The Meiji Restoration of Japan

For a long period of time, Japan has been a country dedicated to isolation. They did not want to trade with any other countries and only worried with themselves. In 1853, European explorers such as Mathew Perry landed in Japan and wanted water and coal to trade. The Japanese where astonished by there technology. Japan was an archipelago, which is a small group of islands, so it would be easy to trade. The Japanese where very resistant to open up trade with Europeans. Many fought the Europeans because they did not want trade. But with the help of superior technology, Mathew Perry was able to force trade with Japan. This led to the fall of Japanese shogunates and the restoration of power for the Emperor Meiji.
The introduction of trade to Japan helped the country move towards modernization. Japans government was changed, and the country became more open to trade. Japan was being exposed to many other outside cultures and goods. All this helped the Japanese government expand. The population increased and s0 did industrialization. The Meiji Emperor had much less control than the shogun did, and the Meiji Emperor soon just became a figurehead. All of this led to the advance country japan is today.