Period 5: Japan

Question 1

Who was Commodore Matthew Perry?

Answer 1

• from the U.S.
• arrived in Japan on a steamboat in 1853, shocking the Japanese who realized their isolation had resulted in their inability to compete economically and militarily with the industrialized world

Question 2

What was the Treaty of Kanagawa?

Answer 2

• 1854
• favored the U.S. and other countries
• opened ports of Japan to American vessels
• the Japanese revolted against the shogun who had ratified these treaties from the West and restored Emperor Meiji to power

Question 3

What was the Meiji Restoration?

Answer 3

• 1868
• ushered in an era of Japanese westernization, after which Japan emerged as a world power
• Japan was building railways and steamships by the 1870s
• the samurai warrior class and universal military service among all males were abolished by 1876
• defeated China in a war for control of Korea and Taiwan in 1895