The cause of the Japanese Civil War

Damage repaired

The opposing forces in Japan's civil war were lined up between the supporters of the ruling Tokugawa family, which headed a rigid hierarchical feudal society, and the supporters of the emperor Meiji, whose court had been isolated from any significant government role. The civil war culminated in 1868 in the overthrow of the Tokugawa government and the restoration of the rule of the Emperor. The Meiji Restoration also brought new interest groups to the centre of political power and instigated a radical redirection of Japan's economic development. The nub of the changeover was the destruction of the traditional feudal social system and the building of a political, social, and economic framework conducive to capitalist industrialization. The new state actively participated in the turnabout by various forms of grants and guarantees to enterprising industrialists and by direct investment in basic industries such as railways, shipbuilding, communications, and machinery. The concentration of resources in the industrial sector was matched by social reforms that eliminated feudal restrictions, accelerated mass education, and encouraged acquisition of skills in the use of Western technology. The ensuing industrialized economy provided the means for Japan to hold its own in modern warfare and to withstand foreign economic competition.
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By the early 1860s the Tokugawa bakufu found itself in a dilemma. On the one hand it had to strengthen the country against foreigners. On the other it knew that providing the economic means for self-defense meant giving up shogunal controls that kept competing lords financially weak. Activist samurai, for their part, tried to push their feudal superiors into more strongly antiforeign positions. At the same time, antiforeign acts provoked stern countermeasures and diplomatic indemnities. Most samurai soon realized that expelling foreigners by force was impossible. Foreign military superiority was demonstrated conclusively with the bombardment of Kagoshima in 1863 and Shimonoseki in 1864. Thereafter, samurai activists used their antiforeign slogans primarily to obstruct and embarrass the bakufu, which retained little room to maneuver. Domestically it was forced to make antiforeign concessions to placate the loyalist camp, while foreigners were assured that it remained committed to "opening the country" and abiding by the treaties. Both sides saw it as prevaricating and ineffectual. After the arrival of the British minister Sir Harry Parkes in 1865, Great Britain, in particular, saw no reason to negotiate further with the bakufu and decided to deal directly with the imperial court in Kyoto.

Samurai in several domains also revealed their dissatisfaction with the bakufu's management of national affairs. One domain in which the call for more direct action emerged was Choshu (now part of Yamaguchi prefecture), which fired on foreign shipping in the Shimonoseki Strait in 1863. This led to bombardment of Choshu's fortifications by Western ships in 1864 and a shogunal expedition that forced the domain to resubmit to Tokugawa authority. But many of Choshu's samurai refused to accept this decision, and a military coup in 1864 brought to power, as the daimyo's counselors, a group of men who had originally led the radical antiforeign movement. Several of these had secretly traveled to England and were consequently no longer blindly xenophobic. Their aims were national--to overthrow the shogunate and create a new government headed by the emperor. The same men organized militia units that utilized Western training methods and arms and included nonsamurai troops. Choshu became the centre for discontented samurai from other domains who were impatient with their leaders' caution. In 1866 Choshu allied itself with neighbouring Satsuma, fearing a Tokugawa attempt to crush all opponents to create a centralized despotism with French help.

Again shogunal armies were sent to control Choshu in 1866. The defeat of these troops by Choshu forces led to further loss of power and prestige. Meanwhile, the death of the shogun Iemochi in 1866 brought to power the last shogun, Yoshinobu, who realized the pressing need for national unity. In 1867 he resigned his powers rather than risk a full-scale military confrontation with Satsuma and Choshu, doing so in the belief that he would retain an important place in any emerging national administration. But this was not to be. Outmaneuvered by the young Meiji emperor, who succeeded to the throne in 1867, and a few court nobles who maintained close ties with Satsuma and Choshu, the shogun faced the choice of giving up his lands, which would risk revolt from his vassals, or appearing disobedient, which would justify punitive measures against him. Yoshinobu tried to move troops against Kyoto, only to be defeated. In the wake of this defeat, Satsuma, Choshu, and Tosa units, now the imperial army, advanced on Edo, which was surrendered without battle. While sporadic fighting continued until the summer of 1869, the Tokugawa cause was doomed. In January 1868 the principal daimyo were summoned to Kyoto to learn of the restoration of imperial rule. Later that year the emperor moved into the Tokugawa castle in Edo, and the city was renamed Tokyo ("Eastern Capital"). With the emperor and his supporters now in control, the building of the modern state began.

BUSTED hawhaw
Seriously though, this is some of the most interesting history I have read in a long time

Hmmm... are you making fun of us or are you just kidding

yeah History is awesome... when you don't learn it in school

Yeah. The teacher's don't make history at all exciting.

Thats true, histery is cool when i learn it somewere else other than school.

And besides that, the pulic (and private) school history books are very biased sometimes...

Just Like the CW in them. They don't make out the West to be of really any importance.

But it was. Theres a lot of things that happend in the west, such as battles being fought in what is now New Mexico..

I know that. Like the Massacre at Bear River, Idaho. It was the biggest Indian Massacre of all, over 300 deaths on the Indian side.

Nice post Civ. The little I knew about the Japanese CW was what I gleened from watching The Last Samaria.

Not to many people take the time to study Japan and its cultures. I haven't really delved into it. For some reason Asia just isn't where I like to learn about history. Except of course the Crusades and Napoleon's invasion on Russia. And the Pacific Theater of WWII. I find that much more intesting then the European front. And the Anceint Empires of Asia Minor and such.

I read a bunch of books about the Pacific Theater of Operations during WW2, but I got much more interested in the Soviet Union's War against Germany

I used to be totally into the Pacific theatre of WWII, but now the European theatre is about even, in my mind. Has anyone read Eagle against the Sun? Great account of the Pacific War.

Yeah, I also heard about that book however I have yet to find it first.

Just about everything I know on history was in fact due to me spending time hanging out in the library, I even borrowed my Mom, Dad and Sister's library cards in order to bring more books home for me to read.

I was reading about...20 Books a month and was really a complete history books nutcase, and my Mom, Dad and Sister didn't mind for me to borrow their Library Cards, they were more likely to encourage me to read more books

I used to go to the county library every Wednesday until I was around 9-10, and I think I exhausted their entire non-fiction section. And yes, I remember quite a few times I was in a dilemna trying to decide which books to check out and which to leave, since they had a 15-book max. policy.