What were the dilemmas facing Japan in the mid nineteenth century?

At that time, the contradictions in Japanese society were very acute. Due to the large number of people and the lack of land, the heavy taxation and the fact that the land was in the hands of the shogunate, daimyos, and temples, and there were few yeoman farmers, and their land was not enough to support themselves, which led to the bankruptcy of a large number of farmers and craftsmen; The hierarchy was strict, stipulating that the subordinates of the warriors (including generals, daimyos, and samurai) should serve their superiors, and the layers of exploitation led to the bankruptcy of the lower-level samurai and became ronin; Japan followed China in emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce, and although the big merchants were rich, they had no social status (lower than the peasants); The shogunate suppressed some powerful daimyo (such as Nagasu and Satsuma), causing the powerful daimyo to revolt; The group of ministers who had long been in power in the imperial court were eager to gain power, forming two factions, the "Gongwu Alliance" ("wu" refers to the shogunate, which refers to sharing power with the shogunate, with the intention of weakening the shogunate) and the "reverence for the king" (refers to supporting the emperor's personal government, resisting the invasion of foreign powers, in short, opposing the shogunate), but both factions have been constantly suppressed. By the time of the Meiji Restoration, the shogunate had made enemies in the upper and lower strata of society.

When the regime of a country is opposed by the whole country, the country is bound to be in chaos. The answer added that the two factions of "Gongwu Combination" and "Respect for the Monarchy" were originally incompatible, and the shogunate used the "Combination of Public Forces" to suppress the radical "Respect for the Throne". However, after the victory of the "Gongwu Alliance", the shogunate was unwilling to share power, which led to the "August 18 Coup", and the leaders of the "Gongwu Alliance" were exiled (i.e., the "Seven Emperors Fall").

As a result of this incident, the leaders of the "Gongwu Alliance" felt that the shogunate could no longer cooperate, and they tended to collapse ideologically (such as Iwakura Gumi and Sanjo Minorumi), and eventually joined forces with the "Emperor Zaoyi".

In a sense, the "combination of public and military" was the most negative attitude of the shogunate faction, but the shogunate gave up even such a potential ally, and was naturally abandoned by the world.

In the mid-19th century, Japan faced a semi-colonial crisis (Shogunate Crisis), and through the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Japan embarked on the capitalist road, and since both the 1861 Reform and the Meiji Restoration were bourgeois reforms from the top down, the common limitation was that they both retained feudal remnants

In the mid-19th century, Western powers invaded, and Japan was in danger of becoming a semi-colony. After the overthrow of the shogunate, Meiji ** carried out reforms under the slogan of "enriching the country and strengthening the army, colonizing and industrializing, and civilizing and enlightening", and the Meiji Restoration made Japan embark on the road of capitalism and gradually become stronger. August 1945.

Japan surrendered to the World Anti-Fascist League. After the defeat of Japan, the national economy was on the verge of collapse. Japan made full use of various favorable conditions at home and abroad, implemented democratic reforms, attached importance to science and technology, paid attention to education and personnel training, actively explored domestic and foreign markets, coupled with the strong assistance and support of the United States, returned to the highest level before the war in 1955, and then entered a period of "rapid growth" in the past 20 years, and became the world's second economic power in the late 80s of the 20th century.

Population expansion, resource strain, and then there is a criminal attempt to invade North Korea and China.

Japan's mortgage crisis, the 19th century Japanese economic crisis was still relatively serious.

It must have been the time of the Daimyo War.

The Japanese economic crisis broke out relatively late, and it was not until the spring of 1930 that Japan was violently hit by the world economic crisis. 1929 During 1931, the number of important export commodities raw silk and cotton products decreased sharply, and the amount of exports decreased, and in 1932. In 1930, for example, Japan's exports to China (excluding exports to Northeast China) were about 40 percent lower than in 1926, the highest postwar year.

1.Portrait of Emperor Meiji in Asia in the mid-19th century, Japan was in the Tokugawa shogunate period, the last shogunate. The Tokugawa shogunate, which held great power, pursued a "closed country policy" to the outside world

2. During the same period, in some economically developed areas of Japan, cottage industries or handicraft workshops began to appear. The "wage worker" system and rot emerged in the workshops, forming a capitalist production system. With the rapid expansion of the commodity economy, the power of the merchant class, especially the financial operators, has gradually increased.

