15: Punishment and Civilisation Pt. 1

Question 1

timeline for Japan

Answer 1

1603: Edo period
- isolationist
- Tokugawa shogunate
- strict law and order
- feudal/caste system

1853: Perry Expedition
- US sends Perry to Japan with gunboats to convince the Japanese government to open up, particularly to American trade and relations

1854: US-Japan Convention
- opened Japan to unequal treaties

1858: Harris Treaty
- foreign concessions, extraterritoriality, favourable tariffs

1868: Meiji Restoration
- imperial rule, end of feudal system, modernisation, nationalism

Question 2

cultural evolution

Answer 2

theory that all societies develop in a unilinear pattern over time, progressing from savagery to barbarism and culminating in civilisation

Question 3

modernisation theory

Answer 3

model of social progression assuming a transition from traditional to modern societies

suggests that traditional societies develop towards modernity as they adopt more modern practices

Question 4

why was the cultural evolution theory used by Western powers?

Answer 4

ideological ways to justify policies relating to how to deal with indigenous populations in regions they decided belonged to them to colonise and exploit in a competition with broader fellow civilised nations

Question 5

extraterritoriality

Answer 5

key part of the Harris treaty and other policies

immunities enjoyed by foreign entites/actors from the jurisdiction of the country in which they are present

Question 6

ideological justification for extraterritoriality

Answer 6

Japanese punishment was so supposably brutal/barbaric and downright uncivilised that it would be inhumane to subject Westerners to these supposedly harsh/horrible punishments

Question 7

orientalism

Answer 7

informed Western perceptions of and interactions with the East

how the West constructs its self-identity

Question 8

why was being “civilised” important for Meiji reformers?

Answer 8

existential problem of what to do in the face of increasing encroachments by Western and European enemies constantly threatening the sovereignty of Japan

creating wealth and power
nation-building
being perceived as civilised was necessary in order for them to consider renegotiating unequal treaties