 European
trading ship allowed per year
• mid-1800s—1853, unequal
treaties w/ American warships in
Tokyo Bay
• 1860s—In 1868, Japan started
modernization, imitating
Western technology &
reorganizing army & navy on
Western models
• Early 1900s—Japan signed 10-yr
treaty of alliance w/ Britain.
1904-1905, won Russo-Japanese
War, taking over Manchuria &
Korea. Now an imperialistic
country.
Map with
prefectures