Boshin War and Japanese Modernization. Boshin War 1868-1869

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THE boshin war was a civil war that took place in Japan in the years of 1868 and 1869, opposing supporters of the young Emperor Tenn Meiji to the shogun's defenders Yoshinobo Tokugawa. The victory in the war by Emperor Meiji and his troops represented the restoration of that dynasty and the beginning of Japan's period of modernization.

Boshin means warriors, and the war that this text deals with was related to the end of the social structures of the so-called Japanese feudalism. O shogunate de Tokugawa intended to modernize Japanese society with the support of Western powers such as England and France, as well as the USA. The shogun was a title given to a supreme military chief in Japan, whose importance for a long time surpassed that of the emperor. There were also in the Japanese social structure the daimyos, great landowners whose main vassals were the warriors samurai.

the posture of modernization it displeased some clans and landowners in the south of the Japanese archipelago, which led them to support Emperor Meiji. The emperor declared the abolition of the Tokugawa shogunate, which had existed for about two hundred years, starting the war. One of Tokugawa's first actions was to try to take over the imperial court in Kyoto, which was thwarted by the Satsuma and Choshu clans. These two clans intended to carry out the centralization of political and military power in Japan.

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Despite the minority of military forces, the forces alongside the emperor achieved important initial victories. This fact was due to the modernization undertaken in the army of Emperor Meiji, with the help of Western countries.

On the other hand, shogun Tokugawa sought to form a coalition after the defeat in Kyoto, even surrendering. The stance displeased Tokugawa's supporter samurai warriors because of the loss of income from the end of the shogunate and its powers over peasant groups.

The samurai formed troops of warriors to face the Meiji army. They managed to take refuge on the island of Ezo (now Hokkaido), forming the Republic of Ezo. Once again the samurai were unable to contain the onslaught of the Meiji army, being defeated in 1869.

The military victory of the new emperor in the War of Boshin meant the end of the so-called Age of Samurai, representatives of a class of warriors who controlled land and peasants in Japan, in an economic and social structure very similar to European feudalism.

It was also the beginning of Meiji Restoration, which centralized political power in Japan and gave the necessary impulses to the modernization of Japanese society along Western capitalist lines.

It is interesting to note that during the Battle of Aizu there was the participation of some samurai women, as Yamakawa Futaba (1844-1909), who had been trained to fight and participated in the defense of the Castle Tsuruga.

The defeat of the shogunate marked the end of feudal Japan and the beginning of the country's economic and military strengthening, transforming it into one of the main powers in the world in the 20th century.


By Me. Tales Pinto

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