Meiji Restoration
Isolated Japan races to become a world power
In 1868 the Tokugawa shogunate was abolished and power formally returned to Emperor Meiji. Japan, until recently closed to the outside world, carried out Western-style reforms and within decades became an industrial and military power.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
Did you know
Kyoto (Heian-kyō) was Japan's capital for more than 1,000 years — from 794 until the emperor moved to Tokyo after the Meiji Restoration.
Only 37 years after the Meiji Restoration, when Japan was just leaving its samurai order behind, it defeated Russia in the war of 1904–1905.
In 1868 Japan was still ruled by a shogun and samurai carried swords. Less than a century later Tokyo hosted the Olympics and launched the world's first high-speed train.
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1845–1852 Great Famine in Ireland — 23 years earlier
- 1861 Unification of Italy — 7 years earlier
- 1870–1871 Franco-Prussian War — 2 years later
- 1886 Benz's first automobile — 18 years later
- 1889 Eiffel Tower — 21 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1853–1856 Crimean War — 15 years earlier
- 1861 Emancipation of the serfs in Russia — 7 years earlier
- 1867 Alaska Purchase — 1 year earlier
- 1869 Tolstoy's War and Peace — 1 year later
- 1877 Premiere of Swan Lake — 9 years later
Middle East
- 1876–1878 The first Ottoman constitution — 8 years later
Africa
- 1869 Opening of the Suez Canal — 1 year later
- 1879 Battle of Isandlwana — 11 years later
- 1885 The Mahdists take Khartoum — 17 years later
- 1885–1908 The Congo Free State — 17 years later
- 1886 The Witwatersrand Gold Rush — 18 years later
Americas
- 1864–1870 Paraguayan War — 4 years earlier
- 1867 Canadian Confederation — 1 year earlier
- 1869 First transcontinental railroad — 1 year later
- 1876 Invention of the telephone — 8 years later
- 1879 Edison's incandescent lamp — 11 years later
Oceania
- 1851 The Australian gold rushes — 17 years earlier
- 1893 New Zealand women win the vote — 25 years later
- 1893 Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom — 25 years later
Alive at the time
- Charles Darwin (aged 59)
- Karl Marx (aged 50)
- Queen Victoria (aged 49)
- Fyodor Dostoevsky (aged 47)
- Leo Tolstoy (aged 40)
- Dmitri Mendeleev (aged 34)
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (aged 28)
- Thomas Edison (aged 21)
- Vincent van Gogh (aged 15)
- Nikola Tesla (aged 12)