Summary IB History - The Move to Global War - Japanese Expansion in East Asia: Causes of the expansion

JAPANESE EXPANSION // CAUSES OF THE EXPANSION


1. THE IMPACT OF MILITARISM AND NATIONALISM ON JAPAN’S FOREIGN POLICY

1.1. Japan before 1868

1.2. Why did Japan modernise?

1.2.1. Arrival of US warships under Commodore Perry in Japan (1853)

1.2.2. Changes during Meiji restoration (1868-onwards)

1.3. The Meiji Restoration

1.3.1. Modernization and industrialization

1.3.2. Japanese economy

1.3.3. Japanese urbanization

1.3.4. Japanese politics

1.3.4.1. Authoritarian democracy

1.3.4.2. Japanese liberalism

1.3.4.3. 1889 Constituion

1.3.5. Japanese education

1.4. The Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895)

1.5. Consequences of the Sino-Japanese War

1.5.1. The Tripartite intervention

1.5.2. The Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1902)

1.6. The Ruso-Japanese War (1904-1905)

1.6.1. Why was Manchuria so important for Japan?

1.6.2. Consequences of the Ruso-Japanese War (1904-1905)

1.7. The Taisho Era (1912-1926)

1.8. What drove Japanese expansionism before WWI?

1.8.1. Shortage of raw materials

1.8.2. Demographic pressure

1.8.3. The desire to share in the scramble for China




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, 1.9. Japan and the First World War (1914-1919)

1.10. Consequences of the First World War

1.10.1. Diplomatic impact on Japan

1.10.2. Ambivalent Japanese attitudes towards the west

1.10.3. The economic impact on Japan

1.11. Japanese foreign policy (1919-1930)



2. JAPANESE DOMESTIC ISSUES: THE IMPACT OF POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC ISSUES ON
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

2.1.. Why did Japanese foreign policy become more aggressive after 1931?

2.1.1. The rise of authoritarian politics in Japan

2.1.2. The growth of aggressive nationalism in Japan during the 1930s

2.1.3. The impact of the Great Depression on Japan

2.1.4. The growth of militarism in Japan



3. POLITICAL INSTABILITY IN CHINA

3.1. Warlord Era (1916-1927)

3.2. Nationalism in China

3.3. How did Japan react to Chinese nationalism?

3.3.1. Japan’s reaction: Kwantung Army




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, 1. MILITARISM AND NATIONALISM ON JAPAN’S FOREIGN POLICY:

1.1. Japan before 1868

- Up until the middle of the 19th century, Japan was isolated from foreign influences.

- Authority was vested in Japan’s Emperor but power was decentralized and exercised
by an aristocracy of daimyo and a caste of samurai.

- Japan lacked natural resources and only 20% of its land was suitable for farming.

- Japan had not industrialized prior to the second half of the 19th century.

- Japan might have proved vulnerable to exploitation by the more advanced,
industrialized western powers, like China with the Opium Wars.

- Instead, Japan, from the mid 1850s, underwent rapid modernization and, in the
process, became the first industrialized Asian power.



1.2. Why did Japan modernise?

1.2.1.Because of the arrival of US warships under Commodore Perry in Japanese waters
(1853)

- In 1854, Japan signed the Treaty of Kanagawa with the US, allowing US ships access
to two Japanese ports and the establishment of a US Consulate in Japan This soon
paved the way for similar treaties with Britain, Russia and Holland.

- The foreign powers forced Japan to give up control over setting customs duties on
their goods and foreigners were accorded the right of extraterritoriality.

- The Japanese widely resented these “unequal” treaties, which fuelled a desire to
strengthen Japan in order to prevent further western exploitation.

1.2.2. Japanese government dramatically changed with the so-called “Meiji Restoration”
(1868-onwwards)

- This involved the abolition of the offices of shogun by which Japan had been ruled
since the 12th Century, and the restoration of real authority to the Emperor. The




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