Treaty of Amity and Commerce (United States–Japan)

It took two years to break down Japanese resistance, but with the realization that demands for similar privileges would soon follow from other Western powers, the Tokugawa government eventually capitulated.

[citation needed] Among the most important points were:[2] The agreement served as a model for similar treaties signed by Japan with other foreign countries in the ensuing weeks.

The recovery of national status and strength became an overarching priority for the Japanese, with the treaty's domestic consequences being the end of Bakufu (Shōgun) control and the establishment of a new imperial government.

[4] Perry's expedition to Japan was theoretically linked to the notion of manifest destiny, in which American settlers had a "God-given" right to spread across North America.

According to US Secretary of State Daniel Webster, God had placed coal for steam ships and other trading vessels "in the depths of the Japanese islands for the benefit of the human family.

Many of those Tokugawan officials who agreed to the Treaty of Kanagawa did so in an effort to avoid war with the United States, whom they knew possessed a far superior military than anything found in Japan.

[13] Harris' emphasis (and threat) of the inevitable defeat of the Japanese, who still proved reluctant to sign the treaty, by European powers was enough to convince many of the kaikoku members of the Tokugawa Shogunate to agree to the terms of the United States, no matter how unfavorable they were.