Commodore Matthew C. Perry
 Coaling stations.

More trading
partners.

A haven for
ship-wrecked
sailors.
The Treaty of Kanagawa - 1854
March 31, 1854
1. Peace and friendship between the United States and Japan.
2. Opening of two ports to American ships
3. Help for any American ships wrecked on the Japanese coast
and
protection for shipwrecked persons
4. Permission for American ships to buy supplies, coal, water, and
other necessary provisions in Japanese ports.
• Convention of Kanagawa 1854 –
diplomatic relations
• Five years later – treaties with most
European nations
• Some Samurai deeply resented
(hated) these “unequal” (unfair)
treaties forced on Japan
In 1862, just before the
start of the Meiji period,
Tokugawa sent officials and
scholars to China to study
the situation there. A
Japanese recorded in his
diary from Shanghai…
The Chinese have become
servants to the foreigners.
Sovereignty may belong to
China but in fact it's no
more than a colony of Great
Britain and France.
1867 - Mutsuhito
establishes a new Gov’t
Meiji Restoration
1868 -1912
Chronology
1573-1600, “Warring States” - Transitional Era
1635, Shogunate forbids Japanese to travel overseas
1639, Portugese ships forbidden; Japan closed to outside world
1641, Dutch Trading Mission is moved to Nagasaki
1600-1868, Tokugawa Period - Centralized Feudalism era
1853-54, Perry Mission to “open” Japan
1854, Japan concludes friendship treaties with U.S., Britain,
France & Netherlands; three ports open to foreign trade
1868, Meiji Restoration
1877, Satsuma Rebellion
1881, Sale of government industries to new zaibatsau
1889, Meiji Constitution
1894-5,Sino-Japanese War, Japan becomes imperialist power
1904-5, Russo-Japanese War
1910, colonization of Korea
1912, emperor Meji dies
What was the Meiji Restoration?
• See Meiji Charter Oath
• Mass education based
on American system
• Samurai privileges
abolished
• Samurai cannot wear
swords in public
• Jobs open to all
• military conscription was introduced
• Western experts were imported to create
new railways, armies, fleets, and
industries
• Navy based on Britain’s
• Army based on Germany’s
• An authoritarian constitution based on German model
1889, establishing the Diet (parliament)
• Only 1% could vote
• By 1871 the daimyo domains had been surrendered
to the throne and turned into prefectures with
governors
The first diet
convenes 1890
• Real power exercised by an
informal Choshu and Satsuma
oligarchy called the Genro
• They controlled politics and big
business
• The Sat-Cho elite = oligarchs
• The Emperor “reigned but did not
rule” despite the constitution
• Shinto replaces Buddhism as the
state religion
• Why?
Mitsubishi
• Zaibatsu: family businesses with close
links with the government and military
• Diversified conglomerates
• Eventually the big 4 dominated over
50% of stock exchange
• Japan did not rely on foreign
investment
Nissan
MEIJI RESTORATION:
CAUSES>
MEIJI RESTORATION>
EFFECTS:
-SOCIAL AND
-STRONG CENTRAL
ECONOMIC UNREST GOVERNMENT
-BUILT AND
EMPIRE
-FOREIGN
PRESSURE
-BUSINESSES
ADAPTED WESTERN
METHODS
-EXTENDED
INFLUENCE IN
KOREA
-LEADERS
ENCOURAGED
INDUSTRIALIZATION
-CONFLICT WITH
CHINA AND
DEFEAT OF RUSSIA;
EXPANSION OF
INFLUENCEIMPERIALISM OF
EUROPEDCOPIED
-DAIMYO AND
SAMURAI REVOLT
Write a thesis statement in response to this question:
“The Meiji restoration in Japan was not a true revolution
because ordinary people played little part in the process of
change”
You have 10 minutes to reread your notes and write your thesis!