The End of Japan's isolation. Expeditions of M.K. Perry and E.V. Putyatin in the Context of the Struggle for Colonies in the North Pacific in the Middle of the 19th Century

Abstract

In the 17th century, Japan proclaimed sakoku, a policy of controlled and severely limited external contacts. It lasted a little more than two centuries and became the reaction of the Japanese shogunate to a long bloody era of unrest, which ended only with the coming to power of the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, who united the country. The completion of sakoku is associated with expeditions to Japan by M. Perry and E.V. Putyatin in 1853-1854. This work shows the peculiarities of the international situation that has developed in relation to Japan. The main milestones of navigation are noted. Attention is paid to the role of the Russian-American company in Putyatin's expedition. The article examines the process of conducting long and complex multi-stage negotiations between the United States and Japan and Russia and Japan, which resulted in the conclusion of the Kanagawa and Shimoda treaties, respectively. The article provides evidence of contemporaries of the signing of treaties that can show common and distinctive features, the texts of treaties in Russian, English and Japanese are studied. It is noted that despite the similar situation and repetitive articles, there are significant differences in the texts of the treaties. The treaties became a model for similar agreements between Japan and other countries. The article is written on the basis of an interdisciplinary approach. Particular attention was paid to working with archival sources, including documents from the Russian State Archives of the Navy (RGA VMF), the State Archives of the Irkutsk Region (GAIO), the Archives of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire (AVPRI), the Department of Manuscripts of the Russian National Library (OR RNL) and the electronic archive of the National Diet Library of Japan.