Japan during the Long
th
19 century
Industrialization & the
Rise of Japan
Wealth & Power
-Story of Two Cultures
on Opposite Paths-
China
Japan
1800
1840
1868
1900
Tokugawa Era
1600-mid 1800s
-Period of peace
• Emphasis on order & conformity
 rigid class structure, discipline,
loyalty, isolation from outsiders
• Weak emperor  strong shogun
Tokugawa Era
Isolation – not stagnation

Economic growth & peace
• Dutch Studies
• Daimyo's “Alternate Attendance
System”
Samurai lose importance/wealth in
comparison to merchants
Late Tokugawa Era
Increased pressure…
West sought to trade w/ Japan

•
Finally U.S. naval officer, Matthew Perry
succeeded in 1853
Flood of Western pressure & influence
generally led to factionalism & tension

•
Re-establish isolation? turn to tradition?
doubts about Tokugawa handling?
modernize?
Russian
U.S.
Morrison
meeting
1837
1779
British
Commodore
frigate
Perry
in
1808
1853barbarians”
“Revere the U.S.
emperor,
expel
the
Familiar Conditions?
1.
2.
Crumbling social structure
Foreign pressure
? “Revolutions are about economics.” ?
•
In comparison to China, what can
Japan do differently to be more
successful?
Late Tokugawa Era
Spark…
 Earthquakes
 Recession

Political maneuvering & brief civil
war in 1868
Result?
1868: “Meiji Restoration”
• Shogun overthrown
• Emperor restored to power
Meiji Restoration
1.
2.
Selective borrowing from West
Effort at modernization & reform
• Industrialization
• Constitutional monarchy
• Compulsory education & medical
advances
Meiji Foreign Policy
World Power?

Imperialism
1.
2.
Sino-Japanese War Russo-Japanese War –
Japan acquired Korea, Taiwan, & other
islands
Timeline

1600-1868 = Tokugawa Shogunate
• Shogun rule, era of peace & relative
isolation
• 1800-1850: growth of “Dutch Studies” &
Western efforts to open trade
• 1853: Commodore Perry opens Japan

1868-1912 = Meiji Era
• Imperial rule, reform, industrialization
• 1905: Russo-Japanese War
Compare and contrast Japan and Russia during
the process of industrialization.


RUSSIA
Tsar in total control
part of wider process of
change
•
•


•
no middle class or capital
railroads – 1870s
export of grain to West
high tariffs to protect industry
expansion of iron & coal industry
By 1900, 4th in world steel
production
Western investors build
factories
•
½ of industry foreign owned
state initiated
industrialization
•
•
factories huge but not
technically advanced
•
•
•
•
•


state initiated
industrialization
•

Emancipation of serfs
urban working class grows

JAPAN
Emperor gains power
part of broader Meiji reforms
•

send samurai overseas to learn
technology & science
government banks fund trade &
provide capital
state built railroads, mines,
metallurgical industries
guilds abolished
depended on imports of raw
materials
•
•
very dependent on world economic
situation
Zaibatsu-government cooperation
limited foreign intervention