What were the main mid-term causes? - Asia and the Pacific: Long- Term causes of - Ideological Cause: Nationalism and Militarism

7 important questions on What were the main mid-term causes? - Asia and the Pacific: Long- Term causes of - Ideological Cause: Nationalism and Militarism

Before the 19th Century what was the situation in Japan?

Until 1853 when she was forced to open by the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry,  Japan's only trade links with the world existed within a suffocating system of tribunal relations revolving around China. Known as the 'Hermit Nation' Japan had distanced herself from even her neighbours since the early 17th Century.

Who did the situation change in the late 19th Century?

  1. 1868: Meiji Restoration; Japan started a self-strengthening policy of industrialisation; fearing a similar fate to that of China at the hands of the European powers if she didn't industrialised
  2. Japan was remarkably successful, and constructed a substantial navy and military
  3. Learning from the Western Powers, Japan followed a policy where international success equalled dominance over other nations and pursued a new nationalistic and militaristic foreign policy

What are the first examples of Japanese growing Nationalism?

1895-1910:Rapid and successful expansion
  1. 1895: defeated China in the First Sino-Japanese War fought in Korea; humiliating her with a Treaty of Shimonoseki; she also annexed Formosa, today's Taiwan
  2. 1905: defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese War; and seizing Korea as a 'protectorate'
  3. 1910: Japan annexes Korea
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What was the "rich country, strong army" policy in Japan?

1968: After Meiji restoration; Government pursued a 'rich country, strong army" policy:

This meant introducing:
  1. modern, western-style army
  2. new taxation system
  3. conscription
  4. centralised local government
  5. universal education
  6. national universities
  7. European-style legal system
  8. Prussian constitution
  9. factories for Western industrial technology
  10. entrepreneurship among rural landlords and urban merchant class


The two most important reforms of this process of state building stand out:
  1. creation of an orthodox nationalist ideology centred on the Emperor
  2. creation of a Japanese language

What was the impact of the creation of a unified Japanese language in 1900?

  1. 1873: Japan didn't have a unified language to spread patriotism
  2. 1900: Education Ministry decided on a new language; elite Tokyo Japanese became "kokugo" or "national language"
  3. The creation of a new nationalist ideology in conjunction with a new Nationalist language meant that the country could be unified in nationalism and this helped to support Japanese imperialistic foreign policy

When and what two signs implied that Japan had regained treaty equality with the Western powers?

  1. 1913: regained tariff autonomy, half a century after limitations of unequal treaties were imposed
  2. 1895: Japan was able to take monetary system into the gold standard; this was a point of great national pride

What are two Japanese imperialist moves within Japan during WW1?

1915: Twenty-One Demands
1917-8: Nishihara Loans

Represented the view that Japan should become the imperialist power in China in the USA's and Britain's absence.

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