Towards the beginning of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Tokugawa Ieyasu (shogun at the time), issued an edict that prevented Japanese from leaving Japan, and closed Japan to all foreigners. This brought 250 years of peace to the country. In July 1853, US Commodore Perry was the first foreigner to gain access into the closed country during this period. This event lead to the demise of the Tokugawa Shogunate, as Perry influenced other countries to do the same. With the sudden opening of its doors to westerners, Japan was not able to cope, socially, politically, or economically and the shogunate began to lose control and respect. Western influence and intervention with Japan made a major contribution to the fall of the shogunate.
US Commodore Matthew …show more content…
It led to socio economic problems within the country and upset the domestic price structure. This caused fluctuations of local goods prices and brought economic difficulties to the Japanese. Cheap foreign products were imported into the country, wiping out Japanese industries and causing unemployment. Japanese people were discontent and turned toward the anti-bakufu (anti-shogunate) movement. The Sonno Joi (revere the emperor and expel the foreigners) movement then started. Samurai, court nobles, daimyo, and peasants supported the movement. The anti-foreign sentiment began to be directed against not only the foreigners, but also the Shogun. A political activist in the Choshu domain discovered that if himself and his army were to use Japanese military technology to bring down the shogunate, they would be defeated. The solution was to learn from western technologies. Hence, treaties with the west not only confirmed the downfall of the shogunate, but also sped up its collapse. Following this, came a period of time in which political activists tried to assassinate shogunate leaders, and the officials were surrounded by body guards. If they could not get to the high ranking leaders, they would kill their subordinates in an attempt to intimidate
US Commodore Matthew …show more content…
It led to socio economic problems within the country and upset the domestic price structure. This caused fluctuations of local goods prices and brought economic difficulties to the Japanese. Cheap foreign products were imported into the country, wiping out Japanese industries and causing unemployment. Japanese people were discontent and turned toward the anti-bakufu (anti-shogunate) movement. The Sonno Joi (revere the emperor and expel the foreigners) movement then started. Samurai, court nobles, daimyo, and peasants supported the movement. The anti-foreign sentiment began to be directed against not only the foreigners, but also the Shogun. A political activist in the Choshu domain discovered that if himself and his army were to use Japanese military technology to bring down the shogunate, they would be defeated. The solution was to learn from western technologies. Hence, treaties with the west not only confirmed the downfall of the shogunate, but also sped up its collapse. Following this, came a period of time in which political activists tried to assassinate shogunate leaders, and the officials were surrounded by body guards. If they could not get to the high ranking leaders, they would kill their subordinates in an attempt to intimidate