In 1868 Japan was a feudal archipelago that had been closed to the world for two centuries. Fifty years later it had destroyed a Russian fleet, annexed Korea, and joined the great powers. Seventy-seven years after the restoration, its empire was gone. No modern state rose so fast — or fell so far.
Tokyo ★ Korea Taiwan Manchuria Tsushima Greatest extent — stylized map 1868 Meiji Restoration 1905 Tsushima — Russia humbled 1910 Korea annexed 1942 Aleutians → New Guinea 1945 Surrender Rise · zenith · fall The rise The Meiji Restoration of 1868 was a revolution from above: the shogunate fell, the teenage emperor Meiji became the symbol of a modernizing state, and Japan set out to do in decades what took Europe centuries — railways, conscription, compulsory education, a constitution, heavy industry. The slogan was “rich country, strong army,” and it was pursued with terrifying focus.
