AMERİCAN-JAPANESE RELATIONS IN THE LIGHT OF WESTERN SOURCES (1853-1858)
BATILI KAYNAKLAR IŞIĞINDA AMERİKA-JAPON İLİŞKİLERİ (1853-1858)

Author : Ayhan KUŞÇULU
Number of pages : 189-202

Abstract

Tokugawa Shogunate closed Japanese ports for about 230 years to the foreign countries, maintaining only commercial relations with China and the Netherlands. From the first half of the nineteenth century, countries such as England, Russia and the United States had some initiatives to have been involved in this business. In the year of 1853, the USA President Millard Fillmore sent an ambassador named Mattew C. Perry to Japan for four battleships. Perry had handed over the letter which was written by the president during that time to the Tokugawa administration and left Japan to come back a year later. The American president demanded that Japanese ports being opened to the trade, replenishment and mandatory status in the letter to which they had been sent. There were different opinions within Japan regarding the answer to this letter. However, this letter had to give a positive answer, since it was not possible to counter the military against the Shogun American. This answer was formalized by the Kanagawa agreement. However, the American government, not satisfied with this agreement, made a new deal with Tokugawa Shogun in the year of 1858 with the efforts of Towsend Harris, who was appointed Consul General. By this agreement, Americans gain unilateral broad privileges. Tokugawa Shogunate soon has to recognize the same privileges for many western countries under American influence.

Keywords

Japan, America, Shogun, Perry, Haris

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