Changes

==Chronology==

==Chronology==

Against that background, Perry's arrival in 1853 has come to be taken as a particularly striking and significant episode, and the [[Convention of Kanagawa]] signed with Perry in [[1854]] indeed marks the beginning of a significant "opening" of Japan to Western trade and Western settlement. The terms of this Convention, opening the ports of [[Hakodate]] and [[Shimoda]] to foreign trade, and allowing the stationing of permanent consuls, were quickly extended to the French, British, Dutch, and Russians as well.

Against that background, Perry's arrival in 1853 has come to be taken as a particularly striking and significant episode, and the [[Convention of Kanagawa]] signed with Perry in [[1854]] indeed marks the beginning of a significant "opening" of Japan to Western trade and Western settlement. The terms of this Convention, opening the ports of [[Hakodate]] and [[Shimoda]] to foreign trade, and allowing the stationing of permanent consuls, were quickly extended to the French, British, Dutch, and Russians as well. This Convention was signed after the shogunate formally requested advice from the ''daimyô'', a truly unprecedented move which stirred considerable concern about the shogunate's power and authority.

The following year, in [[1855]], Japan signed its first-ever treaty officially declaring national borders; this was the [[Treaty of Shimoda]], signed with Russia, which declared the island of [[Urup]] and everything south of it within the Kuril Islands (as well as Hokkaidô Island) to be Japanese territory, and the remainder of the Kurils, from [[Iturup]] on north, to be Russian. The treaty left the status of Sakhalin undetermined, however.

The following year, in [[1855]], Japan signed its first-ever treaty officially declaring national borders; this was the [[Treaty of Shimoda]], signed with Russia, which declared the island of [[Urup]] and everything south of it within the Kuril Islands (as well as Hokkaidô Island) to be Japanese territory, and the remainder of the Kurils, from [[Iturup]] on north, to be Russian. The treaty left the status of Sakhalin undetermined, however.

[[Townsend Harris]], the first American consul to be stationed in Japan, arrived in [[1856]] to take up residence at Shimoda.

[[Townsend Harris]], the first American consul to be stationed in Japan, arrived in [[1856]] to take up residence at Shimoda.

By [[1858]], only a few years later, the Tokugawa shogunate would sign more formal Treaties of Amity & Commerce with [[Harris Treaty|the United States]], [[Dutch-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce|the Netherlands]], [[Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce|the United Kingdom]], [[Russo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce|Russia]], and [[Franco-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce|France]].

By [[1858]], only a few years later, the Tokugawa shogunate would sign more formal Treaties of Amity & Commerce with [[Harris Treaty|the United States]], [[Dutch-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce|the Netherlands]], [[Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce|the United Kingdom]], [[Russo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce|Russia]], and [[Franco-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce|France]]. These treaties opened the ports of [[Yokohama]] and [[Nagasaki]] (in [[1859]]), [[Niigata]] (in [[1860]]), and [[Kobe]] (in [[1863]]), to Western trade and settlement, in addition to Shimoda and Hakodate which were already open. Tairô [[Ii Naosuke]] and ''[[roju|rôjû]]'' [[Hotta Masayoshi]] had considerable support for their decision to sign these treaties, but the move was also deeply unpopular among other factions within the shogunate and without. In 1858-1859, Naosuke led a series of purges, known as the [[Ansei Purges]], in which over one hundred samurai elites were removed from their shogunate positions, or, in the case of ''daimyô'' like [[Tokugawa Nariaki]], were confined to their homes, or even in a few cases (such as that of [[Yamauchi Toyoshige|Yamauchi Yôdô]]) were forced to step down as lord of their domain. The following year, in 1860, the shogunate sent its first official overseas diplomatic mission, which met with US President James Buchanan in Washington DC. Meanwhile, however, on 1860/3/3, Ii Naosuke was attacked and killed just [[Sakuradamongai Incident|outside the Sakurada Gate]] of [[Edo castle]], by a group of [[ronin]] who felt he had betrayed the country. [[Henry Heusken]], Dutch advisor to Townsend Harris, was similarly assassinated by the end of that same lunar year (January [[1861]]).

 

==Philosophies in Bakumatsu==

==Philosophies in Bakumatsu==