Japan in the 19th century
Japan began the 19th century as it had existed for centuries; A Tokugawa Shogun ruled
through a central bureaucracy tied by feudal alliances to local daimyos and samurai.
Taxes were based on agriculture and the samurai were sustained by stipends paid to them
by the shogunate.
Culturally, Japan had two things going for it:
1. Neo-Confucianism grew among the elite (this fostered a secularism which spared
Japan from the religious resistance to western based reform).
2. Japan was also homogenous ethnically. There would not be small pockets of ethnic
groups pining for independence as in Russia and the Ottoman Empire.
Japan’s window to Europe continued to be the port city of Nagasaki where Dutch Studies
continued. Otherwise, its isolation continued until mid century.
In 1853 American Matthew Perry threatened to bombard the Japanese capital if they did
not open up to American trade. Japan opened itself to foreign influence and, as in China,
westerners residing in Japan were not subject to Japanese laws.
There was a backlash against foreigners in the 1860s. The samurai, using surplus
weapons from America’s Civil War—which had just ended, defeated the shogun’s army.
This delivered a clear message about the supremacy of western military technology.
The Meiji seized control in 1871 and began a period of reforms that would go much
further than that of Russia. The so-called Meiji Restoration included the following
reforms:
1)
2)
3)
4)
feudalism was abolished
political power was centralized
the samurai were sent abroad to learn about western science and tech
the samurai were then abolished as a class
although many samurai became more, some took their western learning
and adopted modern political and business practices. They formed an
important element of the new business class created by industrialization.
The most important example was Iwasaki Yataro who founded the
Mitsubishi company.
5) New nobility
The government was also modernized into a centralized imperial government with
limited parliamentary rule.
1) constitution created
2) New Parliament, Diet, created based on German models (The Germans gave
their leader full military power and could name his ministers directly; this
appealed to the Japanese). The parliament could advise government, but
ultimate authority was given to the emperor. This combination gave great
power to wealthy businessmen who would influence Japanese
industrialization accordingly.
3) Only 5% of Japanese men had the wealth requirement to vote
Thus Japan borrowed from the West but retained aspects of its own identity. Compared
to Russia, Japan was better off because they incorporated business leaders into its new
government structure whereas Russia could not break the hold of the traditional
aristocratic elite.
Industrial Revolution in Japan
1) armaments updated (modern Navy created)
2) land reform—peasants given ownership of land, Private Enterprise (Again,
compare with Russia
3) agricultural taxes replaced by industrial taxes, revenues went up
4) Japan borrowed from the West but maintained close supervision on the type of
reforms being admitted. They wanted to retain their own culture.
Major problem with Japan’s industrialization: they had very limited natural resources and
depended on foreign coal and steel. This led them to become the final great imperial
nation of the 19th century. Japan would practice imperialism in Asia to gain the resources
it did not have. Although it had a later start to economic and industrial modernization,
Japan proved itself very quickly in two military conflicts:
1) Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895)
Japan defeated China in war for Korea
2) Russo-Japanese War (1904)
Japan went to war with Russia over Russian eastward encroachment in Asia, particularly
Manchuria and Korea.
The Russian navy traveled half way around the world only to be completely crushed by
the superior Japanese navy. This would, in part, lead to Revolution in Russia in 1905.
Identity in Japan
What is Japan? It was no longer traditional, but neither was it western. Japanese schools
began to advance the idea that filial loyalty to the emperor set them apart from other
nations. Thus allegiance to the emperor became an intrinsic part of Japanese nationalism.
“As an antidote to social and cultural insecurity, Japanese leaders urged national loyalty
and devotion to the emperor. The values of obedience and harmony, which the west
lacked, would distinguish Japan from the West. This sense of nationalism would insulate
Japan from the revolutions that weakened Russia, and China after 1900.” --Peter Stearns