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Samurai, Daimyo, Matthew Perry, and Nationalism: Crash Course World History #34
Samurai, Daimyo, Matthew Perry, and Nationalism: Crash Course World History #34
In the mid-nineteenth century, Japan transformed from an isolated, feudal state into a modern, empire-building nation-state...in a few short decades.
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Key Ideas
As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
Think about the following questions as you watch the video
- How does John Green define nation-state?
- What were some internal and external factors that made the Shogunate government of Japan unstable by the mid-nineteenth century?
- What changes did the Japanese nationalist rebels bring to Japan once they removed the shogunate?
- What is the connection between Japanese nationalism, modernization, and empire?
: Hi, I'm John Green,
: this is Crash Course World History,
: and today we're going to talk about nationalism,
: the most important global phenomenon of the 19th century
: and also the phenomenon responsible
: for one of the most commented-upon aspects
: of Crash Course, my globes being out of date.
: USSR not a country! (explosion sound effect)
: Rhodesia? (explosion sound effect)
: South Vietnam? (explosion sound effect)
: Sudan with no South Sudan? (explosion sound effect)
: Yugoslavia? (explosion sound effect)
: Okay, no more inaccuracies with the globes.
: (groans) The little globes!
: This one doesn't know about Slovakia.
: This one has East frackin' Pakistan.
: And this one identifies Lithuania as part of Asia.
: Okay, no more globe inaccuracies.
: Actually, bring back my globes-- I feel naked without them.
: (music playing)
: So if you're into European history,
: you're probably somewhat familiar with nationalism
: and the names and countries associated with it.
: Bismarck in Germany, Mazzini and Garibaldi in Italy,
: and Mustafa Kemal, aka Atatürk, in Turkey.
: But nationalism was a global phenomenon,
: and it included a lot of people you may not associate with it,
: like Muhammad Ali in Egypt and also this guy.
: Nationalism was seen in the British dominions
: as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand became federated states
: between 1860 and 1901.
: I would say "independent states" instead of federated states,
: but you guys still have a queen!
: It was also seen in the Balkans,
: where Greece gained its independence in 1832,
: and Christian principalities fought a war
: against the Ottomans in 1878;
: in India, where a political party,
: the Indian National Congress, was founded in 1885;
: and even in China, where nationalism ran up against
: a dynastic system that had lasted more than 2,000 years.
: And then, of course, there are these guys,
: who, in many ways, represent the worst of nationalism,
: the nationalism that tries to deny or eliminate difference
: in the efforts to create a homogeneous,
: mythologized, unitary polity.
: We'll get to them later,
: but it's helpful to bring them up now
: just so we don't get too excited about nationalism.
: Okay, so before we launch into the history,
: let's define the modern nation-state.
: Definitions are slippery, but for our purposes,
: a nation-state involves a centralized government
: that can claim and exercise authority
: over a distinctive territory-- that's the state part.
: It also involves a certain degree of linguistic
: and cultural homogeneity-- that's the nation part.
: Mr. Green, Mr. Green!
: By that definition, China was a nation-state
: by, like, probably the Han dynasty.
: Dude, Me from the Past, you're getting smart.
: Yeah, it could be, and some historians argue that it was.
: Nationhood is really hard to define.
: Like in James Joyce's "Ulysses,"
: the character Bloom famously says that a nation is
: "the same people living in the same place,"
: but then he remembers the Irish and Jewish diasporas
: and adds, "or also living in different places."
: But let's ignore diasporas for the moment and focus on
: territorially bounded groups with a common heritage.
: Same people, same place.
: So how do you become a nation?
: Well, some argue it's an organic process
: involving culturally similar people
: wanting to formalize their connections.
: Others argue that nationalism is constructed by governments,
: building a sense of patriotism
: through compulsory military service
: and statues of national heroes.
: Public education is often seen
: as part of this nationalizing project.
: Schools and textbooks allow countries
: to share their nationalizing narratives,
: which is why the once
: and possibly future independent nation of Texas issues textbooks
: literally whitewashing early American history.
: Still, other historians argue
: that nationalism was an outgrowth
: of urbanization and industrialization,
: since new urbanites were the most likely people
: to want to see themselves as part of a nation.
: For instance, Prague's population rose
: from 157,000 to 514,000 between 1850 and 1900,
: at the same time that the Czechs were beginning to see themselves
: as separate from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
: Which is a cool idea, but it doesn't explain
: why other, less-industrialized places like India
: also saw a lot of nationalism.
