"Prior to the mid-19th century, Japan had been closed to any foreign travelers or traders. This xenophobic policy, that had been in place since the early 17th century, was extreme; stories emerged of shipwrecked sailors from Western Europe being killed just for washing up on the island nation's shores. However, this changed in the 1850s, when an American fleet led by Commodore Matthew Perry forced the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled Japan, to sign treaties that opened its ports to foreign trade.
The ensuing flood of foreign cash into the Japanese market exacerbated preexisting economic problems, and the Tokugawa government fell shortly after. It was replaced by the first Meiji Emperor, and the powerful nobles who surrounded him intended to modernize and industrialize Japan as quickly as possible. In relatively short order, railroads crisscrossed the island nation and Japan's shipping industry, virtually non-existent due to the laws against foreign trade, rose dramatically.
As quickly as Japan industrialized, the country began looking to expand its foreign influence. In 1894, Japan fought a two-year conflict with China, which freed the Korean peninsula from Chinese control and opened Chinese ports to Japanese trade. Ten years later, Japan went to war again, this time against the encroaching Russian presence in Manchuria. Victorious again, Japan gained protectorate status over the Korean peninsula and forced Russia out of Chinese land…."
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looks at some new terrain products, which use space age technology!
