Maritime East Asia (1864–1875 CE): Restoration, Modernization, and Rising Nationalism

Between 1864 and 1875 CE, Maritime East Asia—encompassing lower Primorsky Krai, the Korean Peninsula, the Japanese Archipelago south of northern Hokkaido, Taiwan, and southern, central, and northeastern China—experiences critical efforts at restoration and modernization, rising nationalist sentiments, and significant political restructuring, laying the foundations for profound regional transformations.

China: The Self-Strengthening Movement and Foreign Encroachments

Following the devastating Taiping Rebellion, Qing China embarks on the Self-Strengthening Movement, driven by scholar-generals such as Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang. These leaders advocate adopting Western science, technology, and military strategies to strengthen China internally while preserving traditional political structures. Between 1861 and 1875, China sees the establishment of modern arsenals, shipyards, factories, schools, and improved diplomatic methods.

However, modernization efforts face significant internal resistance. The conservative bureaucracy, still deeply influenced by Neo-Confucian traditions, slows comprehensive reform. Simultaneously, foreign pressures intensify: Russia seizes significant territories in Manchuria, while Western powers further consolidate economic concessions through extraterritorial rights and treaty ports, severely limiting Qing sovereignty.

The Tongzhi Restoration (1862–1874), under the guidance of Empress Dowager Cixi, seeks to stabilize Qing rule through cautious reform and restoration of traditional authority. Yet, despite modest improvements, Qing China continues to struggle with internal fragmentation and external vulnerabilities.

Japan: The Meiji Restoration and Rapid Transformation

In Japan, internal conflicts culminate dramatically with the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate and the establishment of the Meiji Restoration in 1868. This marks the end of over two centuries of feudal rule, and power formally returns to the imperial court under Emperor Mutsuhito, who reigns as Emperor Meiji. The Restoration fundamentally restructures Japanese governance, aiming to modernize and centralize authority rapidly.

The Charter Oath of 1868 outlines Japan’s new goals: establishing deliberative assemblies, allowing social mobility, embracing international knowledge, and discarding outdated customs. Feudal domains (han) are abolished and replaced by prefectures, dramatically centralizing authority. Comprehensive reforms reshape the social order, economy, military, and education system, heavily influenced by Western models.

Influential leaders such as Okubo Toshimichi, Saigo Takamori, Kido Koin, and Iwakura Tomomi emerge as architects of modernization, promoting industrialization, infrastructure expansion, military enhancement, and international diplomatic engagement. A landmark diplomatic mission, the Iwakura Mission (1871–1873), travels extensively through the United States and Europe to learn and implement Western governance practices, technology, and education.

Korea: Continued Isolation and Internal Strife

Joseon Korea maintains its stringent isolationist policies amid escalating Western pressure on neighboring nations. Harsh persecution of Christians continues, reflecting deep suspicion toward foreign influence. Economic hardship intensifies due to governmental inaction and societal rigidity, fueling internal unrest and widespread poverty.

The rigid isolation contributes to deepening internal instability, setting the stage for growing social unrest and major rebellions in subsequent decades. Despite awareness of international developments in Japan and China, the Joseon court resolutely resists change, increasingly alienating progressive factions within the kingdom.

Legacy of the Era: Foundations of Modernization and Persistent Challenges

The years 1864 to 1875 CE witness crucial steps toward modernization and nation-building in Mariime East Asia. While Japan rapidly transforms into a centralized, modern nation-state, China's conservative approach limits the effectiveness of its reforms, leaving it vulnerable to continued external exploitation and internal tensions. Meanwhile, Korea’s determined isolation preserves immediate stability at the cost of long-term preparedness, foreshadowing severe challenges in the rapidly changing international environment. This era thus profoundly shapes the region’s trajectory, determining each nation’s path into the late nineteenth century.

Those people who wanted to end Tokugawa rule had not envisioned a new government or a new society; they had merely sought the transfer of power from Edo to Kyoto while retaining all their feudal prerogatives.

Instead, a profound change takes place.

The emperor emerges as a national symbol of unity in the midst of reforms that are much more radical than had been envisioned.

The first reform is the promulgation of the Charter Oath in 1868, a general statement of the aims of the Meiji leaders to boost morale and win financial support for the new government.

Its five provisions are the establishment of deliberative assemblies, the involvement of all classes in carrying out state affairs, freedom of social and occupational mobility, replacement of "evil customs" with the "just laws of nature," and an international search for knowledge to strengthen the foundations of imperial rule.

Implicit in the Charter Oath is an end to exclusive political rule by the bakufu and a move toward more democratic participation in government.

To implement the Charter Oath, an eleven-article constitution is drawn up.

Besides providing for a new Council of State, legislative bodies, and systems of ranks for nobles and officials, it limits office tenure to four years, allowed public balloting, provides for a new taxation system, and orders new local administrative rules.

The Meiji government assures the foreign powers that it will abide by the old treaties negotiated by the bakufu and announces that it will act in accordance with international law.

Mutsuhito, who is to reign until 1912, selects a new reign title—Meiji, or Enlightened Rule—to mark the beginning of a new era in Japanese history.

