At the beginning of the modern era both empires, Japan and Russia, realized they were in the shadow of European powers. Thus, in order to ‘catch-up’ both powers decided industrialize in hopes of becoming global powers after realizing that European powers had changed politically striking fear of colonization into the heart of smaller empires. Japan and Russia went about industrialization very differently. Russia local forces of an autocratic government and loans from other superpowers while Japan used its own treasury built-up from the metal trade and years of prior isolation.
After beginning the process of industrialization to respond to the growing economic dominance of Europe the two began to rise in power. Russia began to really engage in the process of Westernization after a humiliating loss in the Crimean War, to the Ottomans. The Russians realizing their defeat was largely in part because the Ottomans were more technologically advanced because they were backed by European powers they decided essentially ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’. This was the beginning of Russia building an industry to be able to win wars of the future and defend itself from colonization. After seeing the occupation of China by other powers, Japan decided to come out of its era of isolation and attempt to become the superpower empire of the east. They deported the majority of the foreigners in the country and built-up a military to defend themselves from foreign invaders.
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One way in which both nations were able to become more westernized so quickly we're through changes in their political system. Russia realized that their new ‘Western Bureaucracy’ was lacking a working class and thus they abolished the practice of serfdom. With the abolition of Czars through the introduction of communist leaders Russia was finally able to establish a new political identity. Japan underwent the Maji revolutions which was able to unite many different political groups and implement a new centralized government. Which were able to help Japan succeed by dictating exactly what had to be done to advance in the international community.
Despite all the similarities in the attempt westernize there were some major differences in how the two went about the financial side of things. Russia used many foreign loans as well as coercing a large labor force to build infrastructures such as railroads and large-scale factories. This was a large risk after seeing how greatly this damaged the economy of the Ottomans before, but the risk ultimately paid off because Europe could not send troops to subdue this expansion and advancement because this is during the middle of World War One. As alluded to previously Japan’s approach was much differently. After being isolated for so long they were able to find internal funding to revolutionize their industry and country as a whole. However, because of the typically higher quality of treatment of workers, compared to Russia, the Japanese people worked tirelessly to build, railroads, factories and developed the telegraph with no impending debt in the end.
After seeing the example of Latin America states in the past Russia decided to implement the assistance of foreign experts to supervise government and advise industry decisions. Although a large initial expense it eventually paid-off because these foreigners were able to return to their home countries having instilled absolute confidence in the Russians on how to continue to develop their countries. Japan however implemented the opposite strategy. They sent their future leaders to countries such as Great Britain, Germany and France to study their industry and finish schooling i ca country that had developed the way theirs hoped to in the future. Although many things that these students learned about such as religion and pop-culture never really caught on fully in Japan.
Another vast difference in the methods of industrialization between the two nations is their ability to trade to develop an economy. With Russia being so large it had many natural resources to offer to the rest of the world and create jobs such as, iron, coal and oil. This war also helpful because some of the most expensive resources were located right inside its own territory. However, Japan is not nearly as expansive as Russia and so it had to import many more materials meaning they had to reach-out to the rest of Asia, making them more of an expansionist empire, also making receiving commodities like oil very difficult, even late into the 1900s.
Essentially the differences in the approaches to how to navigate westernization could not be more different between Japan and Russia, however they were both, largely, able to achieve the same goal of becoming high-powered empires. These empires were able to create extremely advanced industries as well as booming economies. These governments were able to continue to exert this power through the twentieth century with examples such as the success of the Soviet Union in the Cold War and Japan’s success when in conflict with the US in World War Two.
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