: The actual business of nationalization
: involves creating bureaucracies, new systems of education,
: building a large military,
: and often using that military to fight other nation-states,
: since nations often construct themselves
: in opposition to an idea of otherness.
: A big part of being Irish, for instance, is not being English.
: So, emerging nations had a lot of conflicts,
: including the Napoleonic Wars,
: which helped the French become the French;
: the Indian Rebellion of 1857, which helped Indians
: to identify themselves as a homogeneous people;
: the American Civil War-- I mean, before the Civil War,
: many Americans thought of themselves not as Americans,
: but as Virginians or New Yorkers or Pennsylvanians.
: I mean, our antebellum nation
: was usually called "These United States."
: After, it became "The United States."
: So in the U.S., nationalism pulled a nation together,
: but often, nationalism was a destabilizing force
: for multiethnic, land-based empires.
: This was especially the case in the Ottoman Empire,
: which started falling apart in the 19th century
: as first the Greeks, then the Serbs, Romanians,
: and Bulgarians-- all predominantly Christian people--
: began clamoring for, and in some cases winning, independence.
: Egypt is another good example of nationalism serving both
: to create a new state and to weaken an empire.
: Muhammad Ali-- who was actually Albanian
: and spoke Turkish, not Egyptian Arabic--
: and his ruling family encouraged the Egyptian people
: to imagine themselves as a separate nationality.
: But okay, so nationalism was a global phenomenon
: in the 19th century, and we can't talk about it everywhere,
: so instead, we're going to focus on one case study:
: Japan-- you thought I was going to say Germany, didn't you?
: Nope-- you can bite me, Bismarck.
: Japan had been fragmented and feudal
: until the late 16th century,
: when a series of warrior landowners
: managed to consolidate power.
: Eventually, power came to the Tokugawa family,
: who created a military government, or bakufu.
: The first Tokugawa to take power was Ieyasu,
: who took over after the death
: of one of the main unifiers of Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi,
: sometimes known as "The Monkey," although his wife called him--
: and this is true-- "The Bald Rat."
: In 1603 Ieyasu convinced the emperor,
: who was something of a figurehead,
: to grant him the title of shogun.
: And for the next 260 years or so,
: the Tokugawa bakufu was the main government of Japan.
: The primary virtue of this government
: was not necessarily its efficiency
: or its forward-thinking policies, but its stability.
: Stability, the most underrated of governmental virtues.
: Let's go to the Thought Bubble.
: The Tokugawa bakufu wasn't much for centralization,
: as power was mainly in the hands of local lords called daimyo.
: One odd feature of the Tokugawa era
: was the presence of a class of warriors
: who, by the 19th century, had become mostly bureaucrats.
: You may have heard of them: the samurai.
: One of the things that made this hereditary class so interesting
: was that each samurai was entitled to an annual salary
: from the daimyo called a stipend.
: This privilege basically paid them off
: and assured that they didn't become restless warriors
: plaguing the countryside-- that is, bandits.
: We tend to think of samurai as noble and honorable,
: but urban samurai, according to Andrew Gordon's book,
: "A Modern History of Japan,"
: were "a rough-and-tumble lot.
: "Samurai gang wars-- a 'West Side Story'
: "in the shadows of Edo Castle--
: were frequent in the early 1600s."
: And you still say that history books are boring.
: As with kings and lesser nobles anywhere,
: the central bakufu had trouble
: controlling the more powerful daimyo,
: who were able to build up their own strength
: because of their control over local resources.
: This poor control also made it really difficult
: to collect taxes,
: so the Tokugawa were already a bit on the ropes
: when two foreign events rocked Japan.
: First was China's humiliating defeat in the Opium Wars,
: after which Western nations forced China
: to give Europeans special trade privileges.
: It was a wake-up call to see
: the dominant power in the region so humbled,
: but even worse for the Tokugawa
: was the arrival of Matthew Perry.
: No, Thought Bubble, Matthew Perry-- yes, that one.
: The Tokugawa are somewhat famous
: for their not-so-friendly policy toward foreigners,
: especially Western Christian ones,
: for whom the penalty for stepping foot on Japanese soil
: was death.
: The Tokugawa saw Christianity in much the same way
: that the Romans had, as an unsettling threat to stability.
: And in the case of Matthew Perry,
: they had reason to be worried.
: Thanks, Thought Bubble.
: So the American naval commodore arrived in Japan in 1853
: with a flotilla of ships
: and a determination to open Japan's markets.
