1853 and the Americans are here where Japan why to open up the country the man leading the American expedition was a certain Commodore Matthew Perry who essentially told the Japanese to allow American Imports or face War for the previous 200 years Japan had been closed to all foreigners under the pain of death because as far as the Japanese were concerned foreigners were attad metalsome the orders to close the borders had come from the bukuu also known as the shogunate the bakufu was the central government of Japan which was led by a Shogun who lived in Ido technically he was appointed by the Emperor who lived in Kyoto but frankly the emperor was just a puppet Japan at this point was very decentralized with regional Dao able to set their own tax rates it was also undergoing a period of major economic stagnation and there were social tensions bubbling away under the surface inflation and famine swept the countryside and many were noticing the increased wealth of the merchant class despite them being at the bottom of the social hierarchy it was within the context of this period of tension that the Americans had arrived and they pledged to return a year later to hear the Japanese response apparently Commodore Perry couldn't wait that long and so returned about 6 months later this time with more ships and the Japanese signed a treaty to allow trade and soon after that the British arrived and gained a similar deal by 1858 Japan had established formal relations and trading agreements with the US Britain the Russian Empire the Netherlands and France these concessions to foreign powers made the pfu look weak there were major splits among Japan's Dau about how to respond to outside threats to make things worse the Shogun was also dying and an air had to be selected so in order to promote Unity the chief counselor of the bukuu hot masayoshi asked the emperor kite to give his approval to the trade deals and the Shoguns air well the emperor said no and hter resigned in shame some Dio such as that of Chu rallied against the Shogun and by 1866 Japan was in crisis the new Shogun yoshinobu attempted to crush Chu into restore order but was defeated when the Dau of Satsuma refused to help the bakufu's defeat LED Chu and Satsuma to march on Kyoto which they captured in 1867 whil there the new emperor Magi announced the restoration of the Emperor as the ruler of Japan this kickstarted what is known as the boan War which the Shogun quickly lost this was coincided with the modernization of Japanese military tactics and both sides had received help from the West having been victorus Emperor Magi moved from Kyoto to Ido which was renamed Tokyo from where he would run Japan over the next couple of decades the Imperial government began the process of nation building such as by building a new Shrine in Tokyo for Japan's War dead and by dismantling the social hierarchies of the past the late 19th century also saw the creation of Japan's first political parties who argued over important new issues such as representation or whether or not Korea should be immediately invaded the Japanese military went through a period of Reform as well for a start Japan now had a National military which fought under one flag at first it consisted exclusively of Samurai but was reformed by fi Marshal Yamagata aromo who introduced National conscription for all men over 20 also during the closing Decades of the 19th century Japan underwent a period of massive industrialization Railways started to spring up from 1872 alongside numerous textile factories much of which was paid for by the state of course the state had other expenses such as paying off Samurai who who up until this point received an annual payment from the local Dao this payment called a stipend was carried over to the new Imperial government and was very expensive needless to say the government spending almost half of its income paying a bunch of Samurai was controversial and beginning in 1871 the government started to phase it out so the Samurai at this point were becoming quite upset they were no longer at the top of the social striatus stopped receiving free money and weren't even seen as The Honorable Defenders of Japan since any old peasant could join the Army now this resentment led to the Satsuma rebellion of 1877 which the new conscript Army was able to crush quite handily the major changes Japan underwent during the second half of the 19th century culminated in the 1889 Constitution this Constitution created a western style government with a prime minister who served under the emperor and with an elected lower house although the vast majority of men and no women could vote culture at this time also underwent massive changes and the people of Japan had the difficult task to Define what it meant to be Japanese the government attempted to Wade the creation of a Japanese identity through the new education system this alongside conscription was used to promote and Foster a shared sense of identity so Japan quickly found itself becoming an ambitious Modern Nation State and what was the one thing that all the great nation states of the world had at this point they had Empires which meant Japan wanted one too this kickstarted a period of Imperial expansion in 1875 Japan took the ryuku island the best known being Okinawa after that Japan turned its eye to Korea which at this point was a puppet of China to people like aromo Korea was going to be conquered eventually so it may as well have been by Japan at first using some good old fashion gunboat diplomacy the Japanese signed their own treaty with Korea eventually the Japanese presence in Korea led to what is known as the dong hack Rebellion this massively destabilized Korea and so both Japan and China sent troops in to protect their interest these troops clashed and thus begun the first Ceno Japanese war because of the modernization of the military as well as a huge Naval boot up the Japanese thoroughly stomped the Chinese as a result Korea formerly entered Japan's sphere of influence and