eli5: how did Japan resist and block contact with western colonial powers so successfully compared to other small nations and islands in Asia and the Pacific?

Question

eli5: how did Japan resist and block contact with western colonial powers so successfully compared to other small nations and islands in Asia and the Pacific?

In: 1

Answer 1

They adapted and learned enough to fight back the first “soft” attempt at colonization in the 1400s and went into hard isolation.

Later when Matthew Perry showed up and basically forced them to open for trade under thread of violence they accepted the conditions, but rapidly modernized. They basically cought up to 100 years of industrialization within 20 years.

After that they cemepted their position by beating the russians.