1. Applying the Five Habits of Historical Thinking to Better Understand China, Japan, and the West

2. Perry meeting the imperial commissioners at Yokohama Matthew Perry

3. A market in Edo, Japan, in the early 1800s Salt gathering at Suzaki

5. Japanese prints of Perry's steamship (bottom), and his fleet and a map of the coast of Soshu (right)

6. The restoration did return all authority to Mutsuhiro, the Meiji emperor (right), but was much more than that. It was a way to begin to construct a powerful unified nation-state that could rapidly undertake modernization.

7. Dr. Juichi Soyeda (left), of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of Japan and the Japanese American Society of Tokyo, and Tadao Kamiya, chief secretary of the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce, on a visit to the U.S. in 1913

8. The Chinese port city of Guangzhou (Canton), 1900. Until 1842, Canton was the main port at which foreign merchants were able to trade with Chinese merchants.

9. Imperial Palace Confucius Terraced rice paddies

10. A famine relief effort China’s population soared in the 1800s, when famine and peasant unrest became more common. Modern battleship (in back) and Chinese junk Europe moved rapidly ahead in technology and industry.

11. However, the British insisted on selling opium in China. It was one product they knew they could sell for the Chinese goods they wanted.

12. First Opium War (1839–1840) Second Opium War (1856–1860) Two scenes from the Second Opium War

13. Two scenes from one of the new treaty ports, Shanghai

14. That’s not an easy question to answer.

15. After all, the past itself is gone. All we have to go on is the historical record. Primary source documents like these are one kind of record. Yet they often leave out as much as they reveal.

16. Five Habits of Historical Thinking History is not the past itself The Detective Model: Problem, Evidence, Interpretation Time, Change, and Continuity Cause and Effect As They Saw It: Grasping Past Points of View Five Habits of Historical Thinking History is not the past itself The Detective Model: Problem, Evidence, Interpretation Time, Change, and Continuity Cause and Effect As They Saw It: Grasping Past Points of View

18. “Why was Japan much more willing than China to adopt Western ways in the 1800s?”

19. How did each society view the West, its people, and ideas? How did Japan’s ruling elites differ from those in China? Did the two nations differ in how they had experienced the West’s impact? Was the West more hostile or aggressive in dealing with either of the two nations? How did each society view the West, its people, and ideas? How did Japan’s ruling elites differ from those in China? Did the two nations differ in how they had experienced the West’s impact? Was the West more hostile or aggressive in dealing with either of the two nations?

21. “We should now order one-half of them [our scholars] to apply themselves to the manufacturing of instruments and weapons and to the promotion of physical studies… The intelligence and ingenuity of the Chinese are certainly superior to those of the various barbarians; it is only that hitherto we have not made use of them.” Feng Kuei-Fen, 1850s

22. In 1900, an international force invaded China to free Europeans held by Boxer rebels. About half the troops sent to do this were Japanese. Here Japanese and British troops fight alongside one another.

23. Pause: How would you describe the differences between these two sources? Take a few notes and discuss your answers. “We should now order one-half of them [our scholars] to apply themselves to the manufacturing of instruments and weapons and to the promotion of physical studies… The intelligence and ingenuity of the Chinese are certainly superior to those of the various barbarians; it is only that hitherto we have not made use of them.”

24. A plant of the Mitsui Company, boiling cocoons and reeling silk, Maebashi, Japan, 1905

25. Upper-class Manchu men, China, 1901 Meiji Emperor of Japan, reigned 1867–1912

27. Pause: List some major changes in China and Japan in the 1800s and early 1900s Now list things that did not change in those societies in that time As a group, discuss your lists

28. “European demands for indemnity payments ruined China, not Japan.” “Japan did not suffer the internal upheavals, famine, and chaos of China in the 1800s.” “The Europeans were far more interested in controlling China and carving it up.” “China’s ruling Manchu elite was not popular and not able to unify China effectively.”

29. European PressuresInternal Problems “European demands for indemnity payments ruined China, not Japan.” “The Europeans were far more interested in controlling China and carving it up.” “Japan did not suffer the internal upheavals, famine, and chaos of China in the 1800s.” “China’s ruling Manchu elite was not popular and not able to unify China effectively.”

30. Five Habits of Historical Thinking History is not the past itself The Detective Model: Problem, Evidence, Interpretation Time, Change, and Continuity Cause and Effect As They Saw It: Grasping Past Points of View Five Habits of Historical Thinking History is not the past itself The Detective Model: Problem, Evidence, Interpretation Time, Change, and Continuity Cause and Effect As They Saw It: Grasping Past Points of View

31. “The intelligence and ingenuity of the Chinese are certainly superior to those of the various barbarians; it is only that hitherto we have not made use of them.” Feng Kuei-Fen, 1850s “Now that we are about to establish an entirely new form of government, the national polity and the sovereign authority must not in the slightest degree be yielded to subordinates.” Kido Koin, 1868 “Ever since the Manchus poisoned China, the flame of oppression has risen up to heaven, the poison of corruption has defiled the emperor’s throne…” Taiping rebels, 1852

32. Tasks ahead: Interpret several primary sources Read and debate two secondary sources Draw your own conclusions about this past episode Tasks ahead: Interpret several primary sources Read and debate two secondary sources Draw your own conclusions about this past episode