: Just the threat of American steam-powered warships
: was enough to convince the bakufu
: to sign some humiliating trade treaties
: that weren't unlike the ones that China had signed
: after losing the Opium Wars.
: And this only further motivated the daimyo and samurai,
: who were ready to give the Tokugawa the boot.
: Within a few years, they would.
: So what does this have to do with nationalism?
: Well, plenty-- first off, even though
: the Americans and the Japanese didn't go to war-- yet--
: the perceived threat provided an impetus
: for Japan to start thinking about itself differently.
: It also resulted in the Japanese being convinced
: that if they wanted to maintain their independence,
: they would have to reconstitute their country
: as a modern nation-state.
: This looks a lot like what was happening in Egypt
: or even Germany, with external pressures
: leading to calls for greater national consolidation.
: So the Tokugawa didn't give up without a fight,
: but the civil war between the stronger daimyo and the bakufu
: eventually led to the end of the shogunate.
: And in 1868 the rebels got the newly enthroned Emperor Meiji
: to abolish the bakufu and proclaim
: a restoration of the imperial throne.
: Now the emperor didn't have much real power,
: but he became a symbolic figure,
: a representative of a mythical past
: around whom modernizers could build a sense of national pride.
: And in place of bakufu, Japan created one
: of the most modern nation-states in the world.
: After some trial and error,
: the Meiji leaders created a European-style cabinet system
: of government with a prime minister,
: and in 1889, promulgated a constitution
: that even contained a deliberative assembly, the Diet,
: although the cabinet ministers weren't responsible to it.
: Samurai were incorporated into this system as bureaucrats,
: and their stipends were gradually taken away.
: And soon the Japanese government developed into, like,
: something of a meritocracy.
: Japan also created a new conscript army.
: Beginning in 1873, all Japanese men were required
: to spend three years in the military.
: The program was initially very unpopular--
: there were more than a dozen riots in 1873 and 1874,
: in which crowds attacked military registration centers.
: But eventually, serving in the army created a patriotic spirit
: and a loyalty to the Japanese emperor.
: The Meiji leaders also instituted compulsory education
: in 1872, requiring both boys and girls
: to attend four years of elementary school.
: Oh, it's time for the Open Letter?
: (music playing)
: An Open Letter to Public Education.
: But first, let's see what's in the secret compartment today.
: Oh, it's a graduation hat.
: Thanks, Meredith the intern,
: for letting me borrow your graduation hat.
: Dear Public Education,
: When you were introduced in Japan,
: you were very unpopular,
: because you were funded by a new property tax.
: In fact, you were so unpopular that at least 2,000 schools
: were destroyed by rioters, primarily through arson.
: Stan, it doesn't look good when you bring it in close like that.
: I look like a 90-year-old swimmer.
: And even though public education
: has proved extremely successful,
: lots of people still complain about
: having to pay taxes for it, so let me explain something.
: Public education does not exist for the benefit of students
: or for the benefit of their parents.
: It exists for the benefit of the social order.
: We have discovered as a species
: that it is useful to have an educated population.
: You do not need to be a student or have a child who is a student
: to benefit from public education.
: Every second of every day of your life,
: you benefit from public education.
: So let me explain why I like to pay taxes for schools,
: even though I don't personally have a kid in school.
: It's because I don't like living in a country
: with a bunch of stupid people.
: Best wishes, John Green.
: In Japan, nationalism meant modernization,
: largely inspired by, and in competition with, the West.
: So the Meiji government
: established a functioning tax system,
: they built public infrastructure
: like harbors and telegraph lines,
: invested heavily in railroads,
: and created a uniform national currency.
: But the dark side of nationalism began to appear early on.
: In 1869 the Meiji rulers expanded Japan's borders
: to include the island of Hokkaido;
: and in 1879 they acquired Okinawa
: after forcing its king to abdicate.
: In 1874 Japan even invaded Taiwan
: with an eye toward colonizing it,
: although they weren't successful.
: And in these early actions, we already see
: that nationalism has a habit of thriving on conflict,
: and often, the project of creating a nation-state goes
: hand-in-hand with preventing others from doing the same.
: This failure to imagine the other complexly isn't new,
: but it's about to get a lot more problematic,
: as we'll see next week, when we discuss European imperialism.
: Thanks for watching.
: Crash Course is produced and directed by Stan Muller.
: Our script supervisor is Danica Johnson.
: We're ably interned by Meredith Danko
: and our graphics team is Thought Bubble.
: Also, the show was written by my high school history student,
: John Green, and myself, Raoul Meyer.
