HIS 251:  Study Guide # 6                            MEIJI JAPAN 1868-1912


I. IMPORTANT DATES
 

“Restoration” of Meiji Emperor        1868

 

End of Daimyo independence            1869

 

Iwakura Mission                               1871-73
 

Satsuma Rebellion                            1877

 

Promulgation of Meiji Constitution    1889

 

Sino-Japanese War                        1894-95

 

Russo-Japanese War                        1905
 
 

II. IMPORTANT THEMES
 

1. Social and Economic Changes in the Meiji Era

 Westernization (cf. Fukuzawa Yukichi, 1835-1901
 Education
 Social Hierarchies:
    Removal of formal legal discrimination

    End of legal and symbolic privileges of the samurai

    Attempts to change family life and the position of women in society

    Industrial development and lower classes of Japanese society

    Industrialization and the “Catch Up Vision”
 

2. Continuities and Breaks with the Tokugawa Era
 

3. Class, Gender and Nation
 

        Ambiguities toward Westernization

        Nationalism From Above

        Class and Nation

        Gender and Nation

4. Nationalism: What does the Japan “case-study” tell us about nationalism?