continent, and the American Government was too busily occupied with internal problems to safeguard the commercial interests of its citizens in the Far East. The intercourse, therefore, between North America and the Orient, built up at the close of the eighteenth century, was practically abandoned in later years, and so remained until the new efforts of the middle of the nineteenth century.

The industrial revolution of the nineteenth century inaugurated indeed a new political régime in Europe and in America. By utilization of steam, electricity, and labour-saving machinery, an industrial nation can produce manufactured articles far beyond its own needs. Two things are essential to commercial expansion of a nation-to find raw material either at home or abroad, and to find a market for manufactured goods. Commerce has become the greatest of all political interests. Territories are sought to enlarge commerce, and great armies and navies are maintained to enforce commercial rights in foreign lands. The United States, which had remained hitherto a self-contained nation, could no longer hold its isolated position. With the acquisition of the Philippine Islands, and the coming of the "spheres of influence" in China, the United States was forced to become an

"Jefferson's First Inaugural Address, Richardson," Messages and Papers of the Presidents," 1: 321-24.

active participant in Oriental politics. From now on, American diplomacy was what the Jeffersonian Republicans might have called aggressive imperialsm.

WH

1. JAPAN

HEN Commodore Perry reached Japan in 1853, he presented to the Emperor of Japan President Fillmore's letter asking for the friendship and commercial intercourse of the two nations. The American Government had long since wanted to open Japan to American trade. In 1815 Secretary Monroe had planned to send Commodore Porter to open Japan to trade. In 1837 the American ship Morrison had arrived in Yedo Bay, Japan, in hope of opening up trade, but had been driven away by bombardment. The motive of the American Government in its attempt to open Japan in 1858 was, as stated in President Fillmore's letter to the Japanese Emperor, "friendship, commerce, a supply of coal and provisions, and protection for our shipwrecked people." The American whale industry in the Pacific Ocean about this time was estimated at about $17,000,000. In several instances American whalers had been wrecked on the Japanese coasts and the crews had been maltreated by the Japanese officials, as in the case of the Lawrence

in 1846, and the Ladoga in 1848. Then, too, it was quite necessary for ocean liners plying between California and China to stop over in Japanese ports to provision themselves. In addition to all these material reasons, there was some sense of moral duty on the part of Christian America to open up heathen Japan to the penetrating rays of Christian civilization. Indeed, as early as 1816, John Quincy Adams urged the opening of Japan as a duty of Christian nations.

Between 1854, when the first American-Japanese treaty was signed at Yokohama, and 1899, when the Western nations recognized the full sovereignty of Dai Nippon, many significant historical events happened in the Sunrise Kingdom. It was during the early part of this period that the Japanese embassies returned from Europe and America with the astonishing discovery that "it is not the foreigners, but we ourselves who are barbarous. Japanese stu-.

dents were sent abroad to learn Western arts and sciences; foreign teachers were employed to reorganize the school system; the army was organized after the Western model, and the navy changed from fishermen's junks to iron-clad men-of-war; and feudal barons were forced to give up their powers to the central government. In short, Japan emerged from a state of mediaval feudalism into that of a modern constitu

tional monarchy, strongly centralized and highly efficient in its working order. In the Boxer uprising, 1900, she joined hands with the Western nations, and in the Russo-Japanese War, 1904-5, she completely surprised the world with the efficiency of her military organization. It was the first time since the Turk had pounded the gates of Vienna that a heathen nation of the East had shown itself able successfully to meet a Christian power of the West on the military field. With good reason did President Roosevelt pay high tribute in his message to Congress, 1906, to the spirit and methods of Japan in her acceptance and promotion of modern civilization; and it was largely through the instrumentality of President Roosevelt that the peace negotiations at Portsmouth were brought to a successful issue. When in 1908 Japan sent her first envoy, Viscount Shuzo Aoki, to the United States with the rank of Ambassador, it was the culmination of the long friendship between the two countries.

American relations with Japan in international questions have always been fair, and Japanese statesmen have looked up to the United States for moral support in their struggle for recognition by the Western Powers. They

The United States was the first of Western nations to withdraw the right of extra-territoriality from Japan by a treaty signed Nov. 22, 1894. See Part III.