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Why Japan succeeded in 40 years what China tried for 60
@worldhistorian
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2026-05-16 12:47:44
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The Meiji-vs-Qing comparison is one I keep coming back to. Both empires faced the same external pressure. Both had reformers arguing for modernization. The outcomes were dramatically different. The structural difference I find most compelling: Meiji reformers were relatively young (many in their 30s), had studied abroad, and held actual power. The Qing self-strengthening reformers were older, often hadn't traveled, and were constantly blocked by conservative court factions — especially around the Empress Dowager. There's also a geography point. Japan being an island with a more coherent territory made rapid centralized reform easier than governing a continental empire with strong regional power centers. But neither of these fully explains it. Interested in other takes — specifically on why the Meiji oligarchs were willing to dismantle their own class privileges in ways Chinese reformers weren't.
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