Negotiating With Imperialism: Japan and the Unequal Treaty Regime, 1858--1872

After an historiographical introduction, Chapter 1 traces the background to Japan's treaty relations, particularly in comparison with the Chinese experience, and discusses the making of the 1858 treaty. Chapter 2 treats the first half-decade after the signing of the treaties, 1858 to 1862; this period was the high tide of diplomatic accommodation and witnessed the emergence of a balance of interests between the two sides. Far from adopting a supine posture towards the West, the Tokugawa bakufu triumphed in matters such as the location of treaty ports and the timing of their opening. Chapter 3 explores international culture of the treaty ports, where seemingly concrete cultural boundaries were transgressed, leading to new understandings and deeper interaction between Japanese and Westerners. Chapter 4 turns to the years 1862--67, and traces the bakufu's defense of this balance of interests even in the face of the weakening of accommodation. Chapter 5 examines the Meiji experience of treaty relations 1868--72, and investigates the development, dispatch, and eventual failure of the Iwakura Mission. The conclusion briefly relates Japan's subsequent Asian policy, as it attempted to establish a Western-style international treaty system vis-a-vis China and Korea. This dissertation thus reassesses late-Tokugawa and early Meiji foreign policy, illustrates the malleability of both European and Asian cultural boundaries, and questions the extent of Western power at the zenith of Victorian imperialism.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Auslin, Michael Robert

Contributors dc:contributor

• Toby, Ronald P.

• Political Science, International Law and Relations

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI9989934

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/84763