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1854 – Admiral Perry anchors off Yokosuka, Japan to receive Emperor’s reply to a treaty proposal.
This agreement, forced on the Tokugawa shogunate by Commodore Perry’s menacing “black ships,” ended over two centuries of virtual exclusion (the exception being the Dutch) of foreign traders from the coast of Japan. The intrusion of the U.S. in the first place derived from the ill-treatment accorded American whaling crews when shipwrecked off the coast or landing for provisions or repairs.
The treaty fully satisfied the U.S. government’s concerns in this regard but left to the future the equally important matter of opening the country to foreign trade; concluded in 1858 with the signing of the Harris treaty.
Perry’s great achievement was widely recognized at the time. Perhaps there is no better praise for this naval veteran of 45 years’ service than the collective memorial sent by the American merchants at Canton to the Commodore in Sept. 1854 on his return trip to the U.S.: “You have conquered the obstinate will of man and, by overturning the cherished policy of an empire, have brought an estranged but culturated people into the family of nations. You have done this without violence, and the world has looked on with admiration to see the barriers of prejudice fall before the flag of our country without the firing of a shot.”
https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/february-13/
This agreement, forced on the Tokugawa shogunate by Commodore Perry’s menacing “black ships,” ended over two centuries of virtual exclusion (the exception being the Dutch) of foreign traders from the coast of Japan. The intrusion of the U.S. in the first place derived from the ill-treatment accorded American whaling crews when shipwrecked off the coast or landing for provisions or repairs.
The treaty fully satisfied the U.S. government’s concerns in this regard but left to the future the equally important matter of opening the country to foreign trade; concluded in 1858 with the signing of the Harris treaty.
Perry’s great achievement was widely recognized at the time. Perhaps there is no better praise for this naval veteran of 45 years’ service than the collective memorial sent by the American merchants at Canton to the Commodore in Sept. 1854 on his return trip to the U.S.: “You have conquered the obstinate will of man and, by overturning the cherished policy of an empire, have brought an estranged but culturated people into the family of nations. You have done this without violence, and the world has looked on with admiration to see the barriers of prejudice fall before the flag of our country without the firing of a shot.”
https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/february-13/
Japan
Military History
Posted >1 y ago
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After accepting Perry's demands (no other reasonable option being available to them) the Emperor set into motion a modernization of Japan that propelled them forward economically. It is interesting to wonder if the US hadn't "forced" them to trade with the US if their economic development would have been much slower?
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1SG (Join to see). It is interesting that in less than a century after the US forcefully opened Japan to foreign traders [beyond the Netherlands] they had learned that lesson so well that they had invaded China and expanded their zone of influence through the South China Sea area down to Malaysia and Indonesia including the oil interests of the Netherlands that they had been trading partners with for so long.
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