1. Japan: Transformation without Revolution p. 625

2. Introduction
First half of the 19th century the shogunate continued to combine beurocracy with feudal contsraints
Government was running into financial problems
Japanese intellectual life and culture developed
Japan became more secular
Schools expanded

3. Terakoya – taught reading, writing, and Confucianism to ordinary people
By 1859, literacy was 40% of men and 15% of women – far higher than anywhere else
Confucianism remained the major ideology
There were rivals – nationalists – who insisted on only Japanese style education and the Dutch Studies – who kept alive the knowledge of the Dutch and studied western books

4. In the 19th century commerce expanded
By 1850 growth came to a halt
Technological constraints
Rural riots aimed at the wealthy peasants, merchants, and landlord controls

5. Isolationism Japan feared outside influence
In 1853, Matthew Perry, and American arrived at a port in Edo askeing to open trade
He threatened bombardment – very similar to the British in China
In 1854, Perry returned and won two ports
The shogunate saw no alternative than to open their ports…

6. Crisis Follows Samurai began attacking foreigners
Civil War broke out in 1866
The Samurai defeated the Shogunate
The crisis ended in 1868 when a reform group proclaimed a new emperor named Mutsuhito – but commonly called “Meiji” or Enlightened One