Japan also seized Taiwan China also seeded here the laong peninsula but after threats from Russia Japan gave gave it up Japan wanted to be seen by westerners as their equal this didn't happen despite the fact that Japan actually provided the most troops and ships for the eight Nation Alliance which put down the Boxer Rebellion in China between 1899 and 1902 the Boxer Rebellion was essentially an uprising designed to remove foreigners from China but these countries intervened and eventually the rebellion was crushed the long-term effects were that Europeans were less meddlesome in China except for Russia who took the opportunity to seize manua so the only European country that took Japan seriously was Britain who in 19 2 entered an alliance with them importantly Britain became the first Western Nation to acknowledge the Japanese claim to Korea in 1905 Japan s similar acknowledgement from Russia which they refused in response they launched a sneak attack against the Russian Fleet in Port Arthur thus starting the 1905 Russo Japanese war in which the Russians were firmly defeated as a result Japan CED this territory and Russia agreed to leave Manchuria very little happened in the next decade unless you were Emperor Magi because that was when you died or unless you were Korea because that was when you were annexed in 194 Britain called Japan into World War I which Japan used as an excuse to grab all of these German territories it also used the chaos to issue the 21 demands to China these were rejected and eventually only 13 of these demands were agreed upon Japan gained influence over manua but it seed the vision between Japan and Britain as well as upsetting the United States for its help during the war Japan was invited to join in drafting the Treaty of versailes and in establishing the League of Nations Japan asked for the league to consider all Races as equal this was rejected forly by the Americans but it was mostly because of Britain since it would have meant that Britain had to consider its Colonial subjects as equals which wasn't going to happen in 1920 Britain abandoned the Anglo Japanese Alliance and the next year alongside the United States convened the Washington Naval conference this sought to limit the number of large ships each country's Navy could have with only Britain and the United States being allowed the most the next year things wouldn't get much better for Japan due to a major earthquake which killed 150,000 people furthermore the Japanese economy collapsed and the military became much more influential in politics in 1926 six Emperor shaa better known in the west as Emperor hito ascended the throne and his Reign saw the continued growth of Emperor worship on September the 18th 1931 a Detachment of the Japanese Army in manua attempted to destroy a piece of Railway they blamed Chinese Rebels and this was used as pretext for Invasion and by February the next year manua was a Japanese puppet state this was condemned by the League of Nations and in response Japan withdrew isolating itself the Army in Japan was becoming more ambitious and in 1936 there was even an attempted coup by one of its factions this was crushed by the Emperor who had given his support to another faction but either way the military was effectively in control of Japan's government the Army wanted to further expand Japanese power and this led to what is known as the Marco Polo Bridge incident in 1937 where Japanese and Chinese troops exchanged fire the new prime minister fumimaro kenoi who was originally appointed to reign in the Army authorized an invasion within a few months the Japanese had Advanced all the way to nangjing where the infamous nangjing Massacre occurred whereby tens of thousands of civilians were raped and murdered in 1941 the United States under Franklin D Roosevelt began an oil embargo against Japan Japan refused to back down to what they saw as American medling and on December the 7th 1941 launched the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor which saw 4,000 American casualties compared to Japan 65 at the same time Japanese forces attacked the British colonies of Malaya Singapore and Hong Kong initially Japan did very well winning major victories over the European powers notably the Battle of Singapore in 1942 which saw 880,000 British soldiers Surrender by mid 1942 Japan held all of this territory but its advances were stalling because it was too much territory to hold many of the European territory seized by the Japanese had puppet governments installed importantly these governments were run by the native peoples there which helped spur on Independent movements even after the war Japanese luck began to change when the American strategy of island hopping as well as some major Naval defeats such as the Battle of Midway and the Battle of late Gulf meant that Japan could no longer adequately project Power by the time the war in Europe was over Japan had been pushed back all the way to here on August the 6th 1945 the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima and 3 Days Later another one on the city of Nagasaki killing an estimated 150,000 people on September the 2nd Japan formally surrendered to the Allied Forces and was occupied by the United States the Americans financed a period of reconstruction and a new constitution was completed in 1947 which still holds today and it famously prevents Japan from declaring war in conclusion the ma restoration saw the birth of a truly UniFi Japan this Japan was a victim of many humiliations by Western Powers who despite Japan's achievements refused to see it as an equal the close relationship between military and politics in Japan led to an expansionist state whose ambition s even attack the United States a decision that would ultimately lead to its destruction it should also be noted that the Japanese Occupation of many European colonies was the Catalyst for those colonies seeking their own independence in the following decades I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching