Reference no: EM133431441

Explain how industrialization in the West contributed to the conditions that led to the creation of each document (source list below):

SOURCE 8.5 "EVIL CUSTOMS OF THE PAST SHALL BE BROKEN OFF." THE CHARTER OATH (JAPAN), 1868 AND THE EMANCIPATION MANIFESTO (RUSSIA), 1861*

These two documents are from states grappling with reform and, in their own words attempting to become "modern" by looking outside their borders and appealing to international norms and innovations.

After opening to foreign trade in response to American demands in 1853, Japan radically revised its relationship to other countries. After an official policy of sakoku that had been in place since the 1600s, an intense debate took place about industrialization and international commerce. From this process emerged the Meiji Restoration, so called because it was the formal restoration of the Emperor to power in place of the Tokugawa shogun. The Charter Oath outlined the principles of the new government. The document presented here is composed of three drafts of the Charter Oath and the final version that was promulgated in 1868.

Although not isolated to the extent Japan was, Russia, too, maintained a largely feudal social structure that many perceived to be holding the empire back. More than a third of Russians were serfs, without political or economic rights. With such a large percentage of its population marginalized in this way, Russian leaders found it difficult to encourage industrialization, political reform, and other features of a "modern" state. Discussions about how to do away with serfdom took place among leaders throughout the nineteenth century, but it was not until after Tsar Alexander II was coronated in 1855 that the problem was acted upon. In 1861-in the same decade as Japan's Charter Oath-Russia's Emancipation Manifesto (excerpted here) liberated some 23 million serfs.