: Last week's Phrase of the Week was "Bearded Marxist."
: If you'd like to guess at this week's Phrase of the Week
: or suggest future ones, you can do so in comments,
: where you can also ask questions about today's video
: that will be answered by our team of historians.
: Thanks for watching Crash Course,
: and as we say in my hometown,
: don't forget to be awesome.
: this is Crash Course World History,
: and today we're going to talk about nationalism,
: the most important global phenomenon of the 19th century
: and also the phenomenon responsible
: for one of the most commented-upon aspects
: of Crash Course, my globes being out of date.
: USSR not a country! (explosion sound effect)
: Rhodesia? (explosion sound effect)
: South Vietnam? (explosion sound effect)
: Sudan with no South Sudan? (explosion sound effect)
: Yugoslavia? (explosion sound effect)
: Okay, no more inaccuracies with the globes.
: (groans) The little globes!
: This one doesn't know about Slovakia.
: This one has East frackin' Pakistan.
: And this one identifies Lithuania as part of Asia.
: Okay, no more globe inaccuracies.
: Actually, bring back my globes-- I feel naked without them.
: (music playing)
: So if you're into European history,
: you're probably somewhat familiar with nationalism
: and the names and countries associated with it.
: Bismarck in Germany, Mazzini and Garibaldi in Italy,
: and Mustafa Kemal, aka Atatürk, in Turkey.
: But nationalism was a global phenomenon,
: and it included a lot of people you may not associate with it,
: like Muhammad Ali in Egypt and also this guy.
: Nationalism was seen in the British dominions
: as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand became federated states
: between 1860 and 1901.
: I would say "independent states" instead of federated states,
: but you guys still have a queen!
: It was also seen in the Balkans,
: where Greece gained its independence in 1832,
: and Christian principalities fought a war
: against the Ottomans in 1878;
: in India, where a political party,
: the Indian National Congress, was founded in 1885;
: and even in China, where nationalism ran up against
: a dynastic system that had lasted more than 2,000 years.
: And then, of course, there are these guys,
: who, in many ways, represent the worst of nationalism,
: the nationalism that tries to deny or eliminate difference
: in the efforts to create a homogeneous,
: mythologized, unitary polity.
: We'll get to them later,
: but it's helpful to bring them up now
: just so we don't get too excited about nationalism.
: Okay, so before we launch into the history,
: let's define the modern nation-state.
: Definitions are slippery, but for our purposes,
: a nation-state involves a centralized government
: that can claim and exercise authority
: over a distinctive territory-- that's the state part.
: It also involves a certain degree of linguistic
: and cultural homogeneity-- that's the nation part.
: Mr. Green, Mr. Green!
: By that definition, China was a nation-state
: by, like, probably the Han dynasty.
: Dude, Me from the Past, you're getting smart.
: Yeah, it could be, and some historians argue that it was.
: Nationhood is really hard to define.
: Like in James Joyce's "Ulysses,"
: the character Bloom famously says that a nation is
: "the same people living in the same place,"
: but then he remembers the Irish and Jewish diasporas
: and adds, "or also living in different places."
: But let's ignore diasporas for the moment and focus on
: territorially bounded groups with a common heritage.
: Same people, same place.
: So how do you become a nation?
: Well, some argue it's an organic process
: involving culturally similar people
: wanting to formalize their connections.
: Others argue that nationalism is constructed by governments,
: building a sense of patriotism
: through compulsory military service
: and statues of national heroes.
: Public education is often seen
: as part of this nationalizing project.
: Schools and textbooks allow countries
: to share their nationalizing narratives,
: which is why the once
: and possibly future independent nation of Texas issues textbooks
: literally whitewashing early American history.
: Still, other historians argue
: that nationalism was an outgrowth
: of urbanization and industrialization,
: since new urbanites were the most likely people
: to want to see themselves as part of a nation.
: For instance, Prague's population rose
: from 157,000 to 514,000 between 1850 and 1900,
: at the same time that the Czechs were beginning to see themselves
: as separate from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
: Which is a cool idea, but it doesn't explain
: why other, less-industrialized places like India
: also saw a lot of nationalism.
: The actual business of nationalization
: involves creating bureaucracies, new systems of education,
: building a large military,
: and often using that military to fight other nation-states,
: since nations often construct themselves
: in opposition to an idea of otherness.
: A big part of being Irish, for instance, is not being English.
