MEIJI RESTORATION

STABLE BUT WEAK

• Declining Agriculture
• Rising Prices
• Social Problems
• Foreign Pressures
• Civil War

DECLINING AGRICULTURE

• Peasants moved to cities or became tenant farmers
• Economic conditions did not favor the peasants
• Poor, hungry lower/middle class

RISING PRICES

• Price of rice rose dramatically
• High price hurt almost everyone
• However, merchants prospered

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

• Tokugawa bakufu did not fight wars
• Samurai and warrior class suffered
• This class had no real purpose
• Samurai fell into debt

FOREIGN PRESSURES

• Foreign states wanted to trade with Japan
• Tokugawa refused
• U.S. invades Tokyo Bay and humiliated the Japanese
• 'Unequal treaties'
• Other western powers soon join the U.S.

CIVIL WAR

• Emperor fights the bakufu, stating that the Tokugawa are too weak
• After a brief civil war, the shogun resigns
• Boy named Mutsuhito takes the throne and calls himself 'Meiji'

WESTERN INSPIRATION

• Centralization of Power
• Tax System
• Constitutional Government
• Reform

CENTRALIZATION OF POWER

• Abolished the feudal order
• Replaced lands controlled by daimyos with new domains and prefectures
• Installed new prefectural governors
• Removed daimyo from power
• Removed the importance of the samurai by creating a national army

TAX SYSTEM

• Revamped the tax system
• Converted the grain tax into a fixed-money tax
• Taxed the potential of arable land, not actual production
• Forced farmers to become more efficient

CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

• In 1889, the emperor promulgated a constitution for his people
• Established a legislature called the Diet
• Emperor commanded the armed forces, named the prime minister, and appointed th cabinet
• Thus, effective power lay with the emperor

REFORM

• Established telegraph, railroad, and steamship lines with rapid industrialization
• Abolished guild restrictions and internal tariffs
• Introduced a system of universal primary and secondary education
• Zaibatsu: a group or men who wielded enormous economic power
• The peasants had to bear most of the drawbacks of development