TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Modernization of Japan
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Objectives
• Explain how problems in Japanese society and
the opening of Japan to other countries led to
the Meiji Restoration.
• Describe the main reforms under the Meiji
government.
• Analyze the factors contributing to Japan’s drive
for empire.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Terms and People
• Matthew Perry – the U.S. Navy commodore
who led a fleet of ships into Tokyo Bay in 1853
and demanded that Japan open its ports
• Tokyo – the new “eastern capital” named in
1867, when Emperor Mutsuhito was restored to
power and took the name Meiji
• Meiji Restoration – the reign of Emperor Meiji,
which lasted from 1868 to 1912, during which
Japan learned about the West and modernized
• Diet – a legislature
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Terms and People (continued)
• zaibatsu – powerful banking and industrial
families of Japan
• homogeneous society – a society in which all
people share a common culture and language
• First Sino-Japanese War – a war between
Japan and China that broke out in 1894 due to
competition between the two powers in Korea
• Russo-Japanese War – a war between Russia
and Japan that began in 1904 and in which Japan
gained control of Korea and rights in parts of
Manchuria
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
How did Japan become a modern
industrial power, and what did it do
with its new strength?
When the United States sent a naval force to
Japan in 1853 to force it to open ports to trade,
Japan decided to end its policy of seclusion.
This decision led to the transformation of
Japan into a modern industrial power and
imperialist nation.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
For more than
200 years, Japan
had developed in
isolation.
• The Tokugawa shoguns
restored centralized
feudalism and closed
Japan to foreigners.
• Discontent grew as
the daimyo and lesser
samurai suffered
financial hardship.
• Corruption became
common.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
The shoguns
heard of the
British victory
over China
in the Opium
War and knew
that the West
would soon
reach Japan.
In 1853, a
U.S. fleet
commanded
by Matthew
Perry arrived
in Tokyo Bay
to demand
that Japan
open its ports
to trade.
The shogun
opened two
ports, and
later granted
trading rights
to the United
States.
European
nations soon
won similar
concessions.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
The Japanese felt humiliated by the terms of
these unequal treaties with the West.
• Some criticized the shogun for not taking a
stronger stand against the foreigners.
• Foreign pressures deepened continuing social
and economic unrest.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Discontented daimyo and samurai staged a revolt
in 1867 and unseated the shogun.
The 15-year-old emperor Mutsuhito was restored
to power and took the name Meiji.
The emperor moved the capital from
Kyoto to Edo, which was renamed Tokyo.
His long reign was called the Meiji Restoration.
It lasted from 1868 until 1912.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
The goal of the Meiji Restoration
was summarized by the motto “A
rich country, a strong military.”
• To reach this goal, leaders under
Emperor Meiji decided to study
Western ways.
• Members of the Japanese
government traveled overseas in
1871 to learn about Western
economies and technologies.
Emperor Meiji
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
The Meiji Transformation
Meiji reformers wanted to end the feudal
order and create an industrial economy.
They formed a Diet to supervise finance,
education, and the military.
They made the economy a priority, building
factories and then selling them to wealthy
business families called zaibatsu.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
• These changes were very
effective. By the 1890s,
industry had grown
rapidly in Japan.
• One reason Japan
modernized so quickly
was that it had a strong
sense of national identity
and a homogenous
society.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Reforms led
to changes
in Japanese
society.
• The government set up
schools and the constitution
ended legal distinctions
between the classes.
• However, class distinctions
did survive, and women
continued to have a
secondary role in society.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
As Japan became stronger economically,
its leaders began to desire an empire.
• As a small island nation, Japan needed resources.
• It looked to Korea first and forced the peninsula
to open its ports to Japan in 1876.
• Competition between China and Japan for control
of Korea resulted in the First Sino-Japanese
War, which Japan won easily.
• Next, Japan challenged Russia, its other rival in
the region. The Russo-Japanese War ended in
1905 with a Japanese victory.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Japan took control of Korea, imposing harsh rule.
• Japan made Korea a protectorate, then annexed
it in 1910.
• Japan modernized Korea and set out to erase the
Korean language and identity.
• Japanese repression of Korean culture bred
nationalist resentment.
• Japan brutally crushed a nonviolent protest that
began on March 1, 1919. The March First
Movement became a symbol of Korean
nationalism.