State · 1868
Meiji Restoration
Edo, renamed Tokyo in 1868 (Japan)
The arrival of the US Perry Expedition in 1853 and the unequal treaties that followed undermined the Tokugawa shogunate, which had ruled Japan since 1603. On 3 January 1868 an alliance led by the Satsuma and Chōshū domains restored political power to the young Emperor Meiji; Tokugawa resistance was defeated in the Boshin War, and Edo was renamed Tokyo, where the emperor took up residence in 1869.
Why it mattered
The new government dismantled the shogunal system and set Japan on a course of rapid industrialisation and Westernisation, adopting Western ideas, production methods and technology.
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