为什么日本没有被欧洲帝国们殖民？ [美国媒体]

Why did Japan never get colonized by European empires?

为什么日本没有被欧洲帝国们殖民？



Ken Man
Answered Mon
Japan was never conquered by European colonial powers because the benefits never outweighed the costs.
Prior to the modernization efforts of the Meiji Restoration, Japan had next to nothing to resist a hostile Western invasion. In fact, it was worse off than China, Korea or Vietnam as it lacked political centralization. The Tokugawa Shogun had only a tentative hold on power, and there was no national Japanese military to speak of, only levies from the clans, levies that hadn’t been called up since the early 17th Century.
Fortunately, for Japan, it also had far less to offer the colonial than most other East Asian polities. Japan’s extreme geographic position made it commercially irrelevant for the bulk of the trade that was flowing at the time. It had no commodities worth fighting for, and no manufactured good that wasn’t already available in huge surplus in China. European interests in Japan up to that point mainly consisted of converting Japanese souls to Roman Catholicism.
Thus Japan was able to fly under the radar for the first half of the 19th Century. Even China’s shock defeat in the Opium War didn’t really do much for Japan in practical terms other than to get the intellectuals rubbing their chins at the implications of such an outcome.
Commodore Perry’s “Black Ships” achieved exactly what they set out to do: force Japan to sign a number of unequal trade agreements, so far so good for the European playbook on colonization.
Things started going wrong for the European colonization effort only with the First Chōshū expedition - Wikipedia of 1864. The Mori Clan of Choshu province rebelled against the Shogun and expelled all Europeans. It was a mini Boxer Rebellion. However, despite the ease with which British ships were able to suppress the Mori coastal defenses, the British never really bothered to venture inland and just seize the province as they had done countless times before. The potential gains of conquering a minor Japanese province didn’t merit the potential costs, however small those costs were.
British marines posing next to antiquated shore batteries of the Mori Clan after taking the position with hardly a shot fired
This gave the Shogun’s coalition enough time to quash the rebellion. However, the weakness of the Shogun was laid bare and the road to the Boshin War and the restoration of the Meiji Emperor had already started. In one of the greatest ironies of human history, the Boshin War started as a conservative, isolationist Boxer Rebellion but ended with the decision to modernize and Westernize ASAP.
By the time the Americans were seeking to expand their Pacific Empire even further, the Japanese had already begun building a semi-modern national army and navy, making any attempt to extract further concessions from Japan unprofitable.
Had the European powers leveled the same level of resources to subjugating Japan as they did for China, Vietnam, India, Burma etc. Japan would have ended up as another European colony.
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肯·曼
日本从未被欧洲殖民势力征服，因为相比利益，代价高昂。
在明治维新现代化进程之前，日本几乎没有抵制西方敌对入侵能力。事实上，比中国、朝鲜、越南的情况还要糟，鉴于它缺乏政治集权。德川幕府在权力上只是初步的，它们没有国家军队来做筹码，只有宗族在征兵，而17世纪早期还不被称为征兵。
幸运的是，对于日本来说，它能提供的殖民地远少于其他东亚政治势力。日本那边缘地理位置，使它与当时商业上的大部分进行的贸易毫不相干。它没有商品值得争取，也没有如中国般巨大的，可获取贸易顺差的制成品市场。欧洲在日利益主要是使日本人的灵魂皈依罗马天主教。
因此日本能隐没于19世纪上半期的雷达之下。即使中国在鸦片战争中失败，实际上除了让知识分子摩擦他们的下巴（译注：知识分子的呼吁）外，对日本来说并没有太多意义。
美国海军准将佩里“黑船”完全实现了他们的目的：迫使日本签署一系列不平等的贸易协定，到目前为止，欧洲殖民剧本都（演的）如此的好。
在欧洲殖民努力中，异常出现“Chōshū 1864年第一次探险”（First Chōshū expedition - Wikipedia of 1864）。森家族的Choshu省背叛将军府并驱逐了所有的欧洲人。这是一个迷你义和团运动。然而,尽管英国的船只能够抑制森的沿海防御，英国从未真正愿意冒险（进入）内陆来平息（这个）省,因为他们已经做过无数次。征服日本次要省份的潜在收益低于其潜在成本，尽管这个成本当时并不高。



