Boshin war/Meiji restoration

>>3340281
It's obviously easier to modernize on smaller scale.

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"Hurrr durr mandate of heaven makes us invincible to modern guns. Also lets culturally segregate the army!"

>>3340281
>hmmm, what could we adopt from the French to improve our military?
>their technology or their retarded uniforms?
>let's go with the uniforms

Lmao

>>3340281
>How did japan make a miracle of modernisation that the Great Qing dynasty couldn't?

This is actually a really interesting question.

It has to some degree to do with the size of the country, as was said above, but there were more important factors in play.

One of the main ones was difference in government between the two nations.

Qing China was not entirely a backwards country, decidedly against modernity, in fact, several powerful politicians made attempts at radical modernisation of state infrastructure and military affairs. The problem was that China was so much of a bureaucratic mire that any attempt at modernisation, which would inevitably run counter to the interests of many powerful people, was systemically opposed by large parts of the bureaucracy. They also had the unlucky station of a young and weak emperor, and a dowager empress whose political leanings were fickle and unreliable.

The Qing did try to modernise, they tried really hard in fact, and would have succeeded if they had managed to deal with the elements within the bureaucracy and the aristocracy that stood to lose greatly in power and influence from reforms.

>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Strengthening_Movement
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Days%27_Reform

Japan on the other hand benefited from the restoration of Imperial autocracy, if even for a moment, under an emperor who was at least to some degree a visionary, and who had, along with the men around him, a plan for the country. The reforms both benefited and hurt certain influential members of society, as in China, but unlike in China, the emperor revived his autocratic powers, and gathered as much influence of the sections of society around him as he could, giving himself as much of a power base as possible. He also seized control of the military, as head of state, and with his opposition disunited, the ensuing wars for control of Japan greatly favoured his relatively organised and unified clique.

Japanese population actually dances to the tunes of the elites https://geopoliticalfutures.com/japanese-exceptionalism/

File: Commander Zhao Hui surprises the Dzungars in Oroi Jalatu.jpg (707KB, 1036x631px) Image search: [Google]

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>>3340301
>Also lets culturally segregate the army!
The Banner Armies weren't culturally segregated ever since the Qing founder, Hong Taiji realized he needed the cooperation of the Mongs and the Chinese gunners during his invasion of China.

They just became army divisions by the 1700s.

By the 1800s they stopped being effective. If you look at the Taiping Rebellion, the banner armies got their asses kicked and the guys who saved the day were the westernized units and the ad hoc militia armies raised in the defense of the realm.

>>3340975
Cont.

In specific relation to the Japanese situation, the Meiji restoration and the ensuing wars were, more than anything, civil wars for dominance of Japan, as the country had experienced previously, which were very all-or-nothing affairs. The initial support of the emperor among the feudal domains (specifically Satsuma and Choshu) gave him a very big advantage, as these domains were rich, well armed, and well led, and had a specific goal in advancing their political station. They wanted a civil war, because they wanted their clique, united under the emperor, to gain absolute control over Japan, and they knew it would come to bloodshed, as it had done previously in the country's history, so they prepared for war.

From the European perspective, they saw a nation with two large and powerful factions preparing for war, with vast armies at their disposal. They saw the opportunity to profit from the sales of arms and other aid, rather than the risk of any kind of intervention against such determined and numerous forces, as their best course of action.

The Qing on the other hand, were not keen on any kind of civil war, as their prerogative was to maintain civil peace above all (to maintain the mandate of heaven). Their reform movements were not focused around the political desires of certain members of the aristocracy, who had great feudal armies and wealth at their disposal, and the willingness to completely destroy their enemies, but rather around well-educated bureaucrats (though some were former generals), who relied on their influence at court rather than any feudal military strength or personal wealth, to support their reforms. This was especially exacerbated in the wake of the Taiping rebellion, which had horribly scarred China, and made any ensuing civil war for power very dangerous, and risking massive popular uprising.

It's quite sad how close the Qing got to full modernisation, but how they were denied by their internal political instability.

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>>3340281
Because the Qingz got fucked first and Japan saw the writing on the wall. Pretty simple.

If Japan was fucked first then it wouldn't be the case.

Or still would, considering China sits on a high horse in Asia and would consider Japan getting screwed "lol barbarians barbarianing"

>>3340281
>How did japan make a miracle of modernisation that the Great Qing dynasty couldn't?
Finances, the tax rate was non existant for the peasantry because during and after Kangxi Era. Qing had a huge trade benefit that made taxation absolete considering Kangxi Emperor tried to gain the support from both the Han beurocrats and aristocrats but also the peasantry to further the claim that the Manchu Dynasty did infact have the Mandate of Heaven.
So of course when you get invaded and forced to open your country to drugs which coused huge trade defesits as well as pay war reperations you are going to lose money, money that could be used on new equipment and agents from the west.
Why didn't they just increase the taxes? Taiping rebellion... The fact that any fuck up would piss the shit out of the populace made reforms very risky and slow, considering the ruling Manchu was a minority and if the Heavenly Kingdom had been established you would have seen systematic genocide.
Taiping Rebellion could be seen compared with the Meji Restoration. Though in this case the more moderate "shogunate" faction won. Still, the war saw the ability to modernize, at least militarily. To crush the God Worshippers the Qing used their first modernized army, The Ever Victorious Army drilled by western adventures. (Fun fact the western merchenaries actually got BTFO by the Taiping rebels)
Why didn't they continue the modernization after Taiping had been crushed? Second opium war, more war reporations, now to more powers.
Qing was in a situation were they didn't have the suffisent funds, trade defesit and they couldn't take loans.

>>3340281
Japan was more developed than China at that point. Edo was among the most populated cities in the world, and the literacy rate was surprisingly high.