what was one result of chinas decision not to modernize and industrialize in the late 1800s?

The United States and the Opening to Japan, 1853

On July 8, 1853, American Commodore Matthew Perry led his 4 ships into the harbor at Tokyo Bay, seeking to re-establish for the start time in over 200 years regular merchandise and discourse between Japan and the western world.

Commodore Matthew Perry

Although he is often credited with opening Japan to the western globe, Perry was non the showtime westerner to visit the islands. Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch traders engaged in regular trade with Nippon in the 16th and 17th centuries. Persistent attempts by the Europeans to convert the Japanese to Catholicism and their tendency to appoint in unfair trading practices led Japan to expel most foreigners in 1639. For the two centuries that followed, Japan limited trade access to Dutch and Chinese ships with special charters.

At that place were several reasons why the United States became interested in revitalizing contact between Nihon and the West in the mid-19th century. First, the combination of the opening of Chinese ports to regular trade and the annexation of California, creating an American port on the Pacific, ensured that there would exist a steady stream of maritime traffic between Northward America and Asia. Then, every bit American traders in the Pacific replaced sailing ships with steam ships, they needed to secure coaling stations, where they could stop to take on provisions and fuel while making the long trip from the United States to China. The combination of its advantageous geographic position and rumors that Japan held vast deposits of coal increased the appeal of establishing commercial and diplomatic contacts with the Japanese. Additionally, the American whaling industry had pushed into the North Pacific by the mid-18th century, and sought safety harbors, help in instance of shipwrecks, and reliable supply stations. In the years leading upwardly to the Perry mission, a number of American sailors found themselves shipwrecked and stranded on Japanese shores, and tales of their mistreatment at the hands of the unwelcoming Japanese spread through the merchant customs and across the United States.

The same combination of economic considerations and conventionalities in Manifest Destiny that motivated U.S. expansion across the North American continent too drove American merchants and missionaries to journey beyond the Pacific. At the time, many Americans believed that they had a special responsibility to modernize and civilize the Chinese and Japanese. In the instance of Japan, missionaries felt that Protestant Christianity would exist accepted where Catholicism had generally been rejected. Other Americans argued that, even if the Japanese were unreceptive to Western ethics, forcing them to collaborate and trade with the world was a necessity that would ultimately benefit both nations.

Commodore Perry's mission was not the starting time American overture to the Japanese. In the 1830s, the Far Eastern squadron of the U.S. Navy sent several missions from its regional base in Guangzhou (County), Mainland china, but in each case, the Japanese did non let them to land, and they lacked the authority from the U.S. Regime to force the issue. In 1851, President Millard Fillmore authorized a formal naval expedition to Japan to return shipwrecked Japanese sailors and asking that Americans stranded in Japan be returned to the U.s.. He sent Commodore John Aulick to accomplish these tasks, but before Aulick left Guangzhou for Japan, he was relieved of his mail service and replaced by Commodore Matthew Perry. A lifetime naval officer, Perry had distinguished himself in the Mexican-American War and was instrumental in promoting the Usa Navy's conversion to steam power.

Perry start sailed to the Ryukyus and the Bonin Islands southwest and southeast of the primary Japanese islands, claiming territory for the United States, and demanding that the people in both places assist him. He and so sailed northward to Edo (Tokyo) Bay, carrying a alphabetic character from the U.S. President addressed to the Emperor of Japan. By addressing the letter to the Emperor, the United States demonstrated its lack of knowledge about the Japanese government and society. At that time, the Japanese emperor was little more than a figurehead, and the true leadership of Japan was in the hands of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Perry arrived in Japanese waters with a small squadron of U.Southward. Navy ships, because he and others believed the but style to convince the Japanese to accept western trade was to display a willingness to use its advanced firepower. At the same time, Perry brought along a diversity of gifts for the Japanese Emperor, including a working model of a steam locomotive, a telescope, a telegraph, and a multifariousness of wines and liquors from the Due west, all intended to impress upon the Japanese the superiority of Western culture. His mission was to complete an agreement with the Japanese Government for the protection of shipwrecked or stranded Americans and to open one or more than ports for supplies and refueling. Displaying his audacity and readiness to use forcefulness, Perry'due south arroyo into the forbidden waters around Tokyo convinced the Japanese authorities to accept the letter of the alphabet.

The post-obit spring, Perry returned with an fifty-fifty larger squadron to receive Japan'southward answer. The Japanese grudgingly agreed to Perry's demands, and the two sides signed the Treaty of Kanagawa on March 31, 1854. Co-ordinate to the terms of the treaty, Nihon would protect stranded seamen and open up two ports for refueling and provisioning American ships: Shimoda and Hakodate. Nihon as well gave the The states the right to appoint consuls to live in these port cities, a privilege not previously granted to strange nations. This treaty was not a commercial treaty, and it did non guarantee the right to trade with Nippon. Still, in improver to providing for distressed American ships in Japanese waters, it independent a virtually-favored-nation clause, so that all futurity concessions Japan granted to other foreign powers would as well be granted to the U.s.a.. Equally a result, Perry'south treaty provided an opening that would allow hereafter American contact and trade with Japan.

Townsend Harris

The first U.S. delegate assigned to a Japanese port was Townsend Harris. Similar many of the early on consuls in Asia, Harris was a New York merchant dealing with Chinese imports. He arrived in Shimoda in 1856, merely, lacking the navy squadron that strengthened Perry's bargaining position, information technology took Harris far longer to convince the Japanese to sign a more extended treaty. Ultimately, Japanese officials learned of how the British used military action to hogtie the opening to People's republic of china, and decided that it was ameliorate to open its doors willingly than to be forced to exercise so. The Usa and Japan signed their commencement true commercial treaty, sometimes called the Harris Treaty, in 1858. The European powers presently followed the U.S. instance and drew up their own treaties with Japan. Japan sent its showtime mission to the W in 1860, when Japanese delegates journeyed to the Usa to exchange the ratified Harris Treaty.

Although Japan opened its ports to modern trade only reluctantly, once it did, it took reward of the new access to modern technological developments. Japan'due south opening to the West enabled it to modernize its war machine, and to ascent quickly to the position of the most formidable Asian power in the Pacific. At the same fourth dimension, the process by which the United States and the Western powers forced Nihon into modern commercial intercourse, along with other internal factors, weakened the position of the Tokugawa Shogunate to the point that the shogun fell from ability. The Emperor gained formal control of the state in the Meiji Restoration of 1868, with long-term effects for the rule and modernization of Japan.

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Source: https://history.state.gov/milestones/1830-1860/opening-to-japan

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