A Letter to an Emperor

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A letter to an Emperor This source of document basically shows how the Americans came to Japan and practiced “Gun-boat diplomacy” on Japan in order to open up its country and abandon its closed-door policy. The writer wrote that America back at the homeland was clouded by “the horrors of the Civil War” and many other domestic problems like buying over Native American lands in the north and dealing with Western nations like the British to remove them out of America’s lands. The term “manifest destiny” in the 1840s, based on America’s perspective, refers to America’s aspiration in assisting countries in other parts of the world to realize their full potential of becoming a modern and self-governance state (Merk, 1995). All in all, from these past unpleasant experiences, America began to formulate policies that encompass Nationalism of the American pride in nature, henceforth the birth of the term ‘manifest destiny”. In addition, the pressures from other great Western powers carving its place in other parts of the world, greatly influenced America to venture out through expansionist movements “to the far west towards Asian and the Pacific”. The writer mentioned systematically how the Americans planned the expansion to Asia and the Pacific. America, as mentioned in the source, had Captain Alfred T. Mahan as the man behind America’s naval expedition army during that period. In a book about Captain Alfred, he was described as an intelligent expansionist that was only interested in expansion by having “a strong navy would require island possessions to serve as naval bases” and was unconcerned to provide welfare and developments for the places America colonise (Mahan, 2004). Moreover, Western countries are already venturing out and ... ... middle of paper ... ...fluence. (1478 words) Bibliography • Beasley, W. G. (1972). The Meiji restoration. California: Stanford University Press. • Cheng, P.-k. (1999). The search for modern China: A documentary history. Zhongli yamen document on the unequal treaties. New York: Norton. • Gerstle, C. A. (2000). 18th century Japan: culture and society. Routledge. • Mahan, A. T. (2004). The Influence of Sea Power Upon History. Digital Antiquaria. • Mak, D. K. (2009). Solving Everyday Problems With the Scientific Method: Thinking Like a Scientist. Singapore: World Scientific. • Merk, F. (1995). Manifest destiny and mission in American history: a reinterpretation. United States of America: Harvard University Press. • Tarling, N. (1992). The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia: From early times to c. 1800. Singapore: Press Sydicate of the University of Cambridge.

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