Rise of Japan as a Colonial Power
In the mid-18th century, the Industrial Revolution spread throughout Europe. In order to compete for more raw materials and overseas markets, European countries started colonialism over Asia, Africa and the Americas. Japan, a small and weak country in Asia, was fated to be colonized. However, the fate of Japan was far much different from any other colonized countries in Asia. Colonialism, in certain extent, helped Japan to be transformed into a rich and powerful country.
To begin with, Japan sought to avoid foreign intrusion in response to the coming of European missionaries and traders. The Japanese, well aware of the implications of foreign penetration through observing what was happening to China, tried to limit Western trade to two ports. In 1858, however, American Commodore Perry traveled with the “Black Ships” to Japan. Japan’s guns and ships were no match for those of Commodore Perry in his two U.S. naval expeditions to Japan. As a result, Japan agreed to a full commercial treaty with the United States, followed by similar treaties with the Low Countries, Russia, France, and Britain. By signing the treaty, Japan was forced to open more ports, allow the resident foreigners to grant extraterritorial rights, as in China, and to predetermine import and export duties. Since then, Japan was completely opened to foreign trade and diplomatic relations.
Even Japan was forced to open her doors, it did not follow in China’s footsteps. On the one hand, the Western nations did not control Japan as aggressively as they did elsewhere. In Asia, the expanding powers concentrated on India, China, and the immediately surrounding areas. They did not pay much attention on colonizing Japan. In the 1850s and 1860s, even if the expanding powers began to concentrate on Japan, the leading powers were busying with other pressing affairs, such as the 1857 Indian mutiny, the Crimean War, French intervention in Mexico, and the U.S. Civil War. As a result, Japan did not suffer much from colonialism. On the other hand, in Japan itself, some far-sighted Japanese understood the weakness of the shogunate. This led to a revolutionary change in the country’s society and a thoroughgoing modernization program, which brought Japan the economic and military strength to resist foreign nations. In 1868, the civil war culminated in the overthrow of the shogunate and the Modernization of the rule of the Emperor. It marked the beginning of the Meiji Modernization.
During the Meiji period, various reforms were carried out to modernize the country. The aim of the changeover was the destruction of the traditional feudal social system and the building of a political, social, and economic framework favorable to capitalist industrialization. The new state actively participated in the changeover by various forms of grants and by direct investment in basic industries such as railways, shipbuilding and machinery. The concentration of resources in the industrial sector was matched by social reforms that eliminated feudal restrictions, accelerated mass education, and encouraged acquisition of skills in the use of Western technology. The industrialized economy helped Japan to hold its own in modern warfare and to withstand foreign economic competition.
Not only did Japan follow the Western industrialization, but it also began an outward aggression similar to that of the European nations. First, Japan started the acquisition and colonization of neighboring islands, including Ryukyu Islands, the Kuril Islands, Bonin Islands, and Hokkaido. Next, Japan’s target was Korea. During the process of colonization, China once tried to stop Japan’s aggression. This led to a war between China and Japan from 1894 to 1895. At the end, China was defeated and forced to cede Taiwan, the Pescadores, and southern Manchuria to Japan. In response to this, rival powers forced Japan to forgo taking over the southern Manchuria peninsula. In the meantime, France, Britain, and Germany were involved in seeking to stop Japan’s imperial ambitions. Finally, Japan’s defeat of Russia in the war in 1905 procured for its lease of the Liaotung Peninsula, the southern part of the island of Sakhalin, and recognition of its “paramount interest” in Korea. By the early 20th century, Japan had, by means of economic and political strength, attained a privileged position in Manchuria, as well as colonies in Korea, Taiwan and neighboring islands. Now, Japan had been successfully transformed into a rich and powerful country.
To conclude, Western colonialism entirely changed the fate of Japan. Facing colonization from the West, Japan was able to escape from becoming a colony. And instead, it moved onto the road of industrialization and became one of the colonial powers.
Liked it
