This week on the Revised Introduction to Japanese History: the beginning of the end of the Tokugawa shogunate. Commodore Perry’s expedition to Edo will begin a process of radical political change as a teetering Tokugawa shogunate is forced to confront a challenge of Western imperialism that it will not prove equal to resisting.
Sources
Jansen, Marius. The Making of Modern Japan
Jansen, Marius. Sakamoto Ryoma and the Meiji Restoration
Beasley, Craig. The Meiji Restoration
Craig, Albert M. Choshu in the Meiji Restoration.
Keene, Donald. Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World
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