Meiji restoration. essays

Meiji restoration. essays The Meiji Restoration had a massive impact on Japan from 1868 1914. The Meiji Restoration impacted upon Japan by modernizing Japans military and introducing compulsory education. The Meiji Restoration also transformed Japan into an industrial country instead of a solely agricultural country. Japan wanted to have a more organized, better-equipped military and trained along Western lines. The Meiji government modeled the new army around the German army, which was clearly the best in the world at the time. The leaders of the army were from the Choshu clan; Choshu held the top position in the Imperial Japanese army well into the 20th century. In order to man the new army, the Meiji government introduced conscription in 1873. All men regardless of their social class had to serve for three years in the normal army and 4 years in the reserves. It was now forbidden to posses swords; the impact of this was that the Samurai lost their status and were no longer warriors. It also supported social change. Japan established an Imperial Navy, modeled on the British Royal Navy, the worlds best at the time. Japan purchased modern steam-powered war-ships from the British and the Navy was organized and trained along British lines. Most officers were recruited from the Satsuma clan, again the Samurai were excluded and this impacted on them enormously. At the beginning of the Meiji Restoration there were a variety of thoughts and practices concerning mass education. On July 18th 1871 the Meiji government established a Ministry of Education and August 3rd 1872 established a new national education system Gakusei. The earlier form of education were Terakoya ( village or town schools often in local temples) or Gogaku ( semi-official schools ). This new form of education meant compulsory education. Gakusei the Fundamental Code of Education was introduced as the first national scheme of mas ...