How Did Westernization Affect Japan And China

From around 1600 to the middle of the 19th century, Japan and China chose isolation for themselves to avoid western cultures and their outside influences. As the world around them began to increase their powers and advance with new technologies, Japan and China realized the growing influences they’d once avoided was now upon them. They had to decide if these new western developments were a threat to their cultural identity and how they would be affected. In the beginning, the nations felt they were a higher-level than the westerners and found them unacceptable. Japan was able to compromise and adapt; however, China didn’t respond well to newcomers. This was a vital reasoning behind the diversity of Japan and China after they became accessible to the west. Japan was more open to Western to presence and gave way to trade which in turn opened Japan up for success in modernization; however, China rejected trade causing them fail. China was open to foreign trade although there were no concessions for the western merchants and there were only …show more content…
Japan saw that they needed the help of the West to become more modernized in order to become a world power; they successfully accomplished this and became an industrialized power. Japan started changing and adapting even more; feudalism was dissolved, new taxations and currency systems were chosen, and Western institutions like banks and railways, were built. (Storry, 1960). China made attempts to become more modernized; they even tried to achieve Western development. The down fall was that they were unwilling to adapt or change traditions and ways of thinking. When Western innovations were made available, it didn’t change Chinese life, in fact it only changed a small part of the population. Rulers were to blame for failing to understand that the accomplishments of Western civilization were due to the deep structural changes that had to be