History of Japan

The history of Japan seems to start around 500,000 BCE, date when the earliest stone tool implements have been found. Following the last ice-age, the rich ecosystem of the archipelago apparently fostered human development rather earlier than in other geographical areas, yielding the earliest polished stone tools, and to this date, the earliest known pottery in the world. The history of Japan is then punctuated by an alternance of long periods of isolation and periods of radical, often revolutionary, influences from the rest of the world.

Meiji Restoration

Renewed contact with the West precipitated profound alteration of Japanese society. After the Boshin War of 1868, the shogun was forced to resign, and the emperor was restored to power. The subsequent "Meiji Restoration" initiated many reforms. The feudal system was abolished, and numerous Western institutions were adopted, including a Western legal system and a quasi-parliamentary constitutional government outlined in the Meiji Constitution. While many aspects of the Meiji Restoration were adopted directly from Western institutions, others, such as the dissolution of the feudal system and removal of the shogunate, were processes that had begun long before the arrival of Perry.

Related Topics:
Boshin War - 1868 - Shogun - Meiji Restoration - Feudal system - Meiji Constitution

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Russian pressure from the north appeared again after Muraviev had gained Outer Manchuria at Aigun (1858) and Peking (1860). This led to heavy Russian pressure on Sakhalin which the Japanese eventually yielded in exchange for the Kuril islands (1875). The Ryukyu Islands were similarly secured in 1879, establishing the borders within which Japan would "enter the World". In 1898, the last of the "unequal treaties" with Western powers was removed, signalling Japan's new status among the nations of the world. In a few decades, by reforming and "modernizing" social, educational, economic, military, political and industrial systems, the Emperor Meiji's "controlled revolution" had transformed a feudal and isolated state into a world power.

Related Topics:
Muraviev - Outer Manchuria - Aigun - 1858 - Peking - 1860 - Sakhalin - Kuril islands - 1875 - Ryukyu Islands - 1879 - 1898 - Emperor Meiji

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