A year later Perry returned in threatening large warships with the aspiration of concluding a treaty that would open up Japanese ports for trade.

[1] Perry concluded the treaty that would open up two Japanese ports (Shimoda and Hakodate) only for material support, such as firewood, water, food, and coal for U.S. ships.

Later, Japan reluctantly expanded its trade deals to France, Britain, the Netherlands and Russia due to American pressure.

The word "Meiji" means "enlightened rule" and the goal was to combine "modern advances" with traditional "eastern" values (和魂洋才, Wakonyosai).

[2] The main leaders of this were Itō Hirobumi, Matsukata Masayoshi, Kido Takayoshi, Itagaki Taisuke, Yamagata Aritomo, Mori Arinori, Ōkubo Toshimichi, and Yamaguchi Naoyoshi.

The foundation of the Meiji Restoration was the 1866 Satsuma-Chōshū Alliance between Saigō Takamori and Kido Takayoshi, leaders of the reformist elements in the Satsuma and Chōshū Domains at the southwestern end of the Japanese archipelago.

This period also saw Japan change from being a feudal society to having a centralized nation and left the Japanese with a lingering influence of modernity.

It is desirable that the representatives of the treaty powers recognize this announcement.Shortly thereafter in January 1868, the Boshin War started with the Battle of Toba–Fushimi in which Chōshū and Satsuma's forces defeated the ex-shōgun's army.

[10] Subsequently, De Graeff van Polsbroek assisted the emperor and the government in their negotiations with representatives of the major European powers.

The defeat of the armies of the former shōgun (led by Enomoto Takeaki and Hijikata Toshizō) marked the final end of the Tokugawa shogunate, with the Emperor's power fully restored.

"[14] Under the leadership of Mori Arinori, a group of prominent Japanese intellectuals went on to form the Meiji Six Society in 1873 to continue to "promote civilization and enlightenment" through modern ethics and ideas.

One of the primary differences between the samurai and peasant classes was the right to bear arms; this ancient privilege was suddenly extended to every male in the nation.

The ideal of samurai military spirit lived on in romanticized form and was often used as propaganda during the early 20th-century wars of the Empire of Japan.

Despite the bakufu's best efforts to freeze the four classes of society in place, during their rule villagers had begun to lease land out to other farmers, becoming rich in the process.

Besides drastic changes to the social structure of Japan, in an attempt to create a strong centralized state defining its national identity, the government established a dominant national dialect, called "standard language" (標準語, hyōjungo), that replaced local and regional dialects and was based on the patterns of Tokyo's samurai classes.

[18] Adopting enlightenment ideals of popular education, the Japanese government established a national system of public schools.

By the end of the Meiji period, attendance in public schools was widespread, increasing the availability of skilled workers and contributing to the industrial growth of Japan.

Many people believed it was essential for Japan to acquire western "spirit" in order to become a great nation with strong trade routes and military strength.

There were a few factories set up using imported technologies in the 1860s, principally by Westerners in the international settlements of Yokohama and Kobe, and some local lords, but these had relatively small impacts.

[21] Since the new sectors of the economy could not be heavily taxed, the costs of industrialisation and necessary investments in modernisation heavily fell on the peasant farmers, who paid extremely high land tax rates (about 30 percent of harvests) as compared to the rest of the world (double to seven times of European countries by net agricultural output).

[22] During the Meiji period, powers such as Europe and the United States helped transform Japan and made them realize a change needed to take place.

Since the feudal system was abolished and the fiefs (han) theoretically reverting to the emperor, the national government saw no further use for the upkeep of these now obsolete castles.

[25] Some however were explicitly saved from destruction by interventions from various persons and parties such as politicians, government and military officials, experts, historians, and locals who feared a loss of their cultural heritage.

During the Meiji restoration's shinbutsu bunri, tens of thousands of Japanese Buddhist religious idols and temples were smashed and destroyed.

In the blood tax riots, the Meiji government put down revolts by Japanese samurai angry that the traditional untouchable status of burakumin was legally revoked.