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.

Wars with China and Russia

Japanese intellectuals of the late-Meiji period espoused the concept of a "line of advantage," an idea that would help to justify Japanese foreign policy at the turn of the century. According to this principle, embodied in the slogan fukoku ky?hei (????), Japan would be vulnerable to aggressive Western imperialism unless it extended a line of advantage beyond its borders which would help to repel foreign incursions and strengthen the Japanese economy. Emphasis was especially placed on Japan's "preeminent interests" in the Korean Peninsula, once famously described as a "dagger pointed at the heart of Japan." It was tensions over Korea and Manchuria, respectively, that led Japan to become involved in the first Sino-Japanese War with China in 1894-1895 and the Russo-Japanese War with Russia in 1904-1905.

Related Topics:
Meiji period - ''fukoku ky?hei'' - Korea - Manchuria - Sino-Japanese War - 1894 - 1895 - Russo-Japanese War - 1904 - 1905

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The war with China made Japan the world's first non-Western imperial power. It established Japan's dominant interest in Korea, while giving it the Pescadores Islands, Formosa (now Taiwan), and the Liaodong Peninsula in Manchuria, which was eventually retroceded in the "humiliating" Triple Intervention. Over the next decade, Japan would flaunt its growing prowess, including a very significant contribution to the Eight-Nation Alliance, formed to quell China's Boxer Rebellion. Many Japanese, however, believed their new empire was still regarded as inferior by the Western powers, and they sought a means of cementing their international standing. This set the climate for growing tensions with Russia, who would continually intrude into Japan's "line of advantage" during this time.

Related Topics:
Pescadores Islands - Taiwan - Liaodong Peninsula - Triple Intervention - Eight-Nation Alliance - Boxer Rebellion

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Anglo-Japanese Alliance

To counter the powerful Russian influence in China, Japan sought an alliance with a western power.

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The British Empire, worried that Russia might endanger the interest it held in China and still burdened with the cost of the Boer War, shared common interest with Japan. The negotiations started in 1901.

Related Topics:
Boer War - 1901

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On January 30, 1902, the alliance was formally signed between Japan and the UK.

Related Topics:
January 30 - 1902

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Of the six major agreements, none is more important than the third article. This declared that in the event either of the nations was at war with two or more countries, the other must declare war on those countries.

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Surprised, Russia tried to counter this by allying with France and Germany.

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Germany backed down, however, and on March 16, a mutual pact was signed between France and Russia.

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In 1905, after several months of bloody fighting and many Japanese victories over Tsarist Russia, the Russo-Japanese War had settled into a stalemate and U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt was called in to mediate a settlement. The resulting Treaty of Portsmouth gave generous economic and diplomatic concessions to Japan, especially in Manchuria, and was considered by observers to indicate Japanese victory in the war and official recognition of Japan as a world power. Japan was denied an indemnity, which lead to riots due to the massive amounts of public investiture and fervor in the war. Much anger was also felt at the denial of the whole of Sakhalin (Karafuto) which the Japanese felt Russia had extorted in 1875 in exchange for the Kurile Islands.

Related Topics:
1905 - Teddy Roosevelt - Treaty of Portsmouth - 1875 - Kurile Islands

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Both wars gave Japan a free hand to occupy Korea (Period of Japanese Rule), which it formally annexed in 1910.

Related Topics:
Period of Japanese Rule - 1910

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