Page 75 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Japan

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The Edo Era and the Meiji Restoration
Peace was achieved by forcing the daimyo to reside every
other year in Edo (Tokyo), the new seat of the shogunate. While
Kyoto remained the official capital, Edo greatly eclipsed it in
size. Japan isolated itself from the rest of the world until 1853,
when the American Naval officer Commodore Perry challenged
Japan’s refusal to enter into international relations. Weakened
by internal unrest, the shogunate could only accede to Perry’s
demands. Imperial power was restored in 1868, and Japan
swiftly embraced Western technology under Emperor Meiji.
Tokyo became the capital and seat of the emperor, the samurai
class was abolished and the first prime minister was appointed
in 1885. Conscription was introduced to create a modern
fighting force, which proved effective with victories in the Sino-
Japanese War of 1894–5 and the Russo-Japanese war of 1904–
5. During the subsequent Taisho Era, party politics flourished,
suffrage was extended and new labour laws were enacted, but
World War I, the 1918 Rice Riots, the Great Kanto Earthquake of A portrait of Emperor
1923, and the repressive Peace Preservation Laws challenged Meiji, instrumental in the
this liberal atmosphere. modernization of Japan

1854 1894 1905
The Kanagawa Treaty The First The Russo-Japanese
between the US and Sino-Japanese War ends with the
Japan is signed. War begins. Treaty of Portsmouth.
1868
Imperial power
is restored and
1853 Tokyo becomes
US Naval officer the capital.
Commodore Matthew
Perry anchors in Edo Bay.
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