MMW 14 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Gunboat Diplomacy, Tokugawa Shogunate, Tokyo Bay

• School: UCSD
• Department: Making of the Modern World
• Course: MMW 14
• Professor: Edmond Chang

Document Summary

Confronting the inevitable tide of change: japan"s chinese lesson- japan was very aware of the threat of the european nations, from what they saw from china -> tried to avoid it at all costs. If an enemy dictates terms in one"s own capital, one"s country is disgraced : what will be japan"s own fate, will the mist gathering over china not come down as frost upon. Insisted tokugawa to accept friendship, promised to return the following year with a bigger fleet: the sonno joi vs. Kaikoku debate in the bakufu in 1853: sonno joi revere the emperor, expel the barbarians - keep foreigners out at all costs, perry violated japanese laws and he wasn"t here to offer friendship. He came to japan to survey out, to plan for a future invasion. Don"t forget when christians came to japan and this same thing happened when they undermined japanese sovereignty. Don"t buy time, use the time to strengthen japan.