Cite This Work This greatly disrupted the clearly defined class system which the bakufu had envisaged, partly leading to their eventual downfall. Most of them were appointed through government approval with two or three years contract, and took their responsibility properly in Japan, except some cases. The World History Encyclopedia logo is a registered trademark. The Meiji Restoration, and the resultant modernization of Japan, also influenced Japanese self-identity with respect to its Asian neighbours, as Japan became the first Asian state to modernize based on the Western model, replacing the traditional Confucian hierarchical order that had persisted previously under a dominant China with one based on modernity. Why did the Meiji want to modernize Japan? While the formal title of samurai was abolished, the elitist spirit that characterized the samurai class lived on. At the same time, Japan maintained close relations with neighboring Korea and China, confirming a traditional East Asian political order with China at the center. Countries and Their Cultures. How long did the Meiji Restoration last? SQ 6. The fact that the Meiji Restoration was not accompanied by a great deal of destruction was important because it meant the new Meiji government had a relatively stable foundation from which to launch its reforms. By 1839, however, Britain had already colonised India, and China's defeat in the Opium War (1839-42) was a signal to the Japanese government that their country was under real threat. Books In a wider context, however, the Meiji Restoration of 1868 came to be identified with the subsequent era of major political, economic, and social changethe Meiji period (18681912)that brought about the modernization and Westernization of the country. Japanese historians would adopt historical theories and practices imported from Europe, and free their own past from Chinese cultural . We care about our planet! Meiji Restoration, in Japanese history, the political revolution in 1868 that brought about the final demise of the Tokugawa shogunate (military government)thus ending the Edo (Tokugawa) period (16031867)and, at least nominally, returned control of the country to direct imperial rule under Mutsuhito (the emperor Meiji). Largely the handiwork of thegenro(elder statesman)It Hirobumi, the constitution established a bicameral parliament, called the Dietin full Imperial Diet (Teikoku Gikai)that was to be elected through a limited voting franchise. Instead, it supported Choshu by supplying large quantities of weapons. However, after the shogunates brutal repression of a Christian rebellion on the Shimabara Peninsula in 1637-38, Christianity was forced underground. The Japanese knew they were behind the Western powers when US Commodore Matthew C. Perry came to Japan in 1853 in large warships with armaments and technology that far outclassed those of Japan, with the intent to conclude a treaty that would open up Japanese ports to trade. Students also attended courses in "moral training" which reinforced their duty to the Emperor and to the Japanese state. In 1866, the two han secretly formed an alliance, and Satsuma refused to participate in a second bukufu campaign against Choshu. Squires, G. (2022, October 29). Furthermore, samurai were no longer allowed to walk about town bearing a sword or weapon to show their status. The foundation of the Meiji Restoration was the 1866 Satsuma-Chsh Alliance between Saig Takamori and Kido Takayoshi, leaders of the reformist elements in the Satsuma and Chsh Domains at the southwestern end of the Japanese archipelago. Already a popular figure, after his death, Saigo Takamori was lionized by the Japanese people. The word "Meiji" means "enlightened rule" and the goal was to combine "modern advances" with traditional "eastern" values. Please see the timeline above. In another blow to its prestige, the bakufu was defeated. This led to a series of riots from disgruntled samurai. There was dramatic rise in production, as shown in the table below. The Making of the West, Peoples and Cultures. [8] Later, their debts and payments of samurai stipends were either taxed heavily or turned into bonds which resulted in a large loss of wealth among former samurai. Please support World History Encyclopedia. Because of Japan's leaders taking control and adapting Western techniques it has remained one of the world's largest industrial nations. To reform the military, the government instituted nationwide conscription in 1873, mandating that every male would serve for four years in the armed forces upon turning 21 years old, followed by three more years in the reserves. The Meiji Restoration and Modernization. The dominant faith of the Tokugawa period was Confucianism, a relatively conservative religion with a strong emphasis on loyalty and duty. The opening up of Japan not only consisted of the ports being opened for trade, but also began the process of merging members of the different societies together. With each samurai being paid fixed stipends, their upkeep presented a tremendous financial burden, which may have prompted the oligarchs to action. Asia for Educators.The Meiji Restoration: The End of the Shogunate and the Building of a Modern Japanese State. In its place, a democratic social and political system was established based on constitutional law over the course of about 20 years, and it led to significant economic reforms and growth. The Meiji period ( Meiji-jidai) was an era in Japanese history that extended from September 1868 through July 1912. Gale. The Japanese government reversed its ban on cremation and pro-cremation Japanese adopted western European arguments on how cremation was good for limiting disease spread, so the Japanese government lifted their attempted ban in May 1875 and promoted cremation for diseased people in 1897.[26]. Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) had the emperor appoint him as shogun in 1603, and this gave him the right to establish the bakufu. In particular, they legitimized the tenancy system which had been going on during the Tokugawa period. The Meiji Restoration is almost universally regarded as the dividing line between traditional and modern Japan because it brought a new government that introduced radical policies that fundamentally altered Japanese society. At that time, the Tokugawa controlled about 30% of the land in Japan, and about 270 hereditary daimyo families controlled the rest. The Tokugawa rebuffed these demands. "Meiji Restoration." The Meiji restoration boomed throughout and modernized Japan by the end of the 1890's. The Meiji restoration may not have effected other many countries with it's own internal revolution, but it did revolutionize the entirety of Japan in less than a hundred years. In 1868, the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan was overthrown as a result of the Boshin war, heralding the Meiji Restorationor the more daring Meiji Revolutionwhich ushered in a period of