The History Book

252

ENRICH THE COUNTRY,

STRENGTHEN

THE MILITARY

THE MEIJI RESTORATION (1868)

T

he overthrow in 1868 of

the Tokugawa shogunate,

rulers of Japan for 250

years, was led by feudal barons from

the southern provinces of Choshu

and Satsuma and was the direct

consequence of its weakness in the

face of aggressive demands by the

United States, Britain, Russia, and

the Netherlands to establish trading

links. In place of the shoguns, the

pliant 14-year-old Meiji emperor

would “exercise supreme authority.”

The goal of the barons was not to

take over and maintain Japan as it

had existed under the shogunate—

rigidly hierarchical and deliberately

isolated from the wider world.

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Modernizing Japan

BEFORE

1853 A US naval force

arrives in Japan and

demands trading links.

1854–55 The US, Britain, the

Netherlands, and Russia force

trading treaties on Japan.

1866 The rulers of the Choshu

and Satsuma regions form a

secret alliance against the

ruling Tokugawa shogunate.

1867 The Tokugawa

shogunate ends.

AFTER

1868–69 Defenders of the

shogunate are defeated.

1871 Feudalism is abolished,

and Japan launches a far-

reaching program of reform.

1894–95 The Sino-Japanese

War underlines expansionist

Japanese aims in the region.

1904–05 The Russo-Japanese

War ends in Japanese victory.

The barons see the adoption

of Western political and

social methods as the best

way to strengthen Japan.

Aggressive Western demands for trading rights in

Japan highlight the weakness of its ruling elite.

Modernization and Westernization encapsulate the Meiji

period, and Japan emerges as an imperial power.

Leading feudal barons reassert

the authority of the boy emperor

Meiji and oust the shogunate.

Military might is seen as

an essential way of fulfilling

Japanese ambitions.

US_252-253_Meiji_Restoration.indd 252 15/02/2016 16:44

253

This image of Yokohama in 1874

depicts the modernity of Meiji-era

Japan in the form of steam-powered

trains and ships, which also served

to open up the country to trade.

See also: The Battle of Sekigahara 184–85 ■ Stephenson’s Rocket enters service 220–25 ■ The construction of the Suez

Canal 230–35 ■ The Second Opium War 254–55 ■ Nazi invasion of Poland 286–93 ■ The Long March 304–05

CHANGING SOCIETIES

Rather, it was that they felt

Japan’s clear destiny could only

be established by the adoption

not just of Western technological

means but of Western political

and financial systems, too.

Japan transformed

There followed a transformation of

a kind no society had seen before or

has seen since. Modeling itself on

the West, in 30 years Japan became

one of the most dynamic industrial

powers in the world and the leading

military power in East Asia.

Almost no aspect of Japanese

society was left untouched by this

whirlwind of change. In 1871, Japan

abolished feudalism and established

the yen as its currency. By 1872, the

first railway was under construction;

within 15 years, there was 1,000

miles (1,600km) of track. In 1873,

Japan introduced conscription,

along with Western weapons and

uniforms. The same year saw an

overhaul of the education system,

and in 1877 Japan’s first university

was established in Tokyo. Japan

also introduced a new legal code in

1882, and a new constitution seven

years later. As industry boomed,

so exports grew. Cities similarly

expanded, as did the population,

swelling from 39.5 million in 1888

to 55 million by 1918.

The spur to modernization had

largely been the fear that Japan,

like China, would become another

Western colonial pawn. In fact, the

opposite occurred.

Military expansion

By the 1890s, Japan was a colonial

power. In 1894, Korea had asked

both Japan and China to help curb

an insurrection there. When both

countries later sought to take over

Korea, the Japanese swept the

Chinese aside, and then demanded

and received possession of Taiwan,

as well as rights in Manchuria.

Here they came into conflict with

Russia. The Japanese victory in

1905 over a disorganized Russian

fleet at the Battle of Tsushima

Strait was the first time an

industrial European power had

been defeated by an Asian power.

Japan had the world’s attention. ■

Emperor Meiji Important not as a statesman^

or as the ruler of Japan in the

sense of exercising actual power,

Emperor Meiji (1852–1912)—

whose personal name, never

used, was Mutsuhito—was

instead the symbol of the reborn

Japan. Until the restoration

of Meiji in January 1868, the

emperors of Japan were little

more than a symbol. Under the

shogunate, they were obliged

to remain invisibly at the royal

palace in Kyoto more or less

permanently. Strictly speaking,

the “restoration” never happened:

Meiji had already become emperor

in February 1867, following the

sudden death of his father,

Emperor Komei.

For those ambitious daimyo,

or feudal barons, who were

determined to drive Japan into

the modern world, elevating

the emperor to a higher profile

bestowed legitimacy on what

was otherwise an act of

usurpation. It is telling that one

of their first acts was to force the

emperor to move to Edo, which

was renamed Tokyo in 1868, the

former residence of the shogun.

Meiji himself remained an

impenetrable cypher to the end.

US_252-253_Meiji_Restoration.indd 253 15/02/2016 16:44