Changes

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.

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 [[Iturup]] 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 [[Urup]] 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.