EQ: How did Japan respond to Europeans?

Key Terms: Tokugawa Ieyasu, closed country policy, Commodore Perry, Meiji Restoration, Russo-Japanese War

Japanese Isolation

Initially continued trade with Europeans, who also brought Catholic missionaries

By 1600, over 300,000 Japanese had converted to Christianity

Tokugawa did not like his subjects being more loyal to the pope in Rome than their shogun & despised Christian missionaries for imposing European culture in his land and interfering in local politics

After Tokugawa died, his successors continued to limit European access in Japan

1639, the Tokugawa Shogunate developed a “closed country policy” of isolation

Japanese were not allowed to leave Foreigners (Dutch & Chinese only)

were allowed in one city, Nagasaki

For over 200 years, Japan was closed off from the rest of the world and the society became stagnant—no advancements were made and the country fell behind the world in technology

Japan Opens Trade

1853, Commodore Matthew Perry of the US Navy entered Japan’s port at Nagasaki and “negotiated” a trade agreement—either Japan agreed to open trade or his fleet would bomb the city

Over the next decade, the US and other western countries expanded their power and established more spheres of influence

The Japanese were enraged and the Tokugawa shogun stepped down, bringing the emperor to power and establishing the Meiji dynasty

Over the next four decades, the Meiji rulers began a process of rapid modernization and industrialization

Japan, instead of being taken over by another country, became an imperial power

Japanese Imperialism

Japan’s expansion started with taking over nearby islands, then Korea

In 1894, Japan went to war against the Chinese over trade rights in Korea and defeated them in just a few months

1904-1905, fought the Russo-Japanese War against Russia for control of Manchuria; when Japan won, the country emerged as a major world power