Matthew C. Perry :: essays research papers

Matthew C. Perry was born in Newport, Rhode Island on April 10, 1794, the younger brother of other get together States naval officer, Oliver Hazard Perry. Perry was an American naval officer who had seen put through in the War of 1812 aboard the USS President, flagship of Stephen Decatur. He later helped found the province of Liberia in West Africa as a haven for free abusive Americans, and was given the undertaking of "opening" Japan to diplomatic and commercial dealings with the United States with the hope that U.S. sailors could receive better treatment in the process. Perry believed that "our stack must naturally be drawn into the contest for empire." In 1852, he accepted command of the East India squadron in order to lead an digression to Japan. The U.S. State Department directed him to negotiate a treaty of amity and commerce that would open Japan to relations in as dependable a range as possible. Perry prepared steadily for the formidable task of i nducing Japan to negotiate a document favorable to the United States. In 1846, Japan had humiliated and expelled an American emissary, leading Perry to conclude that a resolute show of force would prove essential to the "opening" of Japan. He, therefore, regulate a small but powerful armada of four ships, including the steam-driven paddle wheelers Susquehanna and Mississippi. On July 8, 1853, Perry stormed into Edo (Tokyo) Bay, the steamers belching black smoke and appearing as " vagrant volcanoes" to the alarmed Japanese. Six days later, with great pomp and ceremony, Perry went ashore to the support of a naval band playing Hail Columbia The Japanese resisted Perrys proposals and he temporarily withdrew from the country, promising to return to receive a answer to President Millard Fillmores request for a treaty. On February 13, 1854, Perry returned with seven warships, three of them steam driven. He depearted on March 8th with even greater devotion than the year before, this time accompanied by three armed naval bands playing The Star Spangled Banner. To impress the Japanese with American proficient and military might, he exhibited a quarter-scale steam locomotive with tracks, a telecommunicate apparatus designed by Samuel Morse, a daguerreotype camera, and an illustrated history of the Mexican War, featuring the American naval bombardment of Veracruz. The Japanese yielded, and on March 31, 1854, they signed the agreement of Kanagawa. These agreements promised safe repatriation of shipwrecked American seamen, opened ports as coal and supply stations, and accomplished American consular privileges at these ports, and granted most-favored-nation trading post to the United States.