图解：在不费一枪一弹拿下这个地方后，英国海军陆战队摆出来的几乎过时的森家族海岸炮台。

这给了将军府足够的时间来平息叛乱。尽管将军府的虚弱暴露无遗并为Boshin战争和明治天皇复位指明了路。在人类历史上最伟大的讽刺之一，Boshin战争始于一个保守派---孤立主义的义和团运动，（但目的是）为了尽快结束现代化和西化。
当时，美国人寻求进一步扩大太平洋帝国，日本已经开始建立一个半现代化陆海军，（美国）做任何尝试，来使已无利可图的日本做进一步让步。
欧洲列强铲平了（leveled）相同级别的资源,以征服日本就如对中国、越南、印度、缅甸等所做的一样。日本将会最终成为另一个欧洲殖民地。（译注：看起来好像有头没尾，但原文如此）

Andrew Wang
Updated Aug 20, 2016
Originally Answered: How come Japan was so resistant to European colonization?
Short answer: Other countries did try, but the Japanese got strong relatively quickly.
Long answer: In 1853, Commodore Matthew C. Perry's four-ship squadron appeared in Edo Bay(Tokyo) and fired explosive shells at several buildings around the harbor to demonstrate military superiority and threatened the Japanese with much more destruction should they refuse to open trade with US.
At the time, Japan had closed off its borders for several hundred years and like many non western countries fell behind in the technology race. Seeing the victory of the British over the Chinese in the First Opium War in 1840 and the immediate threats by the US warships, the Japanese realized that they were no match, so they signed the treaty while making plans to strengthen themselves.
It was good thing that they did because western countries were applying increasing pressure the 1860s. US, Britain, and France all fought and won minor skirmishes against Japanese forces.
In the next several decades Japan went on a modernization binge by sending numerous students to Europe and US to learn the latest technologies, while acquiring western military equipment and advisers.
A civil war was also fought in 1868-1869 between the the Shogun supporters who wanted to maintain the status quo and those who want to restore the Emperor(puppet for the previous few hundred years) to real power. The latter ultimately won and paved the political path to modernize Japan.
These efforts bear fruits eventually as Japan defeated China in the First Sino Japanese War in 1894-1895, and won Korea and Taiwan. In the Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905, Japan further demonstrated its strength from modernization by winning again Russia, marking the first time an Eastern country defeating a Western country since the 1700s.
In conclusion, Japan was the rare exception that BOTH recognized the threat that Western Imperial Powers posed to its sovereignty, AND undertook the necessary changes to strengthen itself in a timely manner. In contrast, other non-western powers ignored the threat and/or didn't change quickly.

安德鲁 ·王
简单说：其他国家做过了，但是日本人成长相对（其他东亚国家）较快。
详细说：在1853年，马修·c·佩里将军四船中队出现在江户湾，向海湾附近的数个建筑开火以展示优势军事力量，并威胁日本人鉴于拒绝其开放贸易，将会有更多破坏。
在当时，日本已经关闭边境贸易数百年了，就如很多非西方国家在科技竞赛中落后（西方）那样。看看英吉利胜利者在1840年第一次鸦片战争中战胜中国的样子，美国军舰的直接威胁下，日本人意识到他们没有军队，所以他们签订协定期间，制定计划增强自身的计划。
他们做的事很好，因为1860年代西方国家正施加越来越大的压力。美国，英国，法国都在施加战争并在与日本小规模冲突上获得胜利。
在接下来的数十年，日本通过送大量学生去欧美学习最新技术，迅速走向走上现代化，期间获得西方军事装备和军事顾问。
1860-1869年，想要维持原状的将军府支持者和想要恢复天皇实权（过去数百年都是木偶）发生内战。后者最终赢了,铺平了日本政治现代化道路。
这些努力最终结出果实：日本在第一次中日战争（1894-1895年）击败了中国，然后取得了朝鲜和台湾。在日俄战争中（1904-1905年），日本进一步通过战胜沙俄，证明了自己现代化带来的实力，自1700年代以来，第一个东方国家战胜了一个西方国家。
总之，日本是罕见的例外,是众所周知的威胁，西方帝国主义列强勉强承认其主权，然后及时着手加强自身。与此形成鲜明对比的是，其他非西方力量无视威胁并且没有迅速做出改变。