Japan modernized during the

The Meiji government also reformed politics, creating a parliament and a constitution while keeping its emperor.

This established Japan as a

and

constitutional democracy.

Japan’s Modernization

1) I 2) E • War• War• annexation of

Japan studied the rise of the West and concluded that two things had given the West dominance:

Japan’s focus on developing its industry

and its empire during the Meiji period helped

create the Japan that would eventually be a major world power in

World War II.

Factory in Meiji Japan

Military Advancements of the Meiji Period

Sino-Japanese War

CONSIDER:Japan modernized rapidly in the late 1800s and rose to dominate East and Southeast Asia in the first half of the 20th Century. It accomplished this without the socio-cultural changes that the West experienced: Renaissance, Reformation, Scientific Revolution,

Enlightenment.

Does that imply that modernization and political and economic dominance in today’s world does not

require Western ideas/ideals?

Or is Japan just an extraordinary exception?