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In contrast to the Chinese, who clung to the belief in their own cultural superiority despite repeated European humiliations, the Japanese decided early to learn the barbarians' ways. They sent inquiring envoys abroad and hired many foreign experts. Some of the lessons were basic. The Meiji rulers abolished feudalism in 1871, and all fiefs reverted to the Emperor. The samurai, warriors who had formed a ruling caste under the shogunate, were pensioned off. They were forbidden to carry swords or even to wear their traditional topknots. When the samurai rose in revolt, they were suppressed by new armies of conscripts (whom the French were training). With conscription came the French system of compulsory universal education. British shipyards began building Japanese warships, and the Royal Navy trained Japanese seamen as officers.
Modernization took all manner of forms. Tokyo's first gaslights brightened the Ginza in 1874, and four years later came the first electric bulb, which burned out in 15 minutes. The Empress stopped blackening her teeth in 1873. Japan tasted its first butter, its first lemonade.
Underlying many of the Meiji innovations was a specific purpose: to combat the "unfair" treaties that the Western powers had forced on Japan. Since those treaties imposed low tariffs to open the way for Western goods, the Meiji rulers spent heavily to subsidize their own development of textile mills, shipping, banking and other industries. Still broader results derived from the Meiji hope of renegotiating the treaties. The Westerners had insisted on extraterritoriality for their own citizens in Japan, for example, on the ground that Westerners could not be subject to antiquated feudal laws. Thus the modernized Japanese legal codes. (The concept of "rights" as contrasted to obligations was such a novelty that a new word, kenri, had to be invented.)
In 1889 the Meiji unveiled their most ambitious effort to impress the world:
Japan's first constitution.
When the official in charge of the project went to Europe for expert guidance, he spent less time in London than in the Germany of Bismarck, and the Meiji constitution was Japan's parallel to Bismarckian conservatism: sovereignty belonged not to the people but to the Emperor. The Cabinet was responsible not to the legislature but to the throne.
Only the wealthiest 1% of the populace could vote for the lower house of the Diet, and the upper house was reserved for the aristocracy.
The Japanese were finally able to renegotiate their treaty with Britain in 1894, then with the other Western powers. The same year, proud of their nation's new status, they picked a quarrel with China over disputed rights in the feeble kingdom of Korea. They attacked without warning, and won a quick victory. Ten years later, they inflicted the same fate on Russia.