Negotiating With Imperialism: Japan and the Unequal Treaty Regime, 1858--1872

307 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2000.After an historiographical introduction, Chapter 1 traces the background to Japan's treaty relations, particularly in comparison with the Chinese experience, and discusses the making of the 1858 treaty. Chapter 2 treats the first half-decade after the signing of the treaties, 1858 to 1862; this period was the high tide of diplomatic accommodation and witnessed the emergence of a balance of interests between the two sides. Far from adopting a supine posture towards the West, the Tokugawa bakufu triumphed in matters such as the location of treaty ports and the timing of their opening. Chapter 3 explores international culture of the treaty ports, where seemingly concrete cultural boundaries were transgressed, leading to new understandings and deeper interaction between Japanese and Westerners. Chapter 4 turns to the years 1862--67, and traces the bakufu's defense of this balance of interests even in the face of the weakening of accommodation. Chapter 5 examines the Meiji experience of treaty relations 1868--72, and investigates the development, dispatch, and eventual failure of the Iwakura Mission. The conclusion briefly relates Japan's subsequent Asian policy, as it attempted to establish a Western-style international treaty system vis-a-vis China and Korea. This dissertation thus reassesses late-Tokugawa and early Meiji foreign policy, illustrates the malleability of both European and Asian cultural boundaries, and questions the extent of Western power at the zenith of Victorian imperialism.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

Negotiating With Imperialism: Japan and the Unequal Treaty Regime, 1858--1872

307 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2000.After an historiographical introduction, Chapter 1 traces the background to Japan's treaty relations, particularly in comparison with the Chinese experience, and discusses the making of the 1858 treaty. Chapter 2 treats the first half-decade after the signing of the treaties, 1858 to 1862; this period was the high tide of diplomatic accommodation and witnessed the emergence of a balance of interests between the two sides. Far from adopting a supine posture towards the West, the Tokugawa bakufu triumphed in matters such as the location of treaty ports and the timing of their opening. Chapter 3 explores international culture of the treaty ports, where seemingly concrete cultural boundaries were transgressed, leading to new understandings and deeper interaction between Japanese and Westerners. Chapter 4 turns to the years 1862--67, and traces the bakufu's defense of this balance of interests even in the face of the weakening of accommodation. Chapter 5 examines the Meiji experience of treaty relations 1868--72, and investigates the development, dispatch, and eventual failure of the Iwakura Mission. The conclusion briefly relates Japan's subsequent Asian policy, as it attempted to establish a Western-style international treaty system vis-a-vis China and Korea. This dissertation thus reassesses late-Tokugawa and early Meiji foreign policy, illustrates the malleability of both European and Asian cultural boundaries, and questions the extent of Western power at the zenith of Victorian imperialism.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD