ABSTRACT
Japan was drawn into the 'millstream' of modern economic development relatively late, in the mid-nineteenth century. As latecomers to this experience, the Japanese became the most avid students not only of the Western technology and commerce to which they were being exposed (and of the civilization that had created them), but also of the imperialistic politics which had made Tokugawa Japan submit to that exposure. Moreover, in their efforts to emancipate themselves from such impositions and to achieve for Japan eventually a status comparable to that of the dominant powers of the time, the Japanese began to emulate those powers - notably Britain, France, Germany, Russia and the United States - by pursuing opportunities not only for free trade but also for empire-building.
