Meiji Japan
Japan races to industrialize
The Restoration
Perry's black ships, the Boshin War, and the fifteen-year-old Emperor Meiji on a real throne
1853–1868
Dismantling Feudalism
Haihan Chiken abolishes the domains, conscription dissolves the samurai monopoly, the Iwakura Mission tours twelve countries
1868–1873
The Satsuma Rebellion
Saigo Takamori's last samurai war and the conscript victory at Shiroyama
1873–1877
Industrial Revolution by Decree
Pilot factories, the zaibatsu, the gold standard, and the developmentalist state model
1872–1900
The Constitution and the Diet
Ito Hirobumi's Prussian model, the 1889 Constitution, the 1890 Diet, and the genro who actually ran things
1881–1900
Education and Cultural Engineering
Universal schooling, the Imperial Rescript on Education, kokutai, and the destruction of forty thousand Buddhist temples
1872–1900
The Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars
Japan defeats China for Korea and Taiwan, then defeats Russia for Manchuria and recognition as a great power
1894–1905
Annexation, Death, and Legacy
Korea annexed, the emperor dies, General Nogi commits seppuku, and the legacy that would carry Japan to 1945
1905–1912