The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895-1910
What forces were behind Japan's emergence as the first non-Western colonial power at the turn of the twentieth century? Peter Duus brings a new perspective to Meiji expansionism in this pathbreaking study of Japan's acquisition of Korea, the largest of its colonial possessions. He shows how Japan's drive for empire was part of a larger goal to become the economic, diplomatic, and strategic equal of the Western countries who had imposed a humiliating treaty settlement on the country in the 1850s.
Duus maintains that two separate but interlinked processes, one political/military and the other economic, propelled Japan's imperialism. Every attempt at increasing Japanese political influence licensed new opportunities for trade, and each new push for Japanese economic interests buttressed, and sometimes justified, further political advances. The sword was the servant of the abacus, the abacus the agent of the sword. While suggesting that Meiji imperialism shared much with the Western colonial expansion that provided both model and context, Duus also argues that it was "backward imperialism" shaped by a sense of inferiority vis-à-vis the West. Along with his detailed diplomatic and economic history, Duus offers a unique social history that illuminates the motivations and lifestyles of the overseas Japanese of the time, as well as the views that contemporary Japanese had of themselves and their fellow Asians. |
Contents
The Origins of Meiji Imperialism
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1 |
The Korean Question 18761894
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29 |
The Failed Protectorate 18941895
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66 |
Japanese Power in Limbo 18951898
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103 |
The Race for Concessions 18951901
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134 |
Toward the Protectorate 19011905
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169 |
The Politics of the Protectorate 19051910
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201 |
Capturing the Market
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245 |
Other editions - View all
The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895-1910 Peter Duus Limited preview - 1995 |
The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895-1910 Peter Duus No preview available - 1995 |
Common terms and phrases
agricultural Allen American anese annexation army began British cabinet capital China Chinese chō Chōsen colonial concessions cotton Dai-Ichi Bank diplomatic dispatch Dispatch Book domination early East Asia economic emigration emperor establishment expansion export faction finance Foreign Minister guerrilla Hayashi Ibid Ilchinhoe imperialism imperialist important Inchon independence influence Inoue Kaoru interests Itō Hirobumi Japan Japanese government Japanese residents Japanese settlers Japanese troops Kankoku Katsura kenkyū Kim Hong-jip Kindai king Kojong Komura Korean court Korean government Korean market land leadership legation loan Manchuria Meiji leaders merchants migration million Ministry mission monarch Mutsu negotiations Nihon Nikkan officials Osaka P'yongyang palace peninsula percent political profit proposed protectorate Pusan railroad railway reform resident-general rice righteous army Russian Russo-Japanese Russo-Japanese War Seoul Seoul-Pusan Shibusawa Shibusawa Eiichi Sino-Japanese Taewon'gun territory tion Tokyo trade treaty ports Triple Intervention Uchida Western Wŏnsan Yamagata Yamagata Aritomo yangban Yi Wan-yong