The actions of Commodore Matthew Perry broke Japan's international isolation and forced it to open up to other foreign countries through the signing of the Kanagawa Treaty.
Explanation:
He sailed in 1852 from Norfolk, one of the main bases of the US Navy, to Japan, carrying a letter from President Millard Fillmore and with the mission to open trade routes to the Japanese archipelago, hitherto closed by the policy of voluntary isolation desired by the Tokugawa shogunate. On July 8, 1853, he landed on the coast of Japan at Uraga in Tokyo Bay. The Shogun's representatives asked him to go to Nagasaki, then the only Japanese port open to Western commerce. Perry refused to leave and threatened even to use force if he failed to deliver President Fillmore's message. Perry and his steam gunboats made such an impression that on July 14, 1853, the Japanese delegates accepted Perry's request that he be allowed to disembark at Kurihama (now Yokosuka). Then the Commodore retreated to the Chinese coast promising to return the following year to receive an official response.
Only seven months later, in February 1854, Perry returned to Japan with twice as many ships, this time a squadron made up of many American and European ships (British, French, Dutch and Russian). The military government, the shogunate, taken aback by this precipitous return of Perry, found himself in a delicate situation: it could not apply the policy prescribed by the emperor, namely to refuse entry foreigners on the territory, and must therefore resign themselves to comply with the American requirements. On March 31, 1854, the shogun signed the Kanagawa Convention in the presence of the Commodore. By this treaty, Japan gradually opened up to trade with the West.
