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Y217: Japan 1853–1937

  • 8 subtopics
  • 19 things to know
  • Unit group 2
  • Non-British period study, one unit of twenty-four

What Y217: Japan 1853–1937 covers

Japan 1853–1937 is unit Y217 of OCR History A, one of the twenty-four options in unit group 2, the non-British period study; a student sits one of them. Its four key topics are the impact of foreign intrusion on Tokugawa Japan 1853–1868, westernisation and nationalism in Meiji Japan 1868–1912, foreign relations and overseas expansion 1868–1920, the growth of nationalism in Japan 1920–1937. 307 recall questions across 8 subtopics.

Where it is assessed

Unit group 2

Non-British period study, one unit of twenty-four.

Check the OCR specification ↗

The 8 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

Why were many samurai discontented by the 1850s despite their high status?

Key term

Why was the land tax reform unpopular with many peasants?

Key term

Why was Korea so important to Japanese strategists?

Numbers

Outline the course of the Sino-Japanese War.

Numbers

What was the Triple Intervention and how did Japan react to it?

Numbers

What did the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902 provide, and why did each side want it?

Key term

What was radical about post-war Japanese politics in the early 1920s?

Evaluation

What was the significance of the assassination of the prime minister in May 1932?

Key term

Why is Meiji Japan described as westernising and nationalist at the same time?

Process

Paradoxically, how did the failed 1936 coup increase the army's power?

Key term

Who held real political power in Japan in 1853, and what was the emperor's position?

Who and when

Why did the imperial side win the civil war of 1868–1869 relatively quickly?

Who and when

What did the abolition of the domains in 1871 achieve?

Key term

How democratic was the franchise created in 1889?

Key term

What happened in the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923?

Key term

Describe the social hierarchy of late Tokugawa Japan.

Who and when

Which industry earned Japan most of its foreign exchange in the Meiji period, and why did that matter?

Who and when

How did population pressure encourage Japanese expansion?

Who and when

How did the Great Depression reach Japan?

Take Y217: Japan 1853–1937 further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

  • Meiji Restoration vs Satsuma Rebellion

    Meiji Restoration: the transfer of authority to the emperor in 1868 after the fall of the shogunate. Satsuma Rebellion: the samurai rising of 1877 against the new government's reforms.

  • Unequal treaties vs Twenty-One Demands

    Unequal treaties: the agreements imposed from 1858 granting foreign residents extraterritorial rights and fixed tariffs. Twenty-One Demands: the terms pressed on China in 1915 to extend Japanese rights and influence.

  • Conscription Law of 1873 vs Satsuma-Chōshū alliance

    Conscription Law of 1873: the measure introducing universal military service and ending the samurai monopoly of arms. Satsuma-Chōshū alliance: the secret agreement of 1866 between two domains which made the overthrow of the shogunate possible.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Who held real political power in Japan in 1853, and what was the emperor's position?

    Model answer

    Real power lay with the Tokugawa shogun, ruling from Edo through the bakufu, while the emperor remained a ceremonial figure secluded in Kyoto.

  2. 2

    Describe the social hierarchy of late Tokugawa Japan.

    Model answer

    Society was formally divided into samurai at the top, then peasants, artisans and merchants, with movement between the ranks officially forbidden.

  3. 3

    Why were many samurai discontented by the 1850s despite their high status?

    Model answer

    Long peace had left them with no fighting role, and their fixed rice stipends lost value against rising prices, leaving many in debt to merchants they were supposed to outrank.

  4. 4

    What was the policy of sakoku, and which single European nation was allowed to trade under it?

    Model answer

    Sakoku was the policy of national seclusion that barred foreigners and forbade Japanese from leaving; only the Dutch traded, confined to the artificial island of Dejima at Nagasaki.

  5. 5

    Give two causes of peasant unrest in the last Tokugawa decades.

    Model answer

    Heavy rice taxes combined with poor harvests and famine, and sharp price inflation that made food unaffordable, both provoked repeated village protests and urban rice riots.

  6. 6

    What epidemic disease swept Japan after the ports opened, and why was it blamed on foreigners?

    Model answer

    Cholera spread from 1858 and killed tens of thousands, and because it arrived with foreign shipping it was widely blamed on the newcomers and fuelled anti-foreign feeling.

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Y217: Japan 1853–1937 revision questions

What does Y217: Japan 1853–1937 cover in OCR A-Level History A?
8 subtopics: the impact of foreign intrusion on tokugawa japan 1853–1868: tokugawa society, perry and the unequal treaties, the impact of foreign intrusion on tokugawa japan 1853–1868: resistance to the shogunate and civil war, westernisation and nationalism in meiji japan 1868–1912: the end of samurai power and early meiji reforms, westernisation and nationalism in meiji japan 1868–1912: the 1889 constitution, industrialisation and education, foreign relations and overseas expansion 1868–1920: population pressure, early expansion and the sino-japanese war, foreign relations and overseas expansion 1868–1920: the anglo-japanese alliance, war with russia and the first world war, the growth of nationalism in japan 1920–1937: radicalism and repression in post-war japan and the growth of nationalism in japan 1920–1937: the depression, manchuria and the rise of the army. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
How is Y217: Japan 1853–1937 organised?
By the OCR H505 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.

Every question in Y217: Japan 1853–1937, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

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