The Meiji Restoration of Japan

Matthew Perry "bullied" the Japanese into signing a trade treaty, by trading them drugs instead of regular items that they can acctually use, the british people traded a sort of drug called "opium" for tea. opium is a type of herione.
it is made of a pesial type of poppy seeds, and they are boiled until a type of gooey stuff comes out of it. ( then the smoke it till they get high. )
so then they got addicted to the drug and kept on trading all their tea.


eventualy the british one and they got their ways.

quote: "

ITEM A: Capt. Elliot to the opium traders, March 27, 1839

I, Charles Elliot, Chief Superintendent of the trade of British subjects to China, presently forcibly detained by the provincial government, together with all the merchants of my own and the other foreign nations settled here, without supplies of food, deprived of our servants, and cut off from all intercourse with our respective countries . . . have now received the commands of the High Commissioner [Lin Tse-hsu] . . . to deliver into his hand all the opium held by the people of my own country.

Now I . . . do hereby, in the name and on the behalf of Her Britannic Majesty's Government, enjoin and require all Her Majesty's subjects now present in Canton, forthwith to make a surrender to me for the service of Her said Majesty's Government, to be delivered over to the Government of China, of all the opium under their respective control: and to hold the British ships and vessels engaged in the opium trade subject to my immediate direction: and to forward me without delay a sealed list of all the British owned opium in their respective possession. And I . . do now in the most full and unreserved manner, hold myself responsible for, and on the behalf of Her Britannic Majesty's Government, to all and each of Her Majesty's subjects surrendering the said British owned opium into my hands, to be delivered over to the Chinese Government. And I . . .do further caution all Her Majesty's subjects here present in Canton, owners of or charged with the management of opium the property of British subjects, that failing the surrender of the said opium into my hands at or before six o'clock this day, I, . . hereby declare Her Majesty's Government wholly free of all manner of responsibility in respect of the said British owned opium.

And it is specially to be understood that proof of British property and value of all British owned opium, surrendered to me agreeable to this notice, shall be determined upon principles, and in a manner hereafter to be defined by Her Majesty's Government.

[Ref: British Parliamentary Papers, 1840, XXXVI

japan also had moderinized into a wealthy country, by trading with people all over the world,and they kept gathering natural resources until they achived what they had to.

archipelago: means, n. pl. ar·chi·pel·a·goes or ar·chi·pel·a·gos

1. A large group of islands: the japanese archipelago.
2. A sea, such as the Aegean, containing a large number of scattered islands.