The Pacific War - week by week

- 0.3 - The Pacific war - The rise of the Japanese Empire

By the start of the 20^th Century, Japan had turned from a pre-industrialized isolationist state into a modernized regional power, defeating both the Chinese and Russian Empires, annexing Korea and Taiwan, and expanding their sphere of influence across East Asia. But after the death of Emperor Meiji, new problems would arise, opportunities would be taken and Japan would continue to expand and develop itself as a rising great power. Today, we’re going to continue analyzing the evolution of the Japanese Empire during the Taishō and Early Shōwa eras, covering its role in the Great War, subsequent expansionist developments, and the start of its trajectory towards fascism and the Pacific War.

- 0.2 - The Pacific War - The Meiji Restoration

In the first half of the 19th century, Japan was an agrarian country of tens of millions of rice farmers, a small minority of merchants, who benefited from their hard work, and the elite class of samurai, who, as peace continued, exchanged their swords for calligraphy brushes, working in a variety of administrative positions. Both the farmers and the samurai were indebted to the merchants and this, coupled with increasing peasant unrest and foreign interventions, threatened to destroy the status quo of the Tokugawa Shogunate. And yet, almost four decades later, the Japanese Empire established itself as a regional power in the Far East, going so far as to defeat the Russian behemoth. How did Japan achieve this? How did it undergo such a transformation from a poor isolationist state into a modern military powerhouse? Today, we are going to answer all these questions and talk about the Meiji restoration and the Russo-Japanese War.

- 0.1 - The Pacific War - Imperialism in the East

Once a land of ancient empires and legendary rulers, Asia saw itself turn into a colony of the expanding European powers in the Early Modern period. Drawn to the Asian silk and spice trade, their colonization efforts were initially directed to harness the continent’s economic power. Eventually, the European states started to use more and more force, and by the start of the 20^th Century, the Eastern world would be almost entirely in the hands of Colonial Empires. Welcome to our quick rundown on the European expansion in Asia and the Pacific. This is a prelude video to our series on the Pacific War - we’ll release weekly episodes with events that started 80 years prior, don’t forget to subscribe to never miss them!