Sakoku and Perry Open Japan

From the 1630s until the mid-19th century, the Tokugawa shogunate enforced a policy called Sakoku, which largely sealed Japan off from the outside world for more than 200 years. Foreign trade was tightly controlled and confined mostly to limited contacts with the Dutch and Chinese at Nagasaki, while most Japanese were forbidden to leave the country. In 1853, U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Edo Bay with steam-powered warships and demanded that Japan open its ports. His show of force led to new treaties and the gradual end of Japan's long era of isolation.

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