Reactions to Modernization in Japan and China
During the 19th century, china and japan had undergone a long period of isolation. The isolation brought the two countries to be under a lot of pressure from the West to indulge in foreign relations and foreign trade. The industrial revolution was dominant in the United States and Europe, creating a wide gap between the West and the two Asian countries. China and Japan were lagging militarily and technologically. During this period, none of these two countries had the power to defend themselves from the Western states. Eventually, both countries were obliged to sign treaties that coerced them to open up to foreign merchants. Japan and China opened their ports and their cities to foreign investors. However, the transition that followed differed since each country had a different way of adapting and reacting to this change. There were significant differences in the way Japan and China responded to modernization and industrialization. While Japan succumbed to western influence and eventually became modernized, China rejected the same and failed to modernize during the 19th century fully. Different factors caused China and Japan to have different responses to the influence of Western countries.
First, China and Japan’s response to the West’s escalating pressure to open up to international trade was different. Both China and Japan had remained isolated for a long time; they had so little commercial activities with the West. China eventually accepted foreign trade but never gave the foreign traders any privileges. China also confined the foreign traders to Canton, where they only dealt with a group of traders called Co-Hong (Edwardes 291). Japan also limited foreign trade by allowing them to only deal with the Dutch. The Dutch had access to only one port. The western nations could not stand the restrictions for long, so they started pressurizing the Chinese to pave the way for more access. China rejected the pleas leading an animosity between them and Britain. The tension escalated after the British started illicit trading of opium, and China confiscated the opium from the British. The tension that arose after this led to a marine confrontation (Edwardes 303). The tensions gave rise to Opium wars, where china was defeated. The Chinese defeat led to the signing of unequal treaties.
On the contrary, japan was more approachable and welcoming to the Western traders. The United States approached Japan to open more of its ports. Japan agreed to the requests of the United States. Japan displayed a different response to that of China, who saw that the “view of the non-Chinese recognized no appreciable difference between merchants and governments. All were barbarians” (Edwardes 298). The Chinese failed to recognize the threats from Britain. Since both Japan and China signed treaties with the West, the two countries ended the long-lasting isolation. China signed the Treaty of Nanking, and Japan signed the treaty of Kanagawa (Hall 89). However, the treaty of china was signed after military reinforcement from Britain, and the treaty was unfavorable to China. On the other hand, Japan willingly accepted to sign the treaty, which was more favorable to them.
One factor that caused these different reactions of Japan and China is when the West chose to introduce Westernization. The West did not impose its influence in Japan until the 1850s. During this time, the Opium war in Japan had lasted for more than a decade. Western countries were focused on other nations before taking their influence on japan. Also, japan did not have enough resources that interested the West; they also lacked a market for Western goods (Storry 131). Despite being in isolation, Japan watched and learned what was happening in China during the Opium war. The Dutch also warned Japan using the Nagasaki events, showing them what they would go through if they rejected Western demands. Therefore, Japan was aware of what they would face by learning about the sufferings that China was undergoing for rejecting the demands of the West before it was their time to make a decision. On the contrary, China did not have any clue of how superior the Western military was, so they just acted according to what they saw as the best option they could have made at the time.
Secondly, China and Japan differed in the way their responses affected their state of being. Japan became modernized and became industrialized. China, on the other hand, failed to modernize and become an industrial country. Japan realized that they needed to modernize for them to develop and become a world power, which meant that they needed to work with the West. The treaty between Japan and the West abolished feudalism, established new coinage systems, and adopted Western institutions and infrastructures like railways and banks (Storry 152). Japan attracted foreign technicians. Consequently, many Japanese citizens were sent to Western countries to learn new things from Western people.
China also tried to modernize and implement Western innovations, especially after the Taiping rebellion’s 1864 defeat. However, the adaptation in Chinese was on a very small scale compared to Japan. Western countries introduced new military weapons, railways, and more Western innovations, which were only accepted by a small number of people (Fairbank and Reischauer 198). The Chinese did not see Western countries’ developments as something that came about due to intense structural developments but as something that needed one “to adapt or change traditional institutions and ways of thought” (Edwardes 306). China therefore, only developed in a small fraction. On the contrary, Japan accepted to change its political structure giving power to and the British Empire. Japan fully embraced the West’s influence and allowed the country to open all ports and cities to foreign traders. The influence later posed a risk to Japan since the following generations migrated to the town centers deteriorating the communal life that existed before modernization (Gill 205). Japan has merited under modernization, but it has also suffered under the same.
Different factors caused the difference in the changes seen in Japan and China. The first aspect that caused the difference was the fact that China lacked a borrowing culture. Japan, on the other, was used to the culture of borrowing. China was used to the idea that it was the champion of civilization since it was the most powerful country in Asia. The non-Chinese were seen as being inferior. Japan, on the contrary, “had never been too proud to learn” (Storry 104). Japan made itself acquainted with the culture of China and contended that China was had greater strength. With this attitude, Japan had learned to adopt multiculturalism, and they acknowledged that other countries were greater than them. Therefore, Japan had no problem accepting to be helped by the western countries that they saw were doing good so far.
Also, Japan accepted industrialization and modernization from the West because the people who had resumed power were reform-minded leaders. China, in contrast, was ruled by leaders who were very determined to maintain the traditional institutions. The preservative leadership of Japan, the Tokugawa Shogunate, lost power in 1867, leading to the Meiji Restoration rise. Meiji Restoration was led by ambitious young people (Edwardes 332). The new leadership focused on reforms that were in line with Western modernization and the Industrial Revolution. The ruling power in China opposed rather promoting progress since the leaders were predominantly conservative. A few proponents of China were willing to accept Westernization. Still, their efforts were futile since they were limited by the majority leadership that saw excessive progress as something that is posed a danger.
Besides, the structure of pluralism in the government of Japan also contributed to its successful modernization. Japan had a centralized system of ruling. However, the ruling was balanced by the clan system that was also recognized as powerful in Japan. Therefore, the ruling party’s influence was less strong than that in China, where the rigid bureaucratic system had the final say. The authoritarian leadership in China silenced the attempts of capitalists. China was divided between the peasants and the ruling class that there could not raise a business class that could spearhead industrialization (Edwardes 323). On the other hand, Japan embraced trade competitions among different groups since they had flexible political ruling. The merchant class in Japan sought power by accumulating wealth and competing with their counterparts. The competition led to more innovations.
Although there are significant similarities in japan and China’s civilization, the two countries’ responses differed. China and Japan responded differently to the pressure from the Western countries during the 19th century. Japan surrendered to the demands to increase international trade relations, which made the country to modernize successfully. China declined to break its isolationism, and it stuck to its traditions because of its strict institutions that saw allowing too much change and progress in their country would be putting the country at risk. Japan’s greater acquaintance with Western demands was due to their exposure, borrowing, flexible leadership, and the greater knowledge that japan had about Western countries. Though Japan seems to have benefited the most from the contact they had with the West in the 19th century than China, China’s current economic conditions that have overtaken Japan’s economic state challenge the idea that Japan benefited the most from modernization and industrialization.