China and Japan Open Up

China and Japan Open Up

By the early 1800s, Europeans had set up trading bases in most countries except China and Japan. The Chinese hated foreign “barbarians” and allowed only Dutch and Portuguese merchants to trade in certain areas. Europeans first ventured into Japan in the 1500s, bringing Christianity with them. But in the 1600s, the ruling Tokugawa shoguns expelled all Europeans, except the Dutch. For the next 200 years, Japan was closed to the rest of the world. In the 1800s, the western powers tried to open up China and Japan for trade. In 1839, Britain went to war with China. Three years later, the Chinese signed a treaty giving Hong Kong to the British and allowing them to trade in other ports. In 1853, four American warships, led by Commodore Perry, sailed into Edo Bay (now Tokyo Bay) in Japan. Perry carried a letter from his president to the Japanese emperor, requesting trade ports. Japan and the United States signed a treaty a year later. The Japanese began to build railways and factories and soon became a major industrial nation.

Dutch Boy

From the 1600s to the 1850s, the Japanese allowed the Dutch to trade from an island in Nagasaki harbor. Japanese artists included Dutch figures in their art.

Opening up Japan

The Japanese were astonished at the sight of the stranger foreigners who sailed into Edo Bay in their black ships. Cautiously, they approached the steamships in small craft. The British, Russians and French soon followed the Americans into Japan. By the 1860s, many foreign diplomats and traders were living in Japan.

Japanese culture. Photo by Elena.

Opium Wars

The British East India Company began to bring the drug opium into into China from India to trade for Chinese tea. But it was illegal to trade in opium, and wars broke out between the Chinese government and the British.

Just like the West

After 1854, many Japanese, including the royal family, gave up their traditional costumes for western clothes. They wanted their people to be as modern as those in the West.

Boxer Rebellion

Some Chinese hated anything that was foreign. They formed a secret group called Yihequan (Righteous and Harmonious Fists), nicknamed the Boxers. In 1900, they attacked foreign factories, railways, churches and schools, and besieged diplomats in Peking for 55 days. Many Chinese and foreigners were killed in this rebellion.