It is undeniably true that there were numerous factors that drove the country to colonized other nations, however this essay will emphasise on the two most significant causes, which are firstly the rise of domestic nationalism that pushed for an expansion and finally the inescapable economic pressure for …show more content…
At the end of the nineteenth century, Japan was in a period that it worries about its national security and its covet of becoming an imperial power comparable to the Western colonizers. In 1853, when Commodore Perry from the United States potently open up the Tokugawa Japan to the world, the country was forced by the Western nations to sign treaties that were seen by most Japanese as unequal. The treaties permitted legal extraterritoriality to foreigners in Japan and compel the Japanese government to accept tariff rates provided by them. After the downfall of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the rise of the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese government was keen in getting more impartial deals with the Western powers. Japanese statesman such as Iwakura Tomomi demanded the revision of the treaty due to its violation towards the freedom of Japan (Iriye, 1989). Therefore, in order to achieve that, they need to be evenly matched with the other imperial