Japan In Transformation, 1853-1945
Overview
In 1853 Japan had deliberately restricted contact with the outside world for over two centuries, was governed by a military aristocracy, and had almost no modern industry. Fifty years later it had a written constitution, a conscript army, a national railway network and had defeated a European great power in open war. Ninety years later it lay in ruins under foreign occupation, having lost a war it began itself.
No other country in this period changed so far, so fast, in both directions. The examiner's interest is in the mechanism: what allowed Japan to modernise at extraordinary speed, why the same state that built parliamentary politics in the 1910s and 1920s abandoned them in the 1930s, and whether the collapse of 1945 was built into the Meiji settlement from the start.
Objectives
- Japan opening up to China and the West, 1853-67: the Perry Mission, opening the ports, causes of the fall of the Tokugawa, Choshu and Satsuma
- Transformation, 1867-1895: impact of the fall of the Tokugawa, political modernisation, the Meiji Constitution, the Cultural Revolution, Meiji culture, relations with Christianity
- An emerging power, 1895-1919: industrial and commercial revolution, Emperor Taisho, Taisho Democracy, changes in culture and society, relations with China and the West, the Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War
- Political and economic challenges, 1919-31: political conflicts, universal suffrage, the labour movement, the Public Security Preservation Law, economic decline, the Great Kanto Earthquake, the world Depression
- Depression, empire and collapse, 1931-45: military dictatorship, relations with the USA, the Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, Manchukuo, Konoe's New Order, the effects of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
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Lesson Evaluation
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- What did the treaties Japan signed with Western powers in 1854 and 1858 impose? A) Full Japanese control over tariffs B) Extraterritoriality for foreigners and fixed low tariffs C) The immediate annexation of Japanese territory D) A military alliance with Britain Answer: B
- In which year was the Meiji Constitution promulgated? A) 1868 B) 1877 C) 1889 D) 1912 Answer: C
- Which war first saw an Asian state defeat a European great power in modern times? A) The Sino-Japanese War of 1894 to 1895 B) The Russo-Japanese War of 1904 to 1905 C) The First World War D) The Boxer Uprising Answer: B
- What did the General Election Law of 1925 introduce? A) Votes for all adults regardless of sex B) Votes for all men aged twenty-five and over C) The abolition of the Diet D) Direct election of the prime minister Answer: B
- The Manchurian Incident of 1931 was significant mainly because: A) It ended the Sino-Japanese War B) Japanese army officers acted without government authority and were not punished C) It led Japan to join the League of Nations D) It caused the Great Kanto Earthquake Answer: B
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