1. The Beginnings of Imperialist Japan
Additional Reading:
“Expressions of Imperialism”

2. 1854 – Commodore Matthew Perry opens trade with Japan to Western Countries
U.S. wanted:
Coaling stations
More trading partners
Safe port for ship-wrecked sailors

3. Why Change?
In 1862, just before the start of the Meiji period, a group of Japanese officials and scholars were sent to China to study the situation there. One official recorded in his diary from Shanghai…
“The Chinese have become servants to the foreigners. Sovereignty may belong to China but in fact it's no more than a colony of Great Britain and France.”

4. Meiji Reforms Land Redistribution
Westernize the School System (Fr. & Ger.)
Abolition of the feudal system
Modern Banking System
Modernize the Army (Prussian)
Meiji Reforms
Written Constitution (Germans)
Build a Modern Navy (British)
Human Rights & Religious Freedom
Emperor Worship Intensified

5. Meiji “Enlightened Rule”

6. “Japanese spirit; Western technology!”
European Goods
“Japanese spirit; Western technology!”

7. Expansionism & the Rise of Military Power
New players on the block?

8. Soldiers on the Battlefield During the Sino-Japanese War
The Treaty of Shimonoseki ended the war.

9. Exit Ticket
Why did Japan decide to become an imperial power?