The Rise Of The Meiji Emperor Of Japan

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Few other monarchs in world history presided over such a crucial period for their country as the Meiji Emperor of Japan. Few lived through such dramatic changes and fewer still managed to master such changes and successfully direct them to the benefit of their country as a whole. Emperor Meiji did all of these things. Born into a land of feudalism and isolation, very advanced in traditional ways but which had fallen increasingly behind the rest of the world in others, Emperor Meiji presided over the end of Japanese isolationism, the end of the shogunate and the restoration of power to the monarchy, a period of rapid political, economic, military and educational modernization and the rise of Japan to be the preeminent regional power of East

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