Time Event

1600 - 1603: decades of civil warfare ends, Tokugawa Shogunate instigates

long period of relative political stability/isolation from oreign influence
- More than two centuries; indiginous culture flourished

1700 -

1800 - 1854: signed Treaty of Kanagawa with US, began intensive

modernization and industrialization
- 1875: Japan uses western technology to force Korea into opening itself
to foreign/Japanese trade/independence from China in foreign relations
- 1894 - 1895: First sino-Japanese War (fueled by Japanese pride over
success in Korea)
- 1895: Japanese modernization helps them pressure Chinese into peace
after successfully invading Shandong Province and Manchuria
- Treaty of Shimonoseki; China recognizes Korea as independent
and ceeds Taiwan
- Conflict resulting over turf rights in Korea
- Conflict instigates governmental reforms and encourages
Western power demands
- Bought Japan prestige/national reputation/internal support of
gov; also proved Japan could not maintain Asian military
victories without Western sufferance

1900 - 1900: Korea reluctant to follow Japanese gov, align with Russia
- 1902: Japan aligns with England to face Korea/Russia
- 1904-1905: Japan begins Russo-Japanese War; Japan wins at great
cost
- President Theodore Roosevelt mediates peace settlement
(Treaty of Portsmouth); gives Japan primacy in Korea, Russia
granted Japan economic/political interests over some land and
ceded other parts
- Victory tips balance of power in East Asia
- Lead to period of expansion for Japan/forced domination of
Korea
- 1910; Japan annexes Korea
- 1912: Japan achieves equality with the West/becomes strongest
imperialist power in East Asia
- 1915 (WW1): Japan issues Twenty-one Demands
- Tries to pressure China into widespread concessions
- Chinese resist most extreme demands that would have made
China more like a Japanese ward
- Left legacy in China and West of ill-will and distrust towards
Japan
- 1919: negotiations in Treaty of Versailles squander any hopes of
friendship between Japan and China
- anti-Japanese nature of modern Chinese nationalism
- Mid 1920’s; Japan’s surge in Asia/Pacific ends; world hopes it will
 continue with new quality of moderation/reasonableness based on
absence of inferiority/weakness complex
- 1931-32: Japan occupies Manchuria
- 1937: Japan launches full-scale invasion of China
- 1940: wake of Japanese invasion starts civil war
- 1941(WW2): Japan attacks US; US gains control over much of
East/Southeast Asia
- 1945: Japan beaten in WW2
- Becomes allied with US
- Becomes economic power
- Governmental reforms (US-Brit hybrid)
- 1945(WW2): negotiations of reunification of North and South fails
- 1948: two separate governments in Korea are formed (North and South)
- 1949: Chinese Communist Party under MAO Zedong establishes an
autocratic socialist system; rejected globalization and enforced national
unification with stringent rules
- 1950-1953: Korean War
- 1960-1990: Japan experiences unprecedented economic growth
- 1978: China reopens its closed borders/economy, recognizing need for
international involvement; embraces modernization and globalisation;
The Chinese Economic Reform
- 1990: major economic slowdown in Japan

2000 - 2011: one of Japan’s strongest earthquakes/tsunami hits

- 2019: Prime Minister Shinzo ABE reelected to office; instigates
ambitious economic security reforms to improve economy/bolster
international standing; becomes longest-serving post-war prime minister
- 2020: Yoshihide Suga becomes Prime Minister