Black Ships to Meiji: Japan's Response to the West

For over two centuries, Japan's Tokugawa shogunate tightly limited contact with Europeans. In July 1853 US Commodore Matthew Perry arrived with steam-powered warships, which the Japanese called the black ships, and demanded that Japan open its ports. The Treaty of Kanagawa of 1854 opened ports, and the Harris Treaty of 1858 imposed unequal terms, including extraterritoriality and fixed low tariffs, much like China's treaties.

Many samurai blamed the shogunate for weakness, and in 1868 a coalition of domains overthrew it and restored power to the young Emperor Meiji. The new leaders pursued rapid modernization under the slogan 'rich country, strong army. ' They abolished the feudal domains in 1871, introduced conscription in 1873, built railways and factories, created a national school system and adopted a constitution in 1889, while the Iwakura Mission of 1871–73 studied Western institutions. Japan's aim was to end the unequal treaties and avoid China's fate.