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Visual History of the World
(CONTENTS)
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The Modern Era
1789 - 1914
In Europe, the revolutionary transformation of the ruling systems
and state structures began with a bang: In 1789 the French
Revolution broke out in Paris, and its motto "Liberte, Egalite,
Fraternite"—Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood—took on an irrepressible
force. A fundamental reorganization of society followed the French
Revolution. The ideas behind the revolution were manifest in
Napoleon's Code Civil, which he imposed on many European nations.
The 19th century also experienced a transformation of society from
another source: The Industrial Revolution established within society
a poorer working class that stood in opposition to the merchant and
trading middle class. The nascent United States was shaken by an
embittered civil war. The economic growth that set in following that
war was accompanied by the development of imperialist endeavors and
its rise to the status of a Great Power.
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Liberty Leading the People,
allegory of the 1830 July revolution that deposed the French
monarchy,
with Marianne as the personification of liberty,
contemporary painting by Eugene Delacroix.
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see also:
THE ART OF ASIA
EXPLORATION:
Japanese Ukiyo-e
Japanese Prints
Hiroshige's
"Tokaido"
Hokusai's
"Views of Mt. Fuji" and
"Panoramic View of
Sumidagawa River"
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi
"Tsuki hyakushi" - 100 Aspects of the Moon
Sesshu's
Long Scrolll
"East and West"
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Japan had been almost wholly isolated from the West since the 17th
century under the shoguns of the Tokugawa. Japan was ruled by a noble
upper class with the shogun at the top. Though it gave the empire a
long, peaceful period of 1 cultural
flourishing, it also prevented access to Western modernization in the
areas of technology and politics. Under internal political pressure, the
last shogun was forced to step down in 1868 in favor of the emperor, who
pushed ahead with modernization. During the Meiji period, Japan quickly
came to lead Asian industrialization and was also successful in foreign
affairs.
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The End of Seclusion and Domestic Changes
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The Western states contributed to the development of Japan as a
market and trading center. The resulting domestic crisis brought the end
of the shogunate.
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During the early 19th century, the Tokugawa shoguns tried to keep
Japan sealed off from the Western world.
However, the United States demanded the opening of Japan and forced the
2 1854 Kanagawa Treaty, which
ensured the Americans the use of two ports for trade.
3 European states then made similar
treaties, and in 1860 Japanese envoys traveled to Europe to initiate
trade with the West.
Many of the treaties made were disadvantageous to the Japanese, often
guaranteeing the foreigners significant privileges.
This opening of the country had domestic consequences. The foreigners
were considered enemy intruders by the Japanese people.
When several nationalistic-minded 4
samurai attacked foreign merchants, European warships shelled Kagoshima
in 1863 and Shimonoseki in 1864.

4 Samurai in armor
An influential group that demanded political reorganization and the
restoration to the emperor (tenno) formed in Japan. The Japanese
modernizers, as well as the armed foreign powers, highlighted the
Tokugawa shogunate's shortcomings. The shoguns recognized that Japan had
to adapt its policies to the new conditions.
They were anticipated by the military leaders of the Satsuma, Choshu,
and Tosa provinces, who seized the emperor's palace in
5 Kyoto on January 3,1868.
Tokugawa Yoshinobu then restored to the tenno the power of government
that had been in the hands of the shoguns for over 250 years. Edo was
declared the capital in 1868 and renamed Tokyo, and Tenno Mutsuhito
(Meiji) moved there in 1869.
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5 The emperor's palace in Kyoto, ca. 1900
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Modernization and Territorial Gains
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The reforms of the Meiji Restoration brought Japan into the Modern
Era and made it the leading political and military power in East Asia.
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The Boshin War, a short civil war against the last followers of the
Tokugawa, led directly to the Meiji Restoration.
6 Tenno Mutsuhito, named Meiji ("the
Enlightened"), had set as his goal Japan's modernization through
comprehensive reforms.

6 Emperor Mutsuhito ("the
Enlightened") with his family
This was accomplished above all with the aid of his powerful ministers
Kido Takayoshi, Saigo Takamori, and Okubo Toshimichi. With one decree in
1871, they abolished the traditional feudal structure and installed
governors to replace the previous system of local self-government.
European military advisors and engineers restructured the army,
industry, and 8 transport.

8 Railway station between Ueno and Nakasendo
Laws and educational institutes were renewed in the Western mold. The
rapid pace of these changes, however, also incited resistance. When in
1877 the warrior class of the samurai was disbanded, War Minister
Yamagata Aritomo—who, following the Prussian example, had introduced
compulsory military service—was forced to put down the Satsuma Uprising.
The Prussia state served as the model when drafting the new constitution
of 1889 that formally made Japan a constitutional monarchy. A parliament
with an upper and lower house was created as of 1890, although the tenno
was still able to intervene in politics through decrees or by dissolving
the lower house. The military also had a right of veto in the
appointments of minister posts.
Industrialization demanded an expansion of the country's territories
primarily to tap raw materials and markets abroad. In the 1870s, Japan
came to an agreement with Russia about the Kurilc Islands north of Japan
and occupied the Chinese Ryukyu Islands in the south. The Japanese used
a revolt in Korea to seize additional Chinese territories.
They won the 7 Sino-Japanese War of
1894-1895, and in the Treaty of Shimonoseki took Taiwan and the
Pescadores.

7 Japanese attack upon the Chinese defenders
Japan was also victorious in the 9
Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, which was fought over Manchuria and
Korea; in a treaty negotiated at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1905,
Japan gained the southern half of Sakhalin Island and the lease of the
Liaodong Peninsula, among other things. Japan annexed Korea in 1910.
10 Tenno Mutsuhito died in 1912 in
Tokyo.
During his reign, Japan had become the most progressively industrialized
country in Asia and a major political and military power.
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9 Official declaration of war by Japan on
Russia from February 10, 1904
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10 The death of Tenno Mutsuhito,
color print, 1912
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Saigo Takamori
General Saigo Takamori was a commander of the troops in the
Boshin War and led over 50,000 samurai. Along with Kido Takayoshi and
Okubo Toshimichi, he was one of the "Three Heroes" of the Meiji
government.
He soon withdrew from public life and founded a school for samurai who had
resigned their offices. Saigo led the 1877 uprising in Satsuma of
samurai who felt dishonored by their loss of privileges. Seriously
injured in battle, he asked his comrades to behead him to avoid capture
and further dishonor.

Saigo Takamori
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see collections:
THE
ART OF ASIA
Japanese Ukiyo-e
Japanese Prints
Hiroshige's
"Tokaido"

Hokusai's
"Views of Mt. Fuji" and
"Panoramic View of
Sumidagawa River"

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi
"Tsuki hyakushi" - 100 Aspects of the Moon

Sesshu's
Long Scrolll

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