The merchants felt that the old system was severely restricting their development.

3. Economically, Japan's original economic system has been impacted, and a large number of ** outflows.

4. Economically, Japan's original economic system was impacted and a large number of people went out.

5. Ideologically and culturally, the treaty ports reserved by Japan have long been a window for the Japanese to see the world.

6. On the basis of the blocking class, the leadership and the big chaebols collude to control a large amount of Japan's resources.

Japan was ruled by the shogunate, and for a time it was forcibly opened by the United States; the Curtain Fall Movement and the Meiji Restoration; As a result of Japan's rise to the ranks of fundamentalist powers, Japan began to expand abroad.

Facing internal and external troubles:

Like the Qing Dynasty, Japan pursued a policy of seclusion and seclusion for more than 200 years, until 1854, when U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry led a fleet to Uraga near Edo, which reopened Japan's door. Immediately after re-engaging with the West, Japan felt that its prolonged absence on the world stage had caused it to fall behind to a considerable extent, and that it was facing the partition of the Western powers like the Qing Dynasty.

During the same period, there were frequent domestic riots in Japan, and the shogunate system was crumbling. Under the leadership of the Restorationists, mainly in the four feudal clans of the southwest (Satsuma, Choshu, Tosa, and Hizen), a nationwide campaign to bring down the curtain and honor the emperor began. In 1867, the last Tokugawa shogun, Tokugawa Yoshiki, took the initiative to return the great government, and a new ** headed by Emperor Meiji was established.

The Meiji Restoration, which began in 1867, introduced a number of drastic reforms to Japan, and from then on Japan became a great power.

The contradiction between the feudal rule of the shogunate and the capitalist restoration, as well as the contradiction between the Western powers and their own country.

Meiji Restoration.

The Meiji Restoration refers to the top-down and capitalist nature of the comprehensive Westernization and modernization reform movement carried out in Japan at the end of the 60s of the 19th century under the impact of Western capitalist industrial civilization. This reform began in 1868 with the establishment of a new ** by Emperor Meiji, and the modernization of political reform in Japan and the establishment of a constitutional monarchy. Economically, we have promoted "colonization and development," learned from European and American technologies, carried out a wave of industrialization, and advocated "civilization and enlightenment," Europeanization of social life, and vigorously developed education.

This reform made Japan the first country in Asia to embark on the road of industrialization and gradually became one of the world's great powers, which was the beginning of Japan's modernization and an important turning point in Japan's modern history.

1. Positive significance.

1) Replacement of social forms: the transition from feudal society to capitalist society.

2) Got Japan out of the national crisis: abolished unequal treaties and recovered national sovereignty.

3) It provides some experience for other Asian countries to get rid of backwardness and achieve national rejuvenation.

2. Negative impact.

1) A large number of feudal remnants were retained, such as the emperor system.

2) Begin aggressive expansion against neighboring countries, bringing disaster to the peoples of Asia.

Economy: Both countries are deeply entrenched in the feudal mode of production, but there are huge differences. In the middle of the 19th century, Japan was dominated by the shogunate lords' land tenure, which was forbidden to be bought and sold, and once the commodity economy developed rapidly, the lordship system could easily disintegrate.

Then the rule of the shogunate lord class based on it will also collapse.

In China, it is the landlord land ownership system. This land tenure is free to buy and sell land. It is very resilient under the impact of the commodity economy, so the landlord land ownership system is not easy to disintegrate.

The common goal of the various strata of people surrounding land activities is to maintain this landlord land tenure.

Culture: Guo Moruo said in his analysis of the reasons for the success and failure of China and Japan: "The burden of China's inherent culture is too heavy, and the cultural age before capitalism is too long, at least 3,000 years, so it has a longing for the past culture and resists the new culture, and often regards Europe and the United States as barbarian states."

It is true that Chinese culture before capitalism was glorious, but because it was so glorious, it was inevitably a great burden during the period of change.

At the same time, he said: "Japan has its own culture, and it has a culture that has been transmitted from China, but to put it in too many details, Japan's burden is not as heavy as China's, so it goes fast." ”