China and Japan’s Responses to Western Influence Essay

During the 19th and twentieth centuries, much of the western world had at the real least, begun to modernize. Countries on this expression of the globe were becoming booming metropolises. Trade with many other nations brought scores of new things to these western countries and also resulted in the Europeans observing a corking deal of places that were not yet modernized. These observations later lead to the western nations scatty to make changes. They began trying to do this by setting up spheres of influence, displace missionaries, proposing treaties and other agreements, and in some cases, completely taking over. Some countries fought back, and resisted modernization, and others submitted to the essential changes that were coming their way.China and japan are great examples of this, two(prenominal) countries were potently opposed to Western influence but in the end, the dickens countries reacted to the changes very differently. Prior to western contact, China and japan held the belief that they were superior civilizations. some(prenominal) countries felt that any contact with westerners would corrupt their perfect societies. Also, because they felt they already were perfect, they didnt think modernization was necessary. The people of both countries were comfortable with their traditional, more(prenominal) old fashioned ways of life and saw no moderateness to change.The westerners however, would not take no for an answer, they were determined to make China vindicated ports to them so they could trade and work to modernize the country. The westerners were very interested in obtaining silk and tea from China but the problem was, the westerners didnt have anything the Chinese wanted in exchange besides gold and silver. This resulted in an uncomplimentary balance of trade. To fix this, the westerners really needed something the Chinese wanted so they began growing opium in India and outlawedly smuggling it into China. The habit of opium smoking c aught on quickly and as a result, the western people were making a great deal of money.Overtime, more than 12 million people highly-developed addictions to the drug. Seeing how this substance was harming Chinas people, the government made opium illegal and wanted it out of their country for good. Thewesterners opposed this decision and not dour after, took China to war and conquered them. Following the war, the Treaty of Nanjiing was signed and the Chinese were hale to open up more ports and allow westerners into their country. This eventually lead to the modernization of China.Next on the western nations list was japan. It all started with commodore Matthew Perry, he sailed to Japan and requested that the Japanese aid people of the US and Europe if they came to the shores of the country. scarce a year after Perry first made his request to the Japanese, the considerable White Fleet made a voyage back to Japan to reiterate the request. The Japanese, unlike the Chinese did not fig ht back, but agree and the Treaty of Kanagawa was signed which opened ports for trade and ensured fair treatment and extraterritoriality for sailors. at once that Japan had opened up its shores to the westerners, the next thing they wanted to do was get Japan to modernize. Again, unlike China, Japan did not put up a fight, but decided to accept the inevitable changes that were soon to come. So, the Japanese began studying and adopting the western way of life and ended up modernizing in a period of three short years.In conclusion, although in the beginning, both China and Japan were firm believers in isolationism and did not want anything to do with western countries, once faced with the issue of western contact and modernization, the two countries responded very differently. China fought back and had to overcome many hardships and fight in terrible wars that cost many people their lives which left a perpetual and devastating impact on the country. Japan on the other hand, true the change and avoided a great deal of violence and struggle. Although China and Japan had very different responses, it is clear that western contact and modernization changed both countries forever.