JAPAN AND THE US....

JAPAN AND THE US

The US wanted to expand its interests in Asia, especially in Japan. FIRST ATTEMPTS it was during 1837 and 1846 but they were beaten off by Japanese ships The US sent a "gun boat diplomacy" the next year. ​​​​​​​Gun Boat Diplomacy: it was something mostly used by the Britain in Asia (especially China) which basically was forcing Chinese government to accept Britain's right to sell opium in China. It was one of the reasons why Japan had a nationalists policy of seclusion.

The Tokugawa shogunate agreed to the Treaty of Kabagawa (1854) in which two Japanese ports were opened to the US to trade.  The Japan's policy of seclusion ended after 200 years. During 1858 Japan's government signed up the Treaty of Commerce with the US. After it, similar treaties were signed with "unequal treaties" with Britain, France and Russia. They were called like this because they had extra territorial rights. The imperial court did not agree with this, they wanted to continue seclusion wich lead to nationalist resentment.

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Tokugawa Yoshinobu By Oil Painting (image/jpeg)

Japan Us Flag (image/jpeg)

References

Workbook  Todd, Allan (2015) History for the IB Diploma Paper 1 The Move to Global War Cambridge University Press. 18-28 http://assets.cambridge.org/97811075/56287/excerpt/9781107556287_excerpt.pdf