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Feb EALC/HIST 28, 2011
Meij Restoration and Datsu-a
I.
The Fall of the Bakufu
A.
Assassination of Ii Naosuke , 1860
B.
Bakufu and domains
1. Bakufu vs. Chsh
2. The Satsuma-Chsh Alliance: powerful clans independent of shogun
and on the periphery of the country
C.
II.
Populace : Ee ja nai ka
The Meiji Restoration (Meiji Ishin): the modern period
A. The Charter Oath
Article V
B. Institutional Changes:
1. Dismantling Feudalism
a. Haihan chiken 1871destroy the domains and centralize power
through prefecture system
b. State Structures and the Restoration of Imperial Rule
The Meiji Constitution and Parliamentary Politics
Promulgation of the Constitution, 11 February 1889
The Diet
Liberal Party, Progressive Party
c. The spread of elected assemblies
2. Introduction of Conscription
a. Ending the samurai monopoly on military service
b. modeled on Prussian army
3. New Taxation System
land tax
C. Schools and education
a. Education as a tool for strengthening the nation
b. Compulsory education
c. Send university students to study abroad
d. Hire foreign advisors to help put these policies in place
e. Rescript on Education
D. Religion:
a. State Shinto and the Persecution of Buddhism
b. Christianity: Lifting the ban Christianity on (1873)
E. Nation building and the Emperor system,
a. New class system. Warrior class loses its elite status and become
commoners. At the same time, a new aristocracy created made up of feudal lords
and imperial court. Promote men of talent regardless of social origins
b the creation of a modern emperor
F. Remaking time
A new calendar
G. Factories and the Industrial Revolution
a. economic developmententrepreneurial class exalted by the new
government, starting with textile industry
b. build up the infrastructure: telegraph, trains, ports
c. Emergence of the Zaibatsu
H. New Foreign Relations
a. Foreign encroachment in early Meiji makes Japan strive to preserve its
independence and become a world power
b. Definition of Borders
1. Hokkaido
2. The Ryky Islands
c. Military Expansion
Debate on Korea 1873
Taiwan Intervention 1874
I.
New Identity:
a. Bunmei kaika : civilization and enlightenment:
Promotion of western ideas: science, technology, but also legal
and economic system
b. Why did the government support bunmeikaika
Demonstrate that Japan was a civilized country
Renegotiate unequal treaties
c. Datsu-A Out of Asia
III.
Resisting the new system
Tosa soldiers (1868)
Satsuma Rebellion (1877)