A modern japán birodalom születése

Abstract

Japan represents a special case in the history of colonialism at the end of the 19th century. At the middle of the 19th century, it was a closed East Asian country that was forced by the Western colonial powers to open its doors to the outside world, but in the second half of the 19th century, it started a modernization process following the „Western model”. Japan defined itself as a modern nation-state, and with the successful modernization, economic and military advancements it could acquire territories in Asia through military actions or agreements with the great colonizing powers. By the beginning of the 20th century, Japan had become a colonizing country in Asia, instead of being colonized. In order to understand this process thoroughly and to interpret Japanese colonization and imperialism at the end of the 19th century, it is necessary on one hand to briefly summarize East Asian international relations of the second half of the century, and to review the changing environment in which Japan had to find a place for itself in this era. On the other hand, the internal development of Japan must also be examined, especially the state in which the new challenges of the outside world reached the country, and the political and ideological sources of the response the political leaders of the time gave to them. Understanding Japanese development needs an examination of the characteristics and significance of Japanese cultural traditions and political thoughts, which influenced Japan's modern politics besides the "universal" models of that time (capitalist development, colonization, imperialism). This paper attempts to provide an interpretation of the multifaceted relationship between Japan and colonization with attention to the external and internal factors that influenced Japanese policy at the turn of the 19-20th centuries.