19th Century Japan And China Essay

During the 19th century, two countries, Japan and China, made huge developments in their country due to the impacts of westernization, modernization and reformation. Both countries had similar thoughts as well as differences in their development throughout their history. From the start, China ultimately considered themselves as the center of the universe and foreigners as “barbarians”. This caused them to believe that there would only be harm in trying to accept Western ideas as they believed that their country would only run smoothly if it were to keep their own culture and traditions. Instead of taking in any sorts of new ideas, they rejected it and detached themselves from the concepts. Their strong beliefs in maintaining their traditional ideas prevented them from accepting these Western ideas until later on, when they realized that they had to develop in order to protect their nation. Ideas of modernization came about during the Self Strengthening movement that started around the year 1861. As a result, the

Japan, unlike China, willingly accepted the new ideas. Japan opened the country to the Dutch which benefited them in industrialization and other new ideas. As they opened up to the Dutch ideas, they started to apply Western technology and develop them. Japan slowly started to allow for the publications of foreign books which resulted in for more new ideas to enter. High officials applied to these new ideas, allowing for more development and reform for change. Japan also entered global trade which was greatly beneficial to Japan as they started to export porcelain which was only available in China at the time. Japan modernizing to Western ideas helped them in the long run during the Sino-Japanese war when these two countries wanted control over