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Ap World History Essay: Comparing and Contrasting China and Japan's Responses to Western Penetration in the 19th Century

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Ap World History Essay: Comparing and Contrasting China and Japan's Responses to Western Penetration in the 19th Century
Japan and China had many contrasting responses to western penetration in the nineteenth century, including economic interaction - economically China suffered and Japan prospered, Japanese agricultural productivity increased while China’s did not, and China only accepted a small amount of goods while Japan accepted a wide range of goods- and political interaction - China went to war but Japan did not, Japan adopted western learning styles but China did not, and Japan heavily increased taxes on their people after 1890, while China did not -but had very comparable geographic traits – both had ocean borders – Japan was completely surrounded by water while China was bordered on a large percentage of itself, both kept their ports either fully closed, like Japan which completely isolated itself in the beginning, or like China which opened a only limited number of ports and cities to trade, and both conducted their trade – China with Britain, Japan with America – by boat across the ocean.

Following the Western penetration in The Nineteenth Century Japanese agricultural productivity increased. However in China there was no such increase. In the end Japan's economy boomed. Whereas China's did not. This could be due to the fact that Japan accepted the western penetration whereas China resisted. The Chinese accpeted only a tiny selection of Western goods in trade. Whereas the Japanese were much more open to western trade and accepted a wide range of western goods.
When China lost the first Opium war with the British they were forced to sign several “unequal treaties,” in addition they had to surrender Hong Kong. Whereas the Japanese did not get into a war with the British. This could be due to the fact that the Japanese were more open to trading with the British then the Chinese were. The Japanese in order to avoid westerm domination adopted western learning, economics, and military methods. There is also evidence to suggest that the emperor himself was personally

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