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The era Meiji (明治) is the name of the historical period of Japan between 1868 and 1912; it lies between the era Keiō (fine of the time Edo) and the era Taishō.

The emperor Mutsuhito (睦仁) took for the occasion the name of Meiji which means enlightened government ( mei 明 = light, clearness - ji 治 = government)

The era Meiji, also called “Restoration of Meiji”, symbolizes the end of the voluntary policy of insulation (known as Sakoku) and the opening of Japan under the threat of the guns of the américano-European forwarding ordered by Perry. It is also synonymous with the upheavals which followed: the rise of the international business and the industrialization of Japan, like its passage of the Feudality (abolition) to the “Western Modernity” (race with new technologies and expansion of the colonial empire, from the point of view of division of the world by the occident). It is as during this period as alcoholism starts to make devastations among the rural populations, under the impulse of the British who regularly bring whiskey in great quantity.

Resolutely turned towards modernity, the Meiji emperor invited to high expenses of many European specialists according to the field where excelled their nation: Prussian and French soldiers, British engineers, German chemists and doctors, Dutch agronomists, etc This time is also characterized by the expansion of the Japanese territory, copied on the Western model.

During this era, many words were created to enrich the Japanese language by terms indicating Western objects or concepts primarily. Contrary to the words created in the second half of the XX {{E}} century, transposed directly since English, the words created with Meiji were it starting from the Chinese roots and of the Kanji. It is the case for example of 電話 (denwa), which means telephone (electricity - word).

Modernization

Economy

Technique

  • creation of a telegraph line between Tōkyō and Yokohama in 1869
  • creation of a railway line between Tōkyō and Yokohama in 1872
  • first iron bridge on the Sumida river in 1887
  • creation of the Japanese monetary unit in 1871, introduction of the currency fiduciary (Yen) in the form of convertible banknotes silver (1885), and installation of a banking system (1882). It is the starting point for the industrialization of the Japan.

Policy

  • restoration of the capacity of the emperor, the Shogun being discredited after the agreement made during American forwarding Perry.
  • constitution in 1889
  • the lunisolar calendar of Chinese origin is replaced by the Gregorian calendar in 1873
  • reconstitution of the Shintoïsme which becomes the national religion, clearly separate Bouddhisme
  • separation of the legislative power and executive
  • Watchword: “Japanese spirit and Western methods”
  • Installation of new a education system

Military expansion

Other striking facts

  • Displacement of the capital of Kyōto in Tōkyō
  • Oath of the five articles (April 1868)
  • 1889: Promulgation of the Constitution Meiji

See too

External bonds

  • HistoJapon, History of Japan
  • the Meiji era: Japan opens in the Occident by Paul Akamatsu, Research director at CNRS.
  • photographic Collection of the library of the University of Nagasaki of the era [[Bakumatsu] - Meiji]

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