Japan to World War II

1842 - Japan agreed to provision foreign ships in need.

1853 - Commodore Perry (U.S.) forced Japan to open its ports.

1853-1868 - Japanese set up western-style manufacturing facilities.

1860 - First Japanese steamship crosses the Pacific. Japan took control of Korea

1868 - Meiji Restoration. End of the Tokugawa Shogunate

1889 - Western-style Parliament est. (German model)

1870’s-1914 - Japan industrialized.

1880’s-1890’s - Formation of large industrial combines (zaibatzu)

1894 - Japan seized Formosa (Taiwan). War with China

1902 - Anglo-Japanese alliance

1904-1906 - Russo-Japanese War. Japan defeats Russia in Manchuria.

1910 - Japan annexed Korea.

1914-1918 - Japan moved against German colonies in China. Forced China into a series of

disadvantageous treaties. Japan’s GNP grew by 40% during the war. By 1918, Japan

had the third largest navy in the world.

1919 - Japan crushed Korean revolt.

1920’s - U.S.S.R. and rising KMT power in China threatened Japanese interests in

Manchuria, Korea and China.

1922 - Nine powers with Asian interests gathered in Washington. Forced Japanese to give

back some former German territories to China. America emerged as major power

broker in China. Marked the end of Japan’s alliance with Britain.

1925 - Universal male suffrage.

1927 - Extreme nationalist/shinto/bushido group exerted increasingly influence on

government.

1931 - Japanese troops in southern Manchuria began a full scale invasion of Manchuria.

Japan was condemned by the League of Nations. It withdrew from the League.

1932- - The Great Depression hit Japan

1937- - Japan initiated war with China.

1938- - The Japanese Diet abdicated. Military law established in Japan.