From 1868 a series of reforms were carried out that gave Japon its modern physiognomy, disconcerting due to its contrasts and the juxtaposition between innovations and conservatism.
Social and economic reforms
The social reform was the one that conditioned all the others.Without altering the hierarchical order, their anachronistic appearances were destroyed to be subordinated to the needs of the State.
The abolition of the feudal regime that characterized Japan made sharecroppers the owners of the lands they cultivated.The fiefdoms were transformed into administrative constituencies and, henceforth, the noble titles were purely honorary.
The old "nobility" happened mostly to the service of the State, many of its samurais became an efficient source of government and administrative personnel.
The peasantry did not suffer abrupt changes, since the rates and grievances that the old nobility demanded then passed to the State.Perhaps the most notable transformation for the producers was the normal proletarianization of the peasantry, which it accelerated due to the freedom of sale of properties and the industrialization of an accelerated capitalism, partly driven by British businessmen but also promoted by state economic policies.
Political reforms
The political reform which was then carried out in Japan combined modern institutions with ancient oriental structures.I establish the absolute monarchy with an emperor who decided t All state issues.
But the excess of power in the imperial figure soon escaped the intent sought by the reformists, and the emperor created a Senate that was the first draft of a legislative assembly.
In 1889 a Constitution , based on Western examples, but always granting exceptional power to the emperor, chief of the army, navy, and diplomacy, capable of designating the Chamber of Peers and convening, postponing or dissolving the Chamber of Representatives (elected by scrutiny among half a million voters.
Military reforms
One of the most emblematic changes of this period, perhaps popularized by films such as The Seven Samurais of Akira Kurosawa, or the most recent The Last Samurai (2003); it was the reform of the Japanese army.
The modernization of the army is the result, at the same time, of social reforms and industrial progress.In 1873, military service , until then a privilege of the samurais , becomes a general obligation.
The loss of this caste privilege, added to the impoverishment resulting from the suppression of the feudal system, causes the samurais in the following years show restlessness.
In peacetime, only part of the annual contingent joins the army and the rest simply become part of a militia.From now on, Japan it will have an army in arms of 250,000 men, trained according to the German system and to whom the veneration of the emperor and of the country is imbued as essential, in the oc Western.
The construction of a navy of war also begins, first in England and, later, in the same Japan , from 1886, thanks to the installation of shipyards under the direction of the French engineer Emile Bertin; the officers are trained by the English, or they make-like Admiral Togo-a multi-year stay in the British navy.
In 1894, the Japanese navy has only one battleship, but it has 22 cruise ships and 25 torpedo boats.
Although partial, the westernization of Japan enough to lead this country to a imperialist policy of conquest, inserted in the concert of international rivalries.
Sources: Bergeron, L.: The European Revolutions and the distribution of the World, The World and its History, vol.VIII, Argos/Kaiten Nukariya: The Religion of the Samurai, Plain Label Books.
Comments
Post a Comment