To further dramatize the new order, the capital is relocated from Kyoto, where it had been situated since 794, to Tokyo (Eastern Capital), the new name for Edo.

In a move critical for the consolidation of the new regime, most daimyo voluntarily surrender their land and census records to the emperor, symbolizing that the land and people are under the emperor's jurisdiction.

Confirmed in their hereditary positions, the daimyo became governors, and the central government assumes their administrative expenses and pays samurai stipends.

The han are replaced with prefectures in 1871, and authority continues to flow to the national government.

Officials from the favored former han, such as Satsuma, Choshu, Tosa, and Hizen, staff the new ministries.

Formerly out-of-favor court nobles and lower-ranking but more radical samurai replace bakufu appointees, daimyo, and old court nobles as a new ruling class appears.

Inasmuch as the Meiji Restoration had sought to return the emperor to a preeminent position, efforts are made to establish a Shinto-oriented state much like the state of a thousand years earlier.

An Office of Shinto Worship is established, ranking even above the Council of State in importance.

The kokutai ideas of the Mito school are embraced, and the divine ancestry of the imperial house emphasized.

The government supports Shinto teachers, a small but important move.

Although the Office of Shinto Worship is demoted in 1872, by 1877 the Home Ministry will control all Shinto shrines and certain Shinto sects will be given state recognition.

Shinto is at last released from Buddhist administration and its properties restored.

Although Buddhism suffers from state sponsorship  of Shinto, it has its own resurgence.

Christianity is also legalized and Confucianism remains an important ethical doctrine.

Increasingly, however, Japanese thinkers identify with Western ideology and methods.

The Meiji oligarchy, as the new ruling class will become known to historians, is a privileged clique that exercises imperial power, sometimes despotically.

The members of this class are adherents to kokugaku and believe they are the creators of a new order as grand as that established by Japan's original founders.

Two of the major figures of this group are Okubo Toshimichi (1832-78), son of a Satsuma retainer, and Satsuma samurai Saigo Takamori (1827-77), who had joined forces with Choshu, Tosa, and Hizen to overthrow the Tokugawa.

Okubo becomes minister of finance and Saigo a field marshal; both are imperial councilors.

Kido Koin (1833-77), native of Choshu, student of Yoshida Shoin, and coconspirator with Okubo and Saigo, becomes minister of education and chairman of the Governors' Conference and pushes for constitutional government.

Also prominent were Iwakura Tomomi (1825-83), a Kyoto native who had opposed the Tokugawa and is to become the first ambassador to the United States, and Okuma Shigenobu (1838-1922), of Hizen, a student of Rangaku, Chinese, and English, who will hold various ministerial portfolios, eventually becoming prime minister in 1898.

To accomplish the new order's goals, the Meiji oligarchy sets out to abolish the Tokugawa class system through a series of economic and social reforms.

Bakufu revenues had depended on taxes on Tokugawa and other daimyo lands, loans from wealthy peasants and urban merchants, limited customs fees, and reluctantly accepted foreign loans.

To provide revenue and develop a sound infrastructure, the new government finances harbor improvements, lighthouses, machinery imports, schools, overseas study for students, salaries for foreign teachers and advisers, modernization of the army and navy, railroads and telegraph networks, and foreign diplomatic missions.

Difficult economic times, manifested by increasing incidents of agrarian rioting, lead to calls for social reforms.

Besides the old high rents, taxes, and interest rates, the average citizen is faced with cash payments for new taxes, military conscription, and tuition charges for compulsory education.

The people need more time for productive pursuits while correcting social abuses of the past.

To achieve these reforms, the old Tokugawa class system of samurai, farmer, artisan, and merchant is abolished by 1871, and, even though old prejudices and status consciousness continue, all are theoretically equal before the law.

Actually helping  to perpetuate social distinctions, the government names new social divisions: the former daimyo become nobility, the samurai become gentry, and all others become commoners.

Daimyo and samurai pensions are paid off in lump sums, and the samurai later lose their exclusive claim to military positions.

Former samurai find new pursuits as bureaucrats, teachers, army officers, police officials, journalists, scholars, colonists in the northern parts of Japan, bankers, and businessmen.

These occupations help stem some of the discontent this large group feels; some profit immensely, but many are not successful and will provide significant opposition in the ensuing years.

Additionally, between 1871 and 1873, a series of land and tax laws are enacted as the basis for modern fiscal policy.

Private ownership is legalized, deeds are issued, and lands are assessed at a fair market value with taxes paid in cash rather than in kind as in pre-Meiji days and at slightly lower rates.

The Meiji leaders, undeterred by opposition, continue to modernize the nation through government- sponsored telegraph cable links to all major Japanese cities and the Asian mainland, and the construction of railroads, shipyards, munitions factories, mines, textile manufacturing facilities, factories, and experimental agriculture stations.

Much concerned about national security, the leaders make significant efforts at military modernization, which includes establishing a small standing army and a large reserve system, and compulsory militia service for all men.

Foreign military systems are studied, foreign advisers brought in, and Japanese cadets sent abroad to European and United States military and naval schools.