Turning Point - Sekigahara: Toyotomi's Global Expansion and its Consequences

Phase 20 - A World Moving Toward Imperialism

In 1869, the Suez Canal opened, significantly shortening the distance on Earth. It marked the symbolic beginning of the era of imperialism, primarily centered in Europe, and was the start of a challenging period for the Asian world and Japan.

Until then, East Asia remained a place unimaginably distant from Europe. Regions like the North Pacific, where Japanese people frequently traveled, seemed like the ends of the Earth to the point that one could almost believe if one was told that Oceanus was located at the end of the world. In an era where one had to rely solely on winds and ocean currents to cross the seas, going to Asia and the Pacific presented unparalleled difficulties in comparison to modern times.

However, the construction of the Suez Canal made it possible to reach the Indian Ocean without having to pass through the treacherous Cape of Good Hope. Furthermore, the spread of a new means of transportation, steamships, further lowered the barrier of distance. It is said that the fate of India was determined by the opening of the Suez Canal.

At this point, Western European countries, which had already succeeded in plundering the world's wealth to the greatest extent, were actively engaging in activities to make lands all around the world their markets or destinations for capital investment.

In such times, Japan had already succeeded in amassing wealth comparable to Western Europe and possessed a vast territory. In other words, Japan was on the defensive rather than the offensive. Moreover, European countries were self-justifying their expansion through unscientific white supremacy, and the position of people of color was very fragile due to the disparity in the power of violent civilizations. The reason the Indian region, which should have had substantial power until the 18th century, succumbed to Britain without much resistance was the significant power gap caused by the Industrial Revolution.

Among these circumstances, only the territories created by Japan and the Japanese people had the power to stand against the Western European world. The core of Japanese influence consisted of the Empire of Japan on the Japanese archipelago and the Yamato Republic, which covered nearly half of the North American continent. However, the Yamato Republic was still in the midst of territorial development and was in a stage where it needed to focus on its own land development first. Moreover, it was difficult to direct efforts overseas because it had the troublesome neighboring countries of the United States and the Confederate States to the east.

In other words, the Empire of Japan stood in the way of the whites.

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During this period, the monarch of Japan had transitioned to Emperor Kōmei, who was the 121st Emperor. The era name was thus changed to "Kōmei," reflecting the Emperor's name. Japan itself was seen as a constitutional monarchy with the emperor as a symbol of authority, similar to monarchies in other parts of the world.

Japan, having the name "Empire" as its official title and an emperor as its head of state, was a formidable entity.

In the early 19th century, despite losing vast territories (colonies) in North America, Japan's territorial holdings were still second in size only to Russia's (the Scramble for Africa had not yet taken place). The Industrial Revolution, which had started in Japan almost as quickly as in Britain, had already reached a mature stage, and Japan was even ahead of other Western European countries in terms of development. Industrial production levels, with the exception of Britain, were on par with Germany and the Yamato Republic. Japan had an abundance of underground resources, and there was no shortage of them. In fact, rubber, which began to be produced in Southeast Asia, was almost a monopoly resource for Japan. Tin from the Sunda Islands was also mostly under Japanese control. In various parts of Australia, the development of highly promising resources such as iron ore and coal had begun.