: So, emerging nations had a lot of conflicts,
: including the Napoleonic Wars,
: which helped the French become the French;
: the Indian Rebellion of 1857, which helped Indians
: to identify themselves as a homogeneous people;
: the American Civil War-- I mean, before the Civil War,
: many Americans thought of themselves not as Americans,
: but as Virginians or New Yorkers or Pennsylvanians.
: I mean, our antebellum nation
: was usually called "These United States."
: After, it became "The United States."
: So in the U.S., nationalism pulled a nation together,
: but often, nationalism was a destabilizing force
: for multiethnic, land-based empires.
: This was especially the case in the Ottoman Empire,
: which started falling apart in the 19th century
: as first the Greeks, then the Serbs, Romanians,
: and Bulgarians-- all predominantly Christian people--
: began clamoring for, and in some cases winning, independence.
: Egypt is another good example of nationalism serving both
: to create a new state and to weaken an empire.
: Muhammad Ali-- who was actually Albanian
: and spoke Turkish, not Egyptian Arabic--
: and his ruling family encouraged the Egyptian people
: to imagine themselves as a separate nationality.
: But okay, so nationalism was a global phenomenon
: in the 19th century, and we can't talk about it everywhere,
: so instead, we're going to focus on one case study:
: Japan-- you thought I was going to say Germany, didn't you?
: Nope-- you can bite me, Bismarck.
: Japan had been fragmented and feudal
: until the late 16th century,
: when a series of warrior landowners
: managed to consolidate power.
: Eventually, power came to the Tokugawa family,
: who created a military government, or bakufu.
: The first Tokugawa to take power was Ieyasu,
: who took over after the death
: of one of the main unifiers of Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi,
: sometimes known as "The Monkey," although his wife called him--
: and this is true-- "The Bald Rat."
: In 1603 Ieyasu convinced the emperor,
: who was something of a figurehead,
: to grant him the title of shogun.
: And for the next 260 years or so,
: the Tokugawa bakufu was the main government of Japan.
: The primary virtue of this government
: was not necessarily its efficiency
: or its forward-thinking policies, but its stability.
: Stability, the most underrated of governmental virtues.
: Let's go to the Thought Bubble.
: The Tokugawa bakufu wasn't much for centralization,
: as power was mainly in the hands of local lords called daimyo.
: One odd feature of the Tokugawa era
: was the presence of a class of warriors
: who, by the 19th century, had become mostly bureaucrats.
: You may have heard of them: the samurai.
: One of the things that made this hereditary class so interesting
: was that each samurai was entitled to an annual salary
: from the daimyo called a stipend.
: This privilege basically paid them off
: and assured that they didn't become restless warriors
: plaguing the countryside-- that is, bandits.
: We tend to think of samurai as noble and honorable,
: but urban samurai, according to Andrew Gordon's book,
: "A Modern History of Japan,"
: were "a rough-and-tumble lot.
: "Samurai gang wars-- a 'West Side Story'
: "in the shadows of Edo Castle--
: were frequent in the early 1600s."
: And you still say that history books are boring.
: As with kings and lesser nobles anywhere,
: the central bakufu had trouble
: controlling the more powerful daimyo,
: who were able to build up their own strength
: because of their control over local resources.
: This poor control also made it really difficult
: to collect taxes,
: so the Tokugawa were already a bit on the ropes
: when two foreign events rocked Japan.
: First was China's humiliating defeat in the Opium Wars,
: after which Western nations forced China
: to give Europeans special trade privileges.
: It was a wake-up call to see
: the dominant power in the region so humbled,
: but even worse for the Tokugawa
: was the arrival of Matthew Perry.
: No, Thought Bubble, Matthew Perry-- yes, that one.
: The Tokugawa are somewhat famous
: for their not-so-friendly policy toward foreigners,
: especially Western Christian ones,
: for whom the penalty for stepping foot on Japanese soil
: was death.
: The Tokugawa saw Christianity in much the same way
: that the Romans had, as an unsettling threat to stability.
: And in the case of Matthew Perry,
: they had reason to be worried.
: Thanks, Thought Bubble.
: So the American naval commodore arrived in Japan in 1853
: with a flotilla of ships
: and a determination to open Japan's markets.
: Just the threat of American steam-powered warships
: was enough to convince the bakufu
: to sign some humiliating trade treaties
: that weren't unlike the ones that China had signed
: after losing the Opium Wars.
: And this only further motivated the daimyo and samurai,
: who were ready to give the Tokugawa the boot.
: Within a few years, they would.
: So what does this have to do with nationalism?
