Japan:Transformation without Revolutionp. 625

Introduction

First half of the 19th century the shogunate continued to combine beurocracy with feudal contsraintsGovernment was running into financial problemsJapanese intellectual life and culture developedJapan became more secularSchools expanded

Terakoya – taught reading, writing, and Confucianism to ordinary people

By 1859, literacy was 40% of men and 15% of women – far higher than anywhere else

Confucianism remained the major ideology

There were rivals – nationalists – who insisted on only Japanese style education and the Dutch Studies – who kept alive the knowledge of the Dutch and studied western books

In the 19th century commerce expanded

By 1850 growth came to a halt

Technological constraints

Rural riots aimed at the wealthy peasants, merchants, and landlord controls

Isolationism

Japan feared outside influence

In 1853, Matthew Perry, and American arrived at a port in Edo askeing to open trade

He threatened bombardment – very similar to the British in China

In 1854, Perry returned and won two ports

The shogunate saw no alternative than to open their ports…

Crisis Follows

Samurai began attacking foreigners

Civil War broke out in 1866

The Samurai defeated the Shogunate

The crisis ended in 1868 when a reform group proclaimed a new emperor named Mutsuhito – but commonly called “Meiji” or Enlightened One