Rise Of Japanese Imperialism

Japan’s transformation and expansion was preceded by the unequal treaties imposed by the American commodore. The emperor of Japan would modernize and adapt through education, military and local administration reform in order to create a strong national identity among Japan’s people. As the Meiji government established a constitution an economic transformation would occur, where great company’s like Mitsubishi would dictate the Japanese economy and create an impressive growth.
The Japanese expansionism would create conflicts with neighboring countries. As other modernizing countries, Japan would also look to expand. They would start with RyuKyus and shortly follow with Korea. The expansion would cause competition with China, leading to the Sino-Japanese War of 1895, which Japan would win in a dominating fashion. From the victory, Japan would gain Taiwan and annex Korea into its empire. …show more content…
Their main concern were internal strife. The Qing court would try to remedy their previous lackadaisical attitude on foreign powers by creating the Self-Strengthening movement. The movement would arm China with European weaponry, boats and technologies but maintaining conservative Chinese ideals. Other than newspapers, their efforts did not elevate the knowledge base or equipment to compete with the foreigners. Chinas internal reform efforts were eventually a priority after defeat in the Sino-Japanese War but it would be for nothing as the young emperor would be arrested by a family member, who would also kill all the reformers. China would be unwilling to move forward as it was grounded in traditional Chinese customs.
Between, Japan, Russia and China, I’d say China was the most unsuccessful due to the lack of expansionism and the unwillingness to change. The opposite of China is the Japanese government as they were able to improvise economically and successfully expand its