This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Learn more

History Notes Japan, 1850 - 1914 Notes

Japan Notes

Updated Japan Notes

Japan, 1850 - 1914 Notes

Japan, 1850 - 1914

Approximately 48 pages

Bullet point notes looking in great detail at the development of modern Japan. From the collapse of the closed feudal state to the expansionist empire-builder, it notes the transformation of a country, and the controversial imposition of western culture - as well as the global spread of Japanese culture. Covers Japanese foreign policy, domestic politics, economics, intellectualism, society, and military. Complete with quotes, maps, and timelines....

The following is a more accessible plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our Japan, 1850 - 1914 Notes. Due to the challenges of extracting text from PDFs, it will have odd formatting:

Japan

Contents

  • Past questions

  • Quotes

    • The Meiji Restoration

    • Meiji Japan

    • The Japanese Empire

    • Japan and the West

  • Maps

    • Japan in 1894

    • The Japanese Empire in 1914

  • Chronology

    • Domestic developments

    • Foreign affairs

  • The Meiji Restoration

    • Edo Japan

    • Kaikoku

    • Japanese reaction

    • The prelude to revolution

    • The fall of the Shogun

  • Modernisation

    • Historiography

    • Nation-state

    • Westernisation

    • Foreign affairs

    • Administration

    • Economy

    • Military

    • Reaction

  • The Japanese Empire

    • Formal empire

    • Reasons for expansion

    • Rule

    • Domestic response

  • Japan and the West

    • The Dutch

    • Rangaku

    • Western settlers

    • Migrants

    • Cultural imports

    • Cultural exports

Past questions

  • Why did Japan acquire a colonial empire in the years 1895 – 1914?

    • Trinity 2013

  • How receptive was Japan to western influences?

    • Tutorial essay

  • How important was the state for the success of Meiji reforms?

    • Trinity 2012

  • How significant was universal conscription to the modernisation of Japan?

    • Trinity 2011

  • What role did international trade play in the modernisation of Japan??

    • Trinity 2010

  • Why was Japan able to industrialize so rapidly during the Meiji era?

    • Trinity 2009

  • How important was agriculture to the modernisation of Japan?

    • Trinity 2008

  • How receptive was Japan to western influences?

    • Trinity 2007

  • Why was Japan able to industrialise so rapidly during the Meiji era?

    • Trinity 2006

  • How far was the programme of the Meiji regime constrained by the need to appease traditional Japanese élites?

    • Trinity 2005

Quotes

The Meiji Restoration

  • “Our first priority is to save our world: if we are forced to permit trade for now… at a later time we will be able to redeem our honour”.

    • Sugita Gempaku.

  • “I am someone who can “bring fifty men-of-war to these shores”.

    • Townsend Harris, American consul-general at Shimoda.

  • It would “disturb the ideas of our people and make it impossible to preserve lasting tranquillity”.

    • Emperor Kōmei on the Harris Treaty.

  • To “honour the emperor, expel the barbarian”

    • Isolationist slogan.

  • “The price of things is daily increasing,” because of foreign products.

    • The shogun’s council.

  • Japan must “follow the example of the foreigners in using the profits from trade to construct many ships and guns”.

    • Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi, 1865.

  • A promise ‘to unite the hearts of all people regardless of rank’.

    • Emperor Meiji’s Charter Oath, April 1868.

Meiji Japan

  • “There is a great difference in our constitution compared with those of other countries.”

    • Itō Hirobumi, Privy Council President.

  • Any attempt to take power from the Emperor to the people would be “contrary to our national polity”.

    • Itō Hirobumi, Privy Council President.

  • We are “sleeping on a powder keg” of samurai dissatisfaction.

    • Saigō Takamori.

  • “Do not the police seize on a single word or phrase to throw the speaker in jail and disband the meeting?”

    • A speaker at a People’s Right Movement meeting.

  • “Gentlemen, it is your duty to advance the status of Japan”.

    • Takahashi Korekiyo’s farewell speech to Tokyo Agricultural College students, 1889.

The Japanese Empire

  • “If the sun is not ascending it is descending… If the country is not flourishing it is declining. Therefore to protect the country well is not merely [to prevent] it losing the position it holds, but to add to the position it does not hold.”

    • Yoshida Shōin.

  • Seizing Korea would “eliminate recrimination and jealously among its people” (the Japanese people).

    • Kido Takayoshi.

  • “I insist on war with China to transform Japan, hitherto a contracting nation, into an expansive nation.”

    • Tokutomi Sohō.

  • “Patriotism and militarism are our common foes”.

    • The People’s Daily.

Japan and the West

  • “Hence we must imitate them in these respects”.

    • Okubo Toshimichi.

  • “I knew the principle of telegraphy even if I had not seen the actual machine before”.

    • Fukuzawa Yukichi.

  • “Japan is the museum of Asiatic civilisation”.

    • Okakura Tenshin.

Maps

Japan in 1894

The Japanese Empire in 1914

Chronology

Domestic developments

March 1854 – Treaty of Peace and Amity

1859 – Japanese ports open to trade, Kōmei expresses the force majeure worry

August 1864 – Attempted coup d’état

1865 – Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi offered to resign

1866 – Chōshū defeats Bakufu; treaty convention signed

1867 –Tokugawa Yoshinobu relinquished Shogunate; end of 267-year Tokugawa rule

1868 – Boshin War; Meiji Revolution; new foreign policy memorandum; Zola painting at Salon

April 1868 – Emperor Meiji’s Charter Oath

1871 – Centralisation of Japan

1872 – Western clothing becomes compulsory for government officials; education reforms

1873 – Prohibitions against Christianity lifted; Conscription Act

1876 – Frock coats become standard business attire; end of topknots and sword-wearing

1877 – Satsuma Rebellion

1890 – Japanese Diet set up; Imperial Rescript on education; proposed legal reforms

1898 – Japanese legal reforms

1903 – Book of Tea

1908 – Imperial Rescript urging domestic tranquillity

Foreign affairs

1641 – Start of Dutch trade with Dejima

1853 – Commodore Matthew C Perry arrives in Edo Bay

1862 – International Exhibition; development of Gatling Gun; Nishi Amane sent to Leiden

1863 – Indemnity agreed between Britain and Satsuma

1864 – European ships attack Chōshū batteries in the Shimonoseki Straits, truce agreed

1868 – New foreign policy memorandum; Zola painting at Salon

1883 – Delegation sent to Prussia

1884 – Berlin Conference; patenting of the Maxim Gun

1885 – Nitrocellulose invented

1886 – Sinking of the Normanton

1894 – Start of Sino-Japanese War

1895 – Japanese triumph in First Sino-Japanese War; Taiwan taken, Korea client state

1900 – Boxer Rebellion

1902 – Alliance with Great Britain

1904 – Start of Russo-Japanese War

1905 – End of Russo-Japanese War; Japan gains Manchuria, half of Sakhalin, and Korean protectorate

1910 – Formal annexation of Korea

The Meiji Restoration

Edo Japan

  • The Japanese revolution had many of its roots in Japanese society, as well as western ideas.

    • There had...

Buy the full version of these notes or essay plans and more in our Japan, 1850 - 1914 Notes.