Ten Minute History - The Meiji Restoration and the Empire of Japan (Short Documentary)

18:53 and the Americans are here where Japan, why open the country? The man who led the American expedition was one Commodore Matthew Perry, who essentially told the Japanese to allow American imports or face war for the previous 200 years that Japan had been closed. all foreigners under penalty of death because as far as the Japanese were concerned foreigners were a bit nosy the orders to close the borders had come from the bakufu also known as the Shogun in the bakufu was the central government of Japan which was run by a Shogun, who lived in Edo, was technically named after the Emperor who lived in Kyoto, but frankly, the Emperor was just a puppet.

Japan at the time was highly decentralized and regional daimyo could set their own tax rates. It was also going through a period of important economy. Stagnation and social tensions bubbled beneath the surface, inflation and hunger ravaged the countryside, and many noted the increasing wealth of the merchant class despite being at the bottom of the social hierarchy. It was in the context of this period of tension that the Americans had arrived and promised to return a year later to hear the Japanese response. Apparently Commodore Perry can't wait that long and returned about six months later, this time with more ships and the Japanese signed a treaty to allow trade and soon after. the British arrived and achieved a similar agreement in 1858 Japan had established formal relations and trade agreements with the US Great Britain, the Russian Empire, the Netherlands and France these concessions to foreign powers made the bakufu appear weak there were great divisions among Japan's daimyo over how to respond Due to external threats making matters worse, the Shogun was also dying and then had to be selected to promote unity, the main council of the bukuvu hata Masayoshi asked the komai emperor to give his approval to trade agreements and the Shogun's air shaft.

The emperor said no and Hatta resigned in shame at some point, like Cho See, they united against the shogun in 1866, Japan was in crisis, the new shogun Yoshinobu tried to crush the tofu and restore order, but was defeated when the Satsuma daimyo refused to help. The defeat of the bakufu led Chozo and Satsuma to march on Kyoto, which they captured in 1867, while there the new Emperor Meiji announced the

restoration

of the emperor as ruler of Japan, beginning what is known as the Potion War, which the shogunate quickly lost. This coincided with the modernization of Japanese military tactics and both sides had received help from the West after they had emerged victorious and Premiu moved from Kyoto to Edo, which was renamed Tokyo from where he would rule Japan for the next two decades.

The imperial government began the process. of nation-building, such as the construction of a new shrine in Tokyo for Japan's war dead and the dismantling of the social hierarchies of the past. The late 19th century also saw the creation of Japan's first political parties that argued over important new issues such as representation or whether Korea should be invaded immediately or not, the Japanese military went through a period of reform and, to begin with, Japan now had a national army fighting under a single flag at first consisting exclusively of samurai, but was reformed by the third marshal of the Yamagata era, Tomo, who introduced compulsory military service for all men over the age of 20, also during the last few years. decades of the 19th century, Japan went through a period of massive industrialization.

The railway began to emerge from 1872 along with numerous textile factories, much of which were paid for by the state, of course, the state once had expenses. such as paying the samurai who until then received an annual payment from the local daimyo, this payment called stipend was transferred to the new imperial government and was very expensive, needless to say the government spent almost half of its income paying a lot of The samurai were controversial and from 1871 the government began to phase them out, so at that time the samurai were quite upset because they were no longer at the top of the social structure, they stopped receiving free money and were not even seen as the honorable defenders of Japan, since any old peasant could join the army, this resentment led to the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877, which the new conscript army was able to crush quite easily.

The major changes that Japan experienced during the second half of the 19th century culminated in the constitution of 1889. This constitution created a Western-style government with a prime minister who served under the emperor and with an elected lower house, although the vast majority of men and no women could vote, the culture at that time also underwent massive changes and the people of Japan had the difficult task of To define what it meant to be Japanese, the government attempted to aid the creation of a Japanese identity through the new system educational. This, along with conscription, was used to promote and foster a shared sense of identity, so Japan quickly became an ambitious modern nation-state and what was the only thing that all the large nation states that had the world at this time had

empire

s, which meant Japan wanted one too?

This began a period of imperial expansion in 1875 Japan took Riyuku Island, the best known being of Okinawa after Japan turned to Korea, which at the time was a puppet of China, so people like the Tomo Korea era were going to be conquered eventually, so it may also have been by Japan at first using some good old fashioned gunboat diplomacy, the Japanese signed their own treaty with Korea eventually the Japanese presence in Korea led to what is known as the rebellion donghak, this massively destabilized Korea and that is why both Japan and China sent troops to protect their interests.

