Topic summary
Meiji Period
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Meiji era.
Early Meiji period (1868–77)
In 1854, after US NavyCommodoreMatthew C. Perry forced the signing of the Treaty of Kanagawa, Japanese elites took the position that they needed to modernize the state's military capacities, or risk further coercion from Western powers, just as Qing China did in the First Opium War.