Wars in the 19th & 20th century

Wars in the 19th century

Boshin war

The Boshin War, also known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was the war between the ruling Tokugawa Shogunate and Imperial Court. It ended in the victory of the Imperial Court, which as such lead to the Empire of Japan to rise. Therefore, this war was significant for the part of history our group touched on. Following this war, the ruling party, the Tokugawa Shogunate was overthrown and replaced by the Emperor Meiji. The Emperor turned into such an important figure by the start of the World War Two that the Japanese soldiers sacrificed themselves willingly for the Emperor's goal to be achieved.

Invasion of Taiwan

Japan invaded Taiwan on the 6th of May 1874 and had successfully seized all of Taiwan by the 3rd of December 1974. This was one of the first proofs that Japan's military was powerful because Taiwan's military, though nowhere near as strong as what Taiwan is today, didn't pose a serious threat to Japan's invading force.

Uprisings against the ruling party

There were a few uprisings against the Meiji party, most significantly the Southwestern War, where Imperial Japan fought against the Shizoku clans. Also, there was the Boxer Rebellion. This was not an uprising within Japan but much rather in China which is also known as the Yihetuan Movement, which wanted to turn China into an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, anti-Christian country. Therefore, the name Boxer Rebellion may be misleading. Japan was not the only party involved in this conflict, but also the US, Great Britain, France, Imperial Germany and a few other countries.

Sino-Chinese War

This was the first conflict between Japan and China, mainly due to a dispute over the influence over Korea. After receiving one humiliating defeat after another, the Chinese government asked for a peace treaty. This defeat led to a public uprise and the 1911 revolution. Additionally, Korea fell into the hands of Japan.

Wars in the 20th century

Map of Japan's expansion by 1942

Russo-Japanese War

Tensions between Russia and Japan had been rising for the past years, a conflict was almost inevitable. Initially Japan had offered to leave Manchuria to Russia, if Russia were to recognise that Korea was part of the Empire of Japan. Russia did not agree and wanted to establish a neutral buffer state in Korea. This interfered with Japan's plans of expansion, which at this point were already outlandish. That's why the Japanese elite chose to go to war with Russia. The war ended with Russia's defeat which meant, the influence of Japan in the Pacific grew massively by establishing military dominance in Korea and therefore reaching its main goal for the war.

Annexation of Korea

Japan had already established military dominance over Korea in 1904 when the Russo-Japanese War ended, but Korea was only formally annexed by Japan six years later in the Japan-Korea annexation treaty in 1910. With that, Korea turned into a part of Japan.

World War One

Japan was part of the Entente Powers. They got drawn into the first world war, because Great Britain asked them for help destroying the imperial German Navy in the Pacific and Southern China Sea. Japan already asked to join the war before with its reward being the German-occupied territories in the pacific region which, at that time was just Papua New Guinea. The war ended, as you probably already know, with the defeat of the Forces of Imperial Germany and Austria-Hungary. Therefore, Japan was one of the winning powers.

World War Two

Japan began its expansion already long before World War Two started by starting the Japanese-Chinese War in 1937. The war was already boiling below the surface long before this, but it was not yet all out war between the two countries. Whilst the war with China was killing millions of (innocent) Chinese people, they continued their expansion in the southern pacific. With the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan pulled the United States into World War Two and therefore, even though the attack was a massive defeat for the US, marked the beginning of the end of the Empire of Japan. The Empire fell on the 2nd of September 1945 when the emperor signed the peace treaty.

All sources can be found here.

-jh