: Well, plenty-- first off, even though
: the Americans and the Japanese didn't go to war-- yet--
: the perceived threat provided an impetus
: for Japan to start thinking about itself differently.
: It also resulted in the Japanese being convinced
: that if they wanted to maintain their independence,
: they would have to reconstitute their country
: as a modern nation-state.
: This looks a lot like what was happening in Egypt
: or even Germany, with external pressures
: leading to calls for greater national consolidation.
: So the Tokugawa didn't give up without a fight,
: but the civil war between the stronger daimyo and the bakufu
: eventually led to the end of the shogunate.
: And in 1868 the rebels got the newly enthroned Emperor Meiji
: to abolish the bakufu and proclaim
: a restoration of the imperial throne.
: Now the emperor didn't have much real power,
: but he became a symbolic figure,
: a representative of a mythical past
: around whom modernizers could build a sense of national pride.
: And in place of bakufu, Japan created one
: of the most modern nation-states in the world.
: After some trial and error,
: the Meiji leaders created a European-style cabinet system
: of government with a prime minister,
: and in 1889, promulgated a constitution
: that even contained a deliberative assembly, the Diet,
: although the cabinet ministers weren't responsible to it.
: Samurai were incorporated into this system as bureaucrats,
: and their stipends were gradually taken away.
: And soon the Japanese government developed into, like,
: something of a meritocracy.
: Japan also created a new conscript army.
: Beginning in 1873, all Japanese men were required
: to spend three years in the military.
: The program was initially very unpopular--
: there were more than a dozen riots in 1873 and 1874,
: in which crowds attacked military registration centers.
: But eventually, serving in the army created a patriotic spirit
: and a loyalty to the Japanese emperor.
: The Meiji leaders also instituted compulsory education
: in 1872, requiring both boys and girls
: to attend four years of elementary school.
: Oh, it's time for the Open Letter?
: (music playing)
: An Open Letter to Public Education.
: But first, let's see what's in the secret compartment today.
: Oh, it's a graduation hat.
: Thanks, Meredith the intern,
: for letting me borrow your graduation hat.
: Dear Public Education,
: When you were introduced in Japan,
: you were very unpopular,
: because you were funded by a new property tax.
: In fact, you were so unpopular that at least 2,000 schools
: were destroyed by rioters, primarily through arson.
: Stan, it doesn't look good when you bring it in close like that.
: I look like a 90-year-old swimmer.
: And even though public education
: has proved extremely successful,
: lots of people still complain about
: having to pay taxes for it, so let me explain something.
: Public education does not exist for the benefit of students
: or for the benefit of their parents.
: It exists for the benefit of the social order.
: We have discovered as a species
: that it is useful to have an educated population.
: You do not need to be a student or have a child who is a student
: to benefit from public education.
: Every second of every day of your life,
: you benefit from public education.
: So let me explain why I like to pay taxes for schools,
: even though I don't personally have a kid in school.
: It's because I don't like living in a country
: with a bunch of stupid people.
: Best wishes, John Green.
: In Japan, nationalism meant modernization,
: largely inspired by, and in competition with, the West.
: So the Meiji government
: established a functioning tax system,
: they built public infrastructure
: like harbors and telegraph lines,
: invested heavily in railroads,
: and created a uniform national currency.
: But the dark side of nationalism began to appear early on.
: In 1869 the Meiji rulers expanded Japan's borders
: to include the island of Hokkaido;
: and in 1879 they acquired Okinawa
: after forcing its king to abdicate.
: In 1874 Japan even invaded Taiwan
: with an eye toward colonizing it,
: although they weren't successful.
: And in these early actions, we already see
: that nationalism has a habit of thriving on conflict,
: and often, the project of creating a nation-state goes
: hand-in-hand with preventing others from doing the same.
: This failure to imagine the other complexly isn't new,
: but it's about to get a lot more problematic,
: as we'll see next week, when we discuss European imperialism.
: Thanks for watching.
: Crash Course is produced and directed by Stan Muller.
: Our script supervisor is Danica Johnson.
: We're ably interned by Meredith Danko
: and our graphics team is Thought Bubble.
: Also, the show was written by my high school history student,
: John Green, and myself, Raoul Meyer.
: Last week's Phrase of the Week was "Bearded Marxist."
: If you'd like to guess at this week's Phrase of the Week
: or suggest future ones, you can do so in comments,
: where you can also ask questions about today's video
: that will be answered by our team of historians.
: Thanks for watching Crash Course,
: and as we say in my hometown,
: don't forget to be awesome.