- Western countries merely wished to exploit Asia and showed much prejudice against her peoples.
- The 19thcentury Western carving up of China had been a warning to Japan.
- Japan realised that to retain her independence and national character she had to adopt some Western ideas, and quickly.
- In particular Japan copied Western military ideas, for example her navy started building a ‘dreadnaught’ battleship in 1905 - a year before HMS Dreadnaught was started in Britain.
- Japan’s modern military then set about finding ways to promote Japanese interests abroad.
- China was defeated in battle in 1894-5 and Japan got influence on the mainland and Taiwan. This was the First Sino-Japanese War. (Sino=Chinese)