The Empire of Japan was the Japanese state from the Meiji Restoration, which returned power to the emperor and ended the Tokugawa shogunate, until the post-war constitution of 1947. In these decades Japan industrialized with great speed, adopted a Western-style constitution in 1889 and built a modern army and navy. It defeated China in 1894-95 and Russia in 1904-05, took Taiwan and Korea, and later occupied Manchuria and large parts of China and Southeast Asia. Its expansion led to the Pacific War, and it surrendered in August 1945 after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Under Allied occupation, a new constitution made the emperor a symbol of the state and renounced war.
Before and after
- 1868Founding of Technical University of Munich
- 1868Founding of University of California
- 1868Construction of Auckland Grammar School
- from 1868 to 1889Meiji Restoration
- from 3 January 1868 to 3 May 1947Empire of Japan
- from 27 January 1868 to 27 June 1869Boshin War
- 16 March 1868Birth of Maxim Gorky
- 22 March 1868Birth of Robert Andrews Millikan
- 23 March 1868Founding of University of California, Berkeley
More in Civilizations & archaeology
- from 1760 to 1820Industrial Revolution
- 6 February 1819Founding of modern Singapore
- from 1839 to 1876Tanzimat
- 3 May 1841Founding of New Zealand
- 1891Discovery of Gundestrup cauldron
- 17 December 1907Founding of Bhutan
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.