From years 1603 to 1869, the country of Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate. During this period of Japanese history the country suffer from a feudal military dictatorship under the rule of the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. The Feudal period in Japan, also known as the Edo period, was a time when the caste system was very firmly fixed and only the feudal lords and the samurai stood on top. Japan also became isolated because of foreign policies rejecting any offers from western nations to trade with the exception of the Dutch. Eventually due to the strict social orders and the exploitation of the peasant class by the government Japan became socially unstable. It was until the arrival of the United States naval ships led by Commodore Matthew Perry that Japan was forced to end its isolation from the western empires. This event created crisis within the country leading to the downfall of the Tokugawa Shogunate. "Opposition forces in Japan used the humiliating intrusion of foreigners as an excuse to overthrow the discredited shogun and the Tokugawa bakufu."
             The fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate was a result of many events such as wars, rebellion, and treaties that caused the end of the Tokugawa rule. What factor was the most important to the fall of the Tokugawa government in Japan? Did the arrival of the American ships to the Japanese coast trigger a series of events that ended the Tokugawa rule? Or was the collapse inevitable due to the internal problems the country was facing during those times? Historians debate the importance of the events that occur during the fall of the Tokugawa but they all agree that foreign invasion, economic crisis, and revolutions are major reasons for the collapse of the feudal government. The Tokugawa Shogunate was abolished in year 1868 when the imperialist rebels defeated the shogunate forces and restored the power to the emperor of Japan. The defeat of the Tokugawa government ...