Japan's Empire, 1895-1945 ((3))

Catalog description

This course examines the political, social, and economic development of Japan's empire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when much of the world's territory was carved into a handful of colonial empires. While Japan began as a victim of imperialism, it later became an aggressor. We will explore the peculiarities of a non-Western, late-developing imperial power by looking at different aspects of the Japanese empire and imperial Japan, including imperial ideology, the political economy of empire, metropolitan and peripheral agents promoting expansionism, and the technologies of colonial rule. By considering the Japanese case in comparative terms, we will gain a more nuanced understanding of Japanese imperialism and the history of modern Japan. (Asia/ Empires)