China and Japan Each Respond

¶ … China and Japan each respond to the Western pressures of the 19th century?

Position Paper: How did China and Japan each respond to the Western pressures of the 19th century?

Until the 19th century, both Japan and China pursued similar strategies in their relationship with the West, effectively isolating themselves from Western influences. However, these nations diverged in their approach in the late 1800s. Japan began use some Western ideas in an effort to restructure and modernize its political and military system. Chinese leaders were hampered by a dynastic crisis and their inability to effectively curtail localized resistance to the government. The relatively small size of Japan enabled the central government to enact swift and needed reforms. These reforms substantially increased the power of Japan on the world stage.

The first and most significant action of the Japanese Meiji government was its abolishment of feudalism in 1871, and phasing out of the samurai system from 1873-1876 (Chapter 33, Pearson, 2009). A national government and bureaucracy replaced the system of local control, and the government established a unified navy and army. Although many samurai sought opportunities in commerce and politics and went to Europe and the United States to study foreign economies, technologies, and political systems, many others were impoverished. But the new national government quelled the samurai revolt in 1877 (Chapter 33, Pearson, 2009). Political parties run by the nobility began replace old warlords.

The Meiji created a new ruling class composed of the conservative nobility and Meiji leaders. Government bureaucracy was reorganized, expanded, and a system of civil service, along with a new constitution in 1889 restructured the government. The Emperor became the executive ruler and presided over the upper and lower houses of the Diet. The new government was not purely democratic -- only propertied men could vote, about 5% of the male population of wealthy businessmen and former nobles. But the infrastructure was substantially reformed and modernized: banks and railroads were created; tariffs were done away with in the new Japan (Chapter 33, Pearson, 2009). A national system of education was instated to create better candidates to serve in the civil service.

Not all of the reforms were progressive: guilds were abolished, and the population began to rapidly industrialize. Living standards were poor in the overcrowded cities and "the emergence of political parties caused disputes with the emperor and his ministers, leading to frequent elections and political assassinations. Many intellectuals worried about the loss of identity in a changing world; others were concerned at lack of economic opportunities for the enlarged educated class" (Chapter 33, Pearson, 2009).

The Chinese government, however, had a much larger territory to govern, and far more internal strife with which to cope. It was weakened by the Opium Wars with the West, which had left it carved into spheres of influence. It also had to pay interest on loans it had incurred fighting the war. Cheap, manufactured foreign goods put many local tradesmen out of business. The sheer expanse of China made it difficult for the ruling Qing Dynasty to control the different provinces in the country, much less create a system of unified modernization in the face of local opposition, as was done in Japan.

To pay its debts, China had to levy high taxes upon its peasants, taxes that were made even higher by the efforts of corrupt Qing officials to line their own pockets. "The peasants organized several rebellions, such as the Tai Ping and Boxer Rebellions, nearly succeeded in overthrowing the Qing government. Added to the political unrest of the Qing Dynasty, a series of natural disasters in China ruined crops. Famine and poverty began to spread in the late 1800s" ("19th Century China," USF, 2009).