Impact of Perry
On July 8, 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry of the United States Navy, commanding a squadron of two steamers and two sailing vessels, sailed into Tokyo harbor, carrying the message to the Japanese authorities : Agree to trade in peace, or suffer the consequences in war.(Andrew Gordon, Modern History of Japan, p49). His mission signified American interest in Japan trade. After taking over California from Mexico in the 1848, Americans wanted to become a commercial power in the Pacific. Also, with the whaling supplies exhausted in the Atlantic, Americans and British whalers had ventured into the Pacific waters and facing the competition of the British, the American wanted Japanese to sell coal to their naval fleet and allow resupply stops for the whalers in Japanese ports and to open Japan as a new market for their manufactured goods.Japan at this time was ruled by the shogun from the Tokugawa family and during this period, Japanese contacts with outsiders were severely limited, primarily due to the fear of the shogun and the other samurai that outside contacts presented a potential threat to their power. In response to this incident, the shogun ordered defence to be strengthened along the coastline and rumours of impending war spar
These caused great unhappiness among the Japanese population and although this did not directly lead to the fall of the shogunate, it encouraged the anti-shogunate activists who blamed the shogun for the economical breakdown and the dishonoring the emperor. Some of them supported it because scholars thought Japan needed an all-rounded reform, since they thought that the Shogun was too weak. After the signing of the various treaties, the economical impact on Japan was significant. Otherwise, Japan would follow the fate of China. Also, the shogun did something "unprecedented" and "unusual", he actually requested the various daimyos submit their advice on how to best deal with the Americans in hope of rallying a consensus for his choice to make some concessions and avoid war(Gordan, Modern History of Japan, p49). The shogun asked advices from the daimyos regarding to the incident and this unintendedly revealed that the shogun was actually unable to resist the Western powers. Western learning made the Japanese realized that Japan needed to reform upon the government, such as introducing democracy, and learning the advantages of the West. By defying the Emperor's wishes in the signing of the treaties, the bakufu had betrayed its trust as delegate of the imperial power(Duus, Modern Japan, p71). By the middle of the 19th century, the antiquated political system and absurd political and social philosophy of the Tokugawa were more than 200 years out of date. The traditional agricultural economy was gradually replaced by the market ecolomy. The economy structure of Japan at that time was changing. This weakness was revealed again during the 1854 treaty, in which the shogunate was left with no choice but to agree to the American terms knowing that a war would be futile if they have refused. Different Japanese had different responses to the end of the seclusion policy.
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