The Discussion Of Japanese Naval Construction In The Middle And Late 19th Century

In modern times,the European and American imperialist powers have divided and swept the world.At the end of the 18th century,Western countries began to visit Japan frequently.Then,in the mid-19th century,under the powerful threat of Western military force led by the United States,Japan was forced to open their country and sign an unequal treaty with it.In this severe situation,Japan after the opening of the country quickly followed the West and began their modernization of the navy.Since then,although Japan has changed its regime due to the Boshin War,the construction of the Navy remains unwavering and eventually becomes a world-class naval power.Throughout the modern history of the Japanese navy,political factors,as the core issue affecting the construction of the modern Japanese navy,have been running through the history of the modern Japanese navy for a long time.However,the history of the Japanese navy from the bakumatsu era to the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century has different stages due to the different historical backgrounds and specific conditions.From the mid-1950s to the early 1970s,Tokugawa Shogunate established the Nagasaki Naval Training Center based on the Western warship Kanko Maru presented by the Dutch government,and began the modernization of the navy.In the meantime,although the Tokugawa shogunate was replaced by the Meiji government,its fine traditions of learning from the West and actively introducing Western advanced naval technological achievements were continued by the Meiji regime.Although the Meiji government completed the integration and inheritance of the naval heritage of the Shogunate in 1972,the construction of the Japanese modern navy once fell into a trough.The reasons include the Japanese national military construction’s bias towards the Imperial Japanese Army in the early Meiji era,the turmoil in the domestic situation,the lack of state finance and industrial base and the insufficient political status and influence of the navy.After that,Satsuma,one of the oligarchs in the Meiji period of Japan,actively intervened in and took control of modern IJN out of its own interests.With the strong political strength and influence of Satsuma clan,the construction of modern IJN regained its vitality.In the same period,the deterioration of sino-japanese relations caused by Japan’s active expansionary foreign policy directly triggered the arms race between China and Japan in modern times,and the trend of international naval expansion,which played a positive role in promoting the naval construction of modern Japan.Therefore,the Japanese Navy flourished in the 1880s and achieved a certain scale.In the early 1890s,although the structural political changes in modern Japan triggered a fierce conflict between the Navy and the Congress,the Navy not only reversed the confrontation with Congress through the active institutional and personnel system reform of the Navy but also the foundation for friendly cooperation with the Congress.It also succeeded in increasing the power of the battle on the eve of the First Sino-Japanese War,and finally defeated China’s Beiyang Fleet in the war,laying the foundation for Japan’s victory.After the First Sino-Japanese War,with the decisive role of IJN in the war and the enormous political and economic benefits brought by the victory of the war to the Navy,IJN’s strength and scale have achieved leap-forward growth,and Japan has also become a world-class naval power.In general,because of the unique constitutional rights and extra-legal privileges granted to the military by the modern Japanese Constitution,the military departments of modern Japan,including the Navy,have exerted tremendous influence on modern Japanese politics,society and even history.Politics,as the lifeline of modern Japanese navy’s modernization construction and the rise of the department,required the navy to actively participate in the political activities of modern Japan and seek the interests of the department.Therefore,modern IJN has been actively participating in and interfering with politics for a long time,and representatively reflects the continuity characteristics of modern Japanese politics.Its rise has also effectively mapped and profoundly affected the rise of modern Japan.