Kanagawa Treaty
March 31, 1854
Commodore Perry returned with a larger squadron and a firmer tone, and the Tokugawa shogunate signed a treaty opening two ports and guaranteeing American shipwrecked sailors good treatment. It was the thin end of the wedge. Within fifteen years the shogunate would fall and Japan would choose, violently, to modernize rather than be colonized.
In context
Also in 1854 (4 other events on record)
- Kansas-Nebraska Act · North America · Politics
- John Snow Removes the Broad Street Pump Handle · Europe · Science
- Nightingale Sails for Scutari · Europe · Science
- Charge of the Light Brigade · Europe · War
Before and after in East Asia
Before and after in Politics
- Before: July 8, 1853: Perry at Edo Bay
- After: March 2, 1855: Nicholas I Dies
Era
Industrial Age (1801–1900), one of 513 events from that era on Saeculum.