HIST 388 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Chiang Kai-Shek, South Manchuria Railway, Nine-Power Treaty
18 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
The origins of the war in the pacific. For much of its history, japan was a fragmented country. It was ruled by mostly feudal warlords who fought eachother for supremacy continuously. Largely sealed from the outside world, with little contact with the western world except for a few exceptions (dutch and portuguese traders). What changed was in the mid 19th century, with the coming of the throne of the emperor meiji . He opened up his country to the west and embraced modernization. Argued that the only way japan could move forward, to grow as a power, was to embrace these ways. Within three decades, japan was a united country, a merchant marine for import/export, a conscripted army, an education system, a popular press, a complex transport network, and a democratic form of government. Japan was a modern state in record time.
