The History of~Japan (Part 6: The Foreigners Return)

Japan; the mystical land of "The Rising Sun". Behind the facade of the Megalopolis that is Tokyo, lies a land stained in blood of some of the world's mightiest warriors; the Samurai. A land that has a history of military rulers that at times ruled with an iron hand.

This is Part 6 of the 9-part wiki page series about the history of Japan. In this part, we will cover how Japan re-opened its doors to the rest of the world, the conflicts that came after and how Japan reformed itself as an industrialized nation.

## The Foreigners Return

By the mid 19th century, and with a economy and society in decline, the barriers of Japan which held firm for the last 2 centuries are finally coming down, eventually they were brought down by the United States as Commodore Matthew C. Perry helped Japan re-open in 1853.

After the US, Japan would agree to trade with Britain, France, Russia, and Portugal as well as other nations. With Japan open again, this marked the beginning of the end for the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Not everybody in Japan was a fan of the country re-opening however, by the 1860s the 2 Samurai clans still loyal to the Shogun; the Choshu and Satsuma clans formed a coalition to try to overthrow the Shogunate which they believed had become too soft as their goal was to restore the Emperor to power and expel the foreigners from Japan. In 1868, this would lead to the Boshin War.

### Boshin War/Meiji Restoration

The Choshu/Satsuma Coalition would move onto Kyoto to drive out Shogun influence and then moved eastward towards Edo in May of 1868, after a month of fighting in Edo, the last Tokugawa Shogun; Yoshinobu was forced to abdicate and with nobody to take the throne, the age of the Shoguns effectively ended and with it nearly 9 centuries of military dictatorships in Japan, the war would go on until the summer of 1869 where whatever was left of the Shogunate fled to Hokkaido and formed the short-lived "Republic of Ezo".

After the war, Emperor Meiji made a series of reforms to not just undo what the Tokugawa Shogunate as well as other Military rulers did, but to also modernize Japan which its feudal codes made it fall behind the rest of the world. Some of those reforms were to abolish the class system, lift the ban on Christianity, and introduce the Georgian Calendar.

Japan also modernized with industrialization, such as the knowledge of creating steel for machines such as the previously mentioned steam engine, railroads were also introduced to Japan, as is modern telecommunication systems (such as the Telegraph). Japan also got rid of the gold "Koban" coin and started to use paper money which also led to the introduction of westernized banks, modernized companies such as "Mitsubishi" (founded by a former Samurai turned businessman; Yataro Iwasaki) were also created. Japanese society had also adopted some westernized stuff such as western clothes, western hairstyles and in some ways western mannerisms.

But, it would be another 10 years after the Boshin War where the old Samurai clans would try to restore the old order of the Shogun, and ironically would be caused by some of the big contributors to Imperial victory in the Boshin War, this would be known as the "Satsuma Rebellion"

### Satsuma Rebellion

In 1877, a Satsuma Samurai named "Takamori Saigo" (a big contributor for Emperor Meiji during the Boshin War) but his growing discontent with modernization led him to stage another coup, this time against the new Japanese Empire. The new imperial army were sent to Kyushu to put down the rebels. Though, this rebellion would last for only a few months, but there would be immense casualties despite the imperial army's superior numbers and weapons, on September 24, 1877 Takamori's army was defeated and forced to retreat from Kumamoto Castle, Takamori would also commit seppuku, one of the last known people to commit the ritual suicide (until Admiral Nagumo during World War 2) with this defeat, the age of the Samurai effectively ended and the carrying of 2 Japanese blades (Daisho) was abolished.

### Other reforms

Emperor Meiji made only a few political reforms. Though, he didn't introduce democracy to Japan, he only turned japan to an Oligarchy which was in the Meiji Consitution which was ratified in 1889, even in new Japanese schools since formal western education was also introduce taught children to revere their Emperor as a "Living God". There was one more thing that Meiji modernized.

The military. Japan's newly created imperial army (which was westernized) was tested during the Satsuma Rebellion and has proven itself in battle. Now, Japan has the power to take on the world, starting with China.

That'll do it for this part. In the next part (click here), we'll cover Japan's victories over ancient empires and its steady rise as a global superpower. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.