Meiji: Japan becomes a great power in one generation
Power is returned to the emperor, and in forty years a closed country builds railways, a fleet, schools and a parliament—and defeats Russia.
In 1868 young samurai from the south overthrow the shogunate and declare power returned to the emperor; the motto of the reign is Meiji, 'enlightened rule'. The lords lose their domains, the samurai their swords and stipends; universal conscription, universal schooling, railways, a single calendar and a constitution with a parliament on the Prussian model are introduced. Men go to Europe and America to learn, and in one generation a country closed for two and a half centuries becomes an industrial power: in 1895 it defeats China, in 1905 Russia, the first Asian country to defeat a European one. By the emperor's death in 1912 Japan is one of the great powers of the world.
Sources
Documents of the period
- the Charter Oath of 1868 and the constitution of 1889 — the aims of the overturn and the shape of the new state
Scholarship
- studies of the history of Japan — the changes within one generation and the wars of 1895 and 1905
Basis: documents and evidence.