These troops collided and thus began the first Sino-Japanese war due to the modernization of the army as well as a huge naval budda the Japanese completely trampled the Chinese as a result Korea formally entered Japan's sphere of influence in Japan it also seized Taiwan China also settled here on the Liaodong Peninsula but after threats from Russia Japan abandoned it Japan wanted to be seen by Westerners as their equals, this did not happen even though Japan actually provided the largest number of troops and ships for the eight-nation alliance that put down the Boxer Rebellion in China between 1899 and 1902.

The Boxer Rebellion was essentially an uprising designed to drive foreigners out of China, but these countries intervened and the rebellion was eventually crushed. The long-term effects with the Europeans were less meddlesome in China, except Russia, which took the opportunity to seize Manchuria, so the only European country that took Japan seriously was Great Britain, which in 1902 entered into an alliance Importantly with them Britain became the first Western nation to recognize the Japanese claim to Korea in 1905 Japan sought similar recognition from Russia, which it refused in response, they launched a sneak attack on the Russian fleet at Port Arthur, thus beginning The Russo-Japanese War of 1905 in which the Russians were firmly defeated, as a result Japan arrived in this territory and Russia agreed to abandon Manchuria.

Very little happened in the next decade unless you were Emperor Meiji because that's when you died or unless you were Korea because That's when you were annexed in 1914. Britain called Japan into World War I, which Japan used as an excuse. to take over all these German territories. She also used the chaos to wish you the twenty-one demands to China, these were rejected and finally only thirteen. All of these demands were agreed upon when Japan gained influence over Manchuria, but it sowed vision between Japan and Britain, as well as resenting the United States for its help during the war.

Japan was invited to join in the drafting of the Treaty of Versailles and the establishment of the League of Nations Japan asked that the league consider all races as equal, this was formally rejected by the Americans but was mainly due to Britain, as it would have meant that Britain had to regard its colonial subjects as equals, which was not going to happen in 1920. Britain left the Anglo-Japanese alliance the following year along with the United States. You can beat the Washington naval conference. This sought to limit the number of large ships each country's Navy could have and only Britain and the United States would be allowed the most next year. it would not improve much for Japan due to a large earthquake that killed 150 thousand people, in addition, the Japanese economy collapsed in the military became much more influential in politics in 1926 emprah show are better known in the West when Emperor Hirohito ascended the throne and his reign saw a continued growth of the cult of the Emperor.

On September 18, 1931, a Japanese army detachment in Manchuria attempted to destroy a section of railway, blamed on Chinese rebels and this was used as a pretext for the invasion and in February The following year Manchuria was Japanese. puppet state this was condemned by the League of Nations and in response Japan withdrew, isolating itself the army in Japan was becoming more ambitious and in 1936 there was even an attempted coup d'état by one of its factions this was crushed by the Emperor that had given its support to another faction, but either way the military was effectively in control of the government of Japan, the military wanted to further expand Japanese power and this led to what is known as the Marco Polo Bridge incident in 1937, where Japanese and Chinese troops exchanged fire against the new Prime Minister Fumimaro.

Konoe II, who was originally appointed to control the army, authorized an invasion; Within a few months, the Japanese had advanced to Nanjing, where the infamous Nanjing massacre occurred, in which tens of thousands of civilians were raped and murdered. In 1941, the United States and a Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated an oil embargo against Japan. Japan refused to back down from what they saw as American meddling and on December 7, 1941, launched the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor that resulted in 4,000 American casualties compared to Japan's 65 at the same time as Japanese forces attacked. Japanese. the British colonies of Malaya Singapore and Hong Kong initially, Japan did very well winning important victories over the European powers, notably the Battle of Singapore in 1942, in which 80,000 British soldiers surrendered in mid-1942.

Japan owned everything this territory, but its advances were stolen because it was too much territory to hold much of the European territory taken by the Japanese. Puppet governments had been installed. Importantly, these governments were led by the native peoples there, which helped stimulate independent movements even after the war. The Japanese's fortunes began to change when the American strategy of island hopping, as well as some major naval defeats, such as the Battle of Midway in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, from the and could no longer project power adequately when it ended the war in Europe, Japan had been pushed back so far. and on August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima and three days later another on the city of Nagasaki, killing about 150,000 people.

On September 2, Japan formally surrendered to the Allied forces and was occupied by the United States, the Americans discover that this is the reconstruction period and in 1947 a new constitution was completed that still stands today and prevents Japan from declaring war. In conclusion, the Meiji Restoration saw the birth of a truly unified Japan, this Japan was the victim of many humiliations by the Western powers that despite Japan's achievements refused to see as an equal the close relationship between the military and politics in Japan led to an expansionist state whose ambitions or even attacked the United States, a decision that would ultimately lead to its destruction.

It is also worth noting that the Japanese occupation of many European colonies was the catalyst for those colonies to seek their own independence in the following decades. I hope you enjoyed this episode and thanks for watching.