Causes of the Meiji Revolution in Japan.

We are talking about the events of 1868-1912 in Japan. The reason for the reforms was the country’s backwardness caused by its isolation. In Japan, from the beginning of the 17th century, the Tokugawa shogunate ruled; from 1637, contacts with the outside world were minimal. In 1854, the American admiral M. Peri managed to impose an unequal treaty on the Japanese. In 1863, the British squadron shelled the Japanese coastal cities, and the government in Japan itself was aware of the events in China (the opium wars), so they relied on rapid modernization. From 1811 they studied Western books, mainly Dutch, and in the 1860s they began to send students to study in Europe (traces an analogy with Russia in the early 18th century). In 1868, the young emperor managed to abolish the shogunate and begin reforms, as a result, by the beginning of the 20th century, Japan had become the most developed country in Asia.