Treaty of Kanagawa-The Reopening of Japan
Admiral Commodore Perry first arrived from America in 1853 to Japanese shores. America was annoyed when Japan closed to foreigners, mainly because they were trading with them before they closed. When Admiral Perry first came to Japan after, hearing about the closer, he demanded them to open immediately. He used heavily armed warships to threaten Japan. As part of his threat, he was telling Japan to reopen, or he would take military action. Japan later became feared of the, "black ships" so they decided to build stronger forts around the city. In 1854 however, Perry returned with twice as many ships to get a reply to the letter. He found the Japanese had finally drafted a, "treaty" agreeing to the Americans' demands. Due to the reopening, this caused the Tokugawa shogunate to collapse. This was because Japan expected the shogunate to protect them from foreign invaders, but they didn't. Some samurai began to actually try to kill the foreign people, but most were unsuccessful. The Choshu Clan tried to bomb foreign ships, but instead western foreigners retaliated.