Meiji Restoration: Japan Abolishes the Shogunate
Commodore Perry's black ships had shattered Japan's 265-year slumber under Tokugawa rule, and young samurai from the Satsuma and Choshu domains decided the old order had to die. They seized the imperial palace in Kyoto and declared they were restoring Emperor Meiji's direct rule, though the fifteen-year-old emperor likely understood little of what was happening around him. The term 'restoration' was misleading because nothing was being restored to any previous state. Instead, these reformers dismantled the feudal system entirely, abolished the samurai class, conscripted a modern army, and launched an industrialization program that transformed Japan from an isolated agrarian society into a global military power within forty years. The speed of the transformation remains unmatched in modern history.
January 3, 1868
158 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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