European countries: How did they Contribute to the Meiji Restoration?

After reluctantly accepting the Kanagawa and Harris Treaties, Japan quickly signed the Ansei Treaties with Russia, France, Great Britain, and the Netherlands). The resentment caused in Japan by these “Unequal Treaties” was compounded by further humiliation at the hands of foreign powers, particularly Great Britain. For example, in 1862 a British merchant named Charles Richardson was brutally murdered by a group of armed Satsuma samurai near Kanagawa. The British government demanded the payment of £100,000 in reparations from the Shogun, plus £10,000 for the victim’s families, and a separate £25,000 payment from the province of Satsuma. When Satsuma refused to pay, the British fleet bombarded and completely destroyed the city of Kagoshima.

Part of the full scheme of work on the Meiji Restoration