History of Africa

What did the Black Ships do?

Open Japan to the west during 1853-1854 with gunboat diplomacy

In July 1853, during Japan's Edo period, a fleet of four armed and black-painted U.S. Navy ships led by Commodore Matthew Perry entered Edo Bay (present day Tokyo Bay).

The purpose of this voyage was, as Perry had been ordered on April 1, 1852 "to use such persuasive measures. He might find necessary ... to induce [the authorities there] to receive ... proposals... and if need be the display of a sufficient force..."

In 1853–4 the "Four Black Ships" compelled, without using weapons fire, the Tokugawa government to make trade agreement between what would become known as the United States and Japan.

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