Matthew Perry’s Expedition: Japan Opened Trade with the West After 200 Years

Posted on July 8, 2015 Updated on July 8, 2015

On 8th July 1853, Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry sailed in the Tokyo Bay aboard the frigate Susquehanna along with a squadron of four ships. He represented the US Navy and had reached Japan with an agenda of reviving regular trade and discourse between Japan and the West which were then suspended for a period of 200 years.

Matthew Perry was the younger brother of Oliver Hazard Perry who had led the American’s to victory over the British in the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813. Matthew himself was a leader of a squadron in the Battle against Mexico in which the American’s emerged victorious in 1848.

Trade relations between the Japan and the West had ceased in 1639 owing to the attempts of Europeans to convert the Japanese to Catholicism as well as the unfair trade practices followed by the West. Only selective trading with Dutch and Chinese ships was allowed thereafter.

During this period all Western powers were trying to expand trade relations in the East, both to access new regions for their manufactured products as well as to obtain supply of raw materials.

Perry was authorized by American President Millard Fillmore to visit Japan and force end the 200 year isolation of Japan from trade. Perry met with the Japanese Emperor and delivered the letter regarding the opening up of trade relations from the American President. He returned to Tokyo, with a larger fleet comprising of 9 ships to obtain an answer from the Japanese Government.

The Treaty of Kanagawa was signed on 31st March 1854 between America and Japan by which ports of Shimoda and Hakodate were opened to trade as well as a US consulate was established in Japan. The first group of Japanese diplomats visited US in 1860 to discuss the scope of the treaty.

Following the Treaty of Kanagawa, similar trade treaties with Russia, Britain, France, and Holland were also signed resulting in regular trade relations, thus putting an end to the 200 year isolation of Japan from the Western powers.

Source: US Department of State; Asia For Educators; PBS.org; MIT.edu; History.com