Whatever Japan received of the material civilization of Europe was through the Dutch. Especially after the Shogun Yoshimune (1716 45) did away with the proscription of Edro peen books, so far as they had nothing to do with Christianity, the study of Dutch books be came very popular. Many scientific books were translated from the Dutch, and great progress was made in mathematics, astronomy, medicine, natural sciences and military arts. The official visits paid from time to time by the directors of the Dutch factory, usually accompanied by physicians, were opportunities eagerly seized by the savants of Yedo to learn more about Europe and her science. The Dutch scholars came to be leaders in thought and many of them played a very important part in bringing about the new era.
At the end of the 18th century this state of quiet seclusion in Japan was disturbed. The English, who were baffled in their attempt to renew the trade in.1673, when they sent the ship Return from Formosa, repeatedly visited the Japanese seas after 1791. In 1813 and again in 1814 vessels sent from Batavia by Lieutenant Governor Raffles tried to get the factory at Nagasaki into English hands, but were thwarted by Director Hendrik Doeff. Before this, the Russians, who had been gradually proceeding southwards from Kamchatka since the begin ning of the 18th century, made several attempts to open intercourse with Japan. In 1792 Lieu tenant Laxman came to Manumaye with some Japanese who were wrecked in the Okhotsk Sea and was directed to Nagasaki for negotiations. In 1804 Count Resanoff accordingly came to Nagasaki, but his mission was a failure. In Oc tober 1813 Captain Rikord was sent back from Hakodate with Golownin who had been con fined in Yeso, since July 1811, with a notice that Japan• desired no commerce. In 1837 the Mor rison, fitted out by an American firm at Macao to return some shipwrecked. Japanese, visited the bays of Yedo and Kagoshima, but was driven off. In 1848 Commodore Biddle, who commanded the American fleet in the China Sea, came to the Bay of Yedo with two war ships to ascertain if the Japanese ports would be opened and was sent back with a negative answer. An embassy, which King William III of Holland sent in 1844 with the express object of persuading Japan to open her ports.. to Euro pean nations, equally failed. When, however, Commodore Perry entered Uraga with a fleet of four ships, 8 July 1853, and delivered' a letter of President Fillmore, asking qriendship, com merce, a supply of coal and provisions and pro tection for the shipwrecked people,)) and re turned for an answer early the next year a treaty was concluded and signed at Kanagawa, 31 March 1854. Japan consented to open the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to the Ameri can trade.
In 1858 a new treaty was made with the United States, substituting the port of Yoko hama for Shimoda, and promising to open Nagasaki, Kobe and Niigata or another port on the western coast of Japan. On the basis of these treaties, Japan concluded treaties with Great Britain, Russia, the Netherlands and France (1854-58) and at somewhat later dates with other Powers of Europe.
The opening of the country after so many centuries of isolation could not be effected with out opposition. The Shogun's government was severely criticized for having taken such a weighty step without having first asked the sanction of the emperor. Ii Kamon-no-Kami,
Prince of Hikone, was assassinated as being chiefly responsible for the conclusion of the treaties, 24 March 1860. The emperor repeat edly ordered the Shogun to take vigorous measures for the expulsion of foreigners. The Shogun's government tried to explain this state of affairs to the Powers and requested them to withdraw, but the Powers would not consent to do so. Hostile acts of the Prince of Nagato toward foreign vessels passing the Strait of Simonoseki, and frequent outrages committed by Samurais against European residents caused great trouble to the government. These and other troubles induced the Shogun to resign and restore the power to the emperor 9 Nov. 1867. The government of the emperor now took a measure adapted to the need of the times and ratified the treaties, and the emperor received foreign representatives in audience, March 1867. The expulsion of foreigners was, indeed, a cry raised for gathering those who were against the Shogun's regime.
Having once given up her policy of seclu sion, Japan exerted herself to the utmost to enter into closer relations with foreign coun tries. When in 1899 the vexatious problem of revision of treaties was finally solved after so many abortive attempts since 1871, the whole country was thrown open to foreigners and all the restrictions hitherto imposed on them were removed. After her co-operation with the Weiterfi Powers during the Boxer trouble in China (1900) Japan was fully admitted to the comity of civilized nations.
In recent times Japan was more than once brought to the verge of war with China: in 1874 when a Japanese army was sent to For mosa to punish some aboriginal tribes in the south for having repeatedly the Jap anese subjects wrecked on their shore, and in 1879 when China objected to Japan's making the Ryukyu Islands an integral part of the empire by converting them into the prefecture of Okinawa. But the rupture came when China refused to acknowledge the independence of Korea. The war opened with the naval en counter off the coast of Yashan, 25 July 1894, and ended in a complete defeat of China. A treaty of peace was signed at Simonoseki, 17 April 1895. China acknowledged the independ ence of Korea, ceded the Liaotung Peninsula, Formosa and the Pescadores to Japan, and promised to pay a war indemnity.
The interference of the three Powers — Rus sia, Germany and France — which obliged Japan to give up the possession of the Liaotung Penin sula, was very much resented by the nation. The exchange of Saghalien for the Kurile Islands in 1875 was always regarded as an act of injustice on the part of Russia. Russia's advance in Manchuria and her growing influ ence in Korea alarmed Japan, and war finally broke out, 8 Feb 1904. After a succession of brilliant victories, both by land and sea, for Japan, peace was made by the Treaty of Ports mouth (q.v.), 5 Sept. 1905. That part of Sag halien, south of the 50th parallel of North latitude, was ceded to Japan. Russia .promised to withdraw from Manchuria and acknowledged Japan's special interest in Korea. The new convention between Japan and Korea, 17 Nov. 1905, established Japan's position.