Japan: Transformation without Revolution p. 625

1. Japan:Transformation without Revolutionp. 625

2. Introduction • First half of the 19th century the shogunate continued to combine beurocracy with feudal contsraints • Government was running into financial problems • Japanese intellectual life and culture developed • Japan became more secular • Schools expanded

3. Terakoya – taught reading, writing, and Confucianism to ordinary people • By 1859, literacy was 40% of men and 15% of women – far higher than anywhere else • Confucianism remained the major ideology • There were rivals – nationalists – who insisted on only Japanese style education and the Dutch Studies – who kept alive the knowledge of the Dutch and studied western books

4. In the 19th century commerce expanded • By 1850 growth came to a halt • Technological constraints • Rural riots aimed at the wealthy peasants, merchants, and landlord controls

5. Isolationism • Japan feared outside influence • In 1853, Matthew Perry, and American arrived at a port in Edo askeing to open trade • He threatened bombardment – very similar to the British in China • In 1854, Perry returned and won two ports • The shogunate saw no alternative than to open their ports…

6. Crisis Follows • Samurai began attacking foreigners • Civil War broke out in 1866 • The Samurai defeated the Shogunate • The crisis ended in 1868 when a reform group proclaimed a new emperor named Mutsuhito – but commonly called “Meiji” or Enlightened One