During the 1850-1939, the western powers, particularly Britain, came over to Asia. The main reason they came to Asia was because of trade. The British wanted to trade with the Japanese, but mainly the Chinese, for goods such as silk and other things that you couldn't find in Europe. The only problem was that the Chinese didn't want anything to do with the Europeans. This is what made the Europeans start forcing the Chinese to trade with them. There were many reasons that the Chinese didn't want to trade with the Europeans. One reason was that the Chinese felt that there was nothing that the Europeans had that they wanted. They felt that their economy was fine without the presence of the Europeans, especially the British.
             The first stop on the way to China was Japan. The British and Matthew C. Perry with four ships into Edo Bay in 1853 to try and convince the Japanese to open up to the British (. When the Japanese saw the ships that Perry brought with them, they were stunned. When Perry got there he forced the treaty of Shimoda on the Japanese. Matthew said he would return a year later. Perry returned on his given date with 7 "black" ships to see if the Japanese had lightened up. Indeed they had because they were afraid of the ships and what the British could do with them. Perry made the Japanese accept a treaty that gave Europeans pretty much full rights in Japan. The treaty was called the Treaty of Kanagawa. This treaty gave all Europeans what was called extraterritoriality. This meant that even if a European killed
             a Japanese person, he could only be tried under the laws of his own country. Thus the criminal would be brought back to Europe to be tried. The reasons that they did this was because before the treaty was in place, Europeans that were washed up on Japanese soil because their ship had sunk, were jailed and even kill.
             Originally, the British wanted nothing to do with the Japanese. Japan wa...