Russia's advance across Siberia made trade with China and Japan strategically important to its Pacific coast. Commodore Matthew C. Perry's 1853-1854 expedition appears here as a US effort to force Japan's economic opening before a Russian squadron could secure the benefits of a treaty. Perry's mission therefore belongs within great-power competition as well as the history of US-Japanese relations. A speculative aside imagines Britain helping Japan expel a Russian expedition and gaining lasting Japanese friendship. That final scenario is explicitly a counterfactual, not a claim about what occurred.
Notable Point · 8:15-9:31
Perry opens Japan partly to pre-empt Russia
The United States' forced opening of Japan appears here as great-power competition, with Perry moving before a Russian squadron could secure its own treaty.