intense scientific, cultural, political, and economic change in Japan. Under the Meiji Restoration, the practices of the samurai classes, deemed feudal and unsuitable for modern times following the end of sakoku in 1853, resulted in a number of edicts intended to 'modernise' the appearance of upper class Japanese men. [3], Some shogunate forces escaped to Hokkaid, where they attempted to set up a breakaway Republic of Ezo; however, forces loyal to the Emperor ended this attempt in May 1869 with the Battle of Hakodate in Hokkaid. To understand the Meiji Restoration, rather than approaching it from a theoretical perspective, it is best to think of it as an event that had both causes and consequences that were unique to Japan. "Japan." First, in 1873, it was announced that the samurai stipends were to be taxed on a rolling basis. The United States and Soviet Union divided control over the peninsula after World War II, and in read more, The Qing Dynasty was the final imperial dynasty in China, lasting from 1644 to 1912. A momentous event in Japanese and world history, it was not . Besides drastic changes to the social structure of Japan, in an attempt to create a strong centralized state defining its national identity, the government established a dominant national dialect, called "standard language" (, hyjungo), that replaced local and regional dialects and was based on the patterns of Tokyo's samurai classes. 1868 - 1889. In a wider context, however, the Meiji Restoration of 1868 came to be identified with the subsequent era of major political, economic, and social changethe Meiji period (1868-1912)that brought about the modernization and Westernization of the country. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 would be a turning point in Japanese History, where the country rapidly modernized, and reassessed its role in the world. (ed. This era in Japanese history was a momentous epoch that saw the transformation of feudal Japan into a modern industrialized state with a parliamentary form of government and its emergence as a world power through military SQ 5. Some began to promote the idea that Japan was superior to foreign countries because of the divine origin of the imperial family. He is popularly known as "The Last Samurai," and proved so beloved that Emperor Meiji felt compelled to issue him a posthumous pardon in 1889. Despite efforts at fiscal reform, mounting opposition seriously weakened the Tokugawa shogunate from the mid-18th to the mid-19th century, when years of famine led to increased peasant uprisings. The Meiji Restoration , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Renovation, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. [20][21][22] In 1959 a concrete keep was built for Nagoya castle.[23]. Modernization is regarded as the process by which a traditional society turns into a modern one. Melvin [2] The main leaders of this were It Hirobumi, Matsukata Masayoshi, Kido Takayoshi, Itagaki Taisuke, Yamagata Aritomo, Mori Arinori, kubo Toshimichi, and Yamaguchi Naoyoshi. Throughout Japan at the time, the samurai numbered 1.9 million. It was signed under duress when Commodore Matthew Perry, who used the tactics of gunboat diplomacy by menacingly sending his American battle fleet into Japanese waters. In addition to an emphasis on agricultural production (including the staple crop of rice as well as sesame oil, indigo, sugar cane, mulberry, tobacco and cotton), Japans commerce and manufacturing industries also expanded, leading to the rise of an increasingly wealthy merchant class and in turn to the growth of Japanese cities. The Japanese Empire: Grand Strategy from the Meiji Restoration to the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. Most han were fairly small, but some, like Satsuma and Choshu, were very large. Consequently, domestic companies became consumers of Western technology and applied it to produce items that would be sold cheaply in the international market. Suspicious of foreign intervention and colonialism, the Tokugawa regime acted to exclude missionaries and eventually issued a complete ban on Christianity in Japan. How did industrialization affect the British middle class? Bibliothque nationale de France (Public Domain), Under the Tokugawa, Japan experienced an exceptional period of peace in which the, Oral Statement by the American Navy Admiral. Disgruntled samurai participated in several rebellions against the government, the most famous being led by the former restoration hero Saig Takamori of Satsuma. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%88%91%E3%80%85%E5%9B%A3#:~:text=%E3%82%A6%E3%82%A7%E3%83%96%E3%82%B5%E3%82%A4%E3 . The Meiji period, which lasted from 1868 to 1912, was a time of great change for Japan. They resented being marginalized and under-represented in the new Meiji government. The land tax, which contributed to 78% of the nation's income in 1868, had decreased to 30% by 1897. Below are the well-known swordsmiths in the main areas. It was developed in the context of the Cold War as an alternate theory of development to the Marxist one offered by China and the Soviet Union. The administrative reorganization had been largely accomplished by 1871, when the domains were officially abolished and replaced by a prefecture system that has remained in place to the present day. 4 vols. to provide some clarity as to how the meiji era occurred, one must know two things: one, the term meiji is named after the meiji emperor, who lived from 1852 to 1912 c.e., and reigned over. The third long-term cause was the rise of imperial loyalism. Similar agreements soon followed with Britain, Russia, and the Netherlands. At this time Japan experienced an exceptional period of peace in which the economy expanded, the population grew, cities developed, literacy and scholarship spread, and a new urban culture appeared. [2] The goals of the restored government were expressed by the new emperor in the Charter Oath. In 1863, anti-foreign activists from Choshu seized control of the imperial court in Kyoto and Emperor Komei (1831-1867), who was also hostile to opening the country, issued an order to 'expel the barbarians.' In January 1868, they took control of the Imperial Palace in Kyoto and issued an edict restoring imperial rule. With this, industrial zones grew enormously, and there was a massive migration to industrializing centers from the countryside. Our publication has been reviewed for educational use by Common Sense Education, Internet Scout, Merlot II, OER Commons and School Library Journal. The tozama daimyo were less trusted, and their territories tended to be large but far from the political centre of Japan. They increased pressure on Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the last shogun, stressing the shogunate's failure to protect Japanese interests. Domestic companies became consumers of Western technology and applied it to produce that. 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