The Most Convincing Approach Of Japan And China

During the 1800s, the island nations of Great Britain and Japan depended on their location to move them forward. Although they share many geographical similarities, they began handling their government policies very differently. While Japan's isolationist policies kept it locked in the past, imperialist Britain charged forward into a bright and powerful future. It would take the weakening of one Japanese government to bring about the rise of another, a government that would be far more modern and progressive than the last. Overall, when handled to their advantage, the geography of these island nations seemed to positively influence them.

Japan and China had many contrasting responses to western penetration in the nineteenth century, including economic interaction - economically China suffered and Japan prospered, Japanese agricultural productivity increased while China’s did not, and China only accepted a small amount of goods while Japan accepted a wide range of goods- and political interaction - China went to war but Japan did not, Japan adopted western learning styles but China did not, and Japan heavily increased taxes on their people after 1890, while China did not -but had very comparable geographic traits – both had ocean borders – Japan was completely surrounded by water while China was bordered on a large percentage of itself, both kept their ports either fully

For this assignment, we were asked to research, in pairs, the effects of foreign imperialism on two Asian societies. Chris and I chose China and Japan as our Asian societies.

As individual European countries scrambled to gain more territory to add to their Empires, Japan feared the changes that visiting countries brought. When other countries visited Japan with imports to trade they also brought with them a new religion, Christianity. Japanese Emperors feared the chaos that a new religion would bring and decided to shut the rest of the world out. Only the Dutch were allowed to trade with the Japanese as a need remained to be informed of the rest of the world and medical advances.

During the early nineteenth century, both China and Japan enforced policies restricting foreign trade in order to avoid industrialization and western ideas, but after both societies experienced foreign invasions and unequal treaties being established by foreigners, Japan began to industrialize and became imperialists trying to create an empire, while China differed in that the people wanted reform and government restrained the reformation of their society, therefore causing multiple rebellions and overall the collapse of their empire.

Many European countries such as Germany, France, and Great Britain, as well as Russia, Japan and the United States wanted to gain control of the Chinese market and dominate the trade and goods of that country. The result of

This had led to British completely outmuscling the Chinese with their far superior technology, as well as forcing the Chinese into a treaty that opened up numerous ports in China, allowed Westerners to move to China, as well as pay reparations to the British. This utter defeat showed the Chinese that they needed to adapt, and our second document, a map forecasting the partition of China amongst various nations, showed them that they needed to make those changes quick. All of this led to arguments between groups who felt China needed to self-strengthen and those who feared the increasing influence of Western ideals that could be brought on by learning more about the West in order to better defend against it. This is shown in our third document on self-strengtheners, such as Feng Guifen who argues for youths to be taught in Western languages and sciences in order to best defend against them. This document shows further the nationalism within China, as well as the importance of traditions, ideals, and values, as both sides argue their points based on protecting them from Western

China and Japan are too enormous and influential nations located in Eastern Asia. These two nations are almost always confused because of their similar culture and people, and they also happen to be right next to each other. Japan and China have never been allies and the two countries always seem to be in conflict. These two superpowers are very important to the world, and without them everything would be imbalanced in the global market. The rising superpower, China, is a nation that will continue to grow and improve their economy, while the fragile superpower, Japan, could fall apart at any moment and ruin the balance between all of the other countries.

While both countries attempted to improve their nations by learning from the west, China attempted to do so through the self-strengthen movement. Prior to the movement, China had suffered a major defeat in the opium war and was sent into a series of unequal treaties. The result showed the rest of the world and Chinese officials that China’s military was far inferior to those of western nations. Chinese officials knew that

China experiences the pressure of the imperialist’s military which China did not have the knowledge or the experience to match. China went from a superior leader, self-sufficient country, that thought that everyone else were barbarians to a torn country. China accepted foreign trade, but they wanted to control and limit how much and with who the trade was used for, they felt that they European trade was unnecessary. They did not allow the western merchants to have any power or privileges and restricted them to Canton, plus they refused to open their trade system beyond Co-Hong which caused china to not become as prosperous as Japan. (Valentini 2013) Because China the believed that they were the center of civilization and that the Western culture was inferior the Chinese government refused to go along with any of the European’s request and the two nations became hostile towards

The nineteenth century was a turbulent time of western imperialism and a major Asian power shift. European powers and the United States had a destabilizing effect on the region and the choices Japan and China made in response their imposing expansion was a major contributor to the trajectory of their respective futures. Social factors, such as the differences in national and religious unity, also played a role in the how the two nations emerged from the Age of Imperialism.

Commercially and culturally, Western Europe had many global interactions with regions surrounding them. In this era, Europeans expanded and built many new empires. They established more trading companies, like the Dutch East Trading Company, for instance. This company flourished and survived for two centuries and succeeded in bringing trade between Asia and Europe. Also, empires like the British Empire provided new trading posts and slave laborers. Overall, Europe was busy making advancements in trans-regional and global trade networks, which resulted in spreading of religion, migration of people, and other elements of culture. This is a vast difference from Tokugawa Japan of this time period. Japan began its self-imposed isolation around the

China and Japan are two unique civilizations that went through similar, yet vastly different changes throughout their histories. Their growth and response to other nations differed in many ways in government, lifestyle, and general well-being. One of the main causes for such difference between the countries is the way the West influenced each region, and the way China and Japan responded to this influence. China focused more on the idea of being a "status oriented" society, while Japan was more "goal oriented" based. In China, anyone had the ability to better themselves and change their status through civil examinations given by the government. Western impact however slowly changed this old age system. Japan's caste system viewed

Western Influence on Japan Japan, as a nation, is a continually changing society. Ever since western nations became involved with Japan, its changes over recent times have increased at a substantial rate. Japan now faces cultural, economical and social differences as a result of the western involvement. The involvement was initiated by the Japanese themselves, beginning during the Meiji Period1 through current times.

East and west. The relationship between the two has never been truly set in stone. Both Europe and Asia have been through many large-scale power shifts throughout the millennia. Empires have risen – and inevitably been razed. If not by conquerors, then by time itself. These empires were often led by those who yearned to increase their land and holdings, and because of this the tendrils of civilization often stretched to seek uncharted territory. This undying curiosity eventually culminated in what is now referred to as the “Age of Discovery,” which spanned from the 1500s to the 1800s. By the beginning of the 20th century, most of the world’s lands had already been discovered. Trade links between China and Europe had been around since the Hellenic Age. And in the year 1900 it had been 124 years since the founding of the United States of America. Cross the Pacific Ocean, and one would find themselves face-to-face with the United States’ distant neighbor, East Asia. In East Asia, two of the most historically significant nations are China and Japan. For a number of reasons, – which will be detailed further later on – the early 1900s were a somewhat tumultuous time for both of said nations. The 20th century was by and large a time of political and economic power consolidation for both China and Japan. It is arguable that the United States played an integral role in this consolidation. The interactions between the United States, China, and Japan highlight a time when the way that