Modern Japan: Meiji state-building, empire, and prewar Shōwa
The modern domain tests the sequence and causal links of state-building, imperial expansion, party politics and the slide into total war.
Restoration and state-building
- 1868 Charter Oath; 1869 return of domain registers; 1871 haihan chiken; 1873 conscription; 1876 chitsuroku shobun (commutation of samurai stipends); 1877 Satsuma Rebellion.
- 1881–85 Matsukata deflation: retrenchment, sale of government enterprises, preparation for convertibility; Japan adopted the gold standard in 1897 using the Chinese indemnity.
- Meiji Constitution 1889, promulgated as a gift from the throne; first Diet 1890.
Empire
1894–95 Sino-Japanese War; Triple Intervention; 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance; 1904–05 Russo-Japanese War and Portsmouth; 1910 annexation of Korea.
Taishō and prewar Shōwa
WWI and the Twenty-One Demands (1915); Rice Riots 1918 and the Hara party cabinet; universal male suffrage in 1925, paired the same year with the Peace Preservation Law; 1931 Manchurian Incident; 1932 May 15 incident; 1936 February 26 incident; 1937 full war with China; 1940 Tripartite Pact; 1941 Pacific war.
Worked example
Question: why does the Matsukata deflation matter for later expansion? Reasoning: deflation restored the trade balance and price competitiveness, enabled the sale of state enterprises and prepared a stable currency, which after the 1895 indemnity made the 1897 gold standard possible - and gold-standard access to London capital financed the Russo-Japanese War.
Traps
Calling the 1889 Constitution democratic in origin; treating 1925 suffrage as full democracy, since women were excluded and the Peace Preservation Law curtailed organisation.