Matthew C. Perry :: essays research papers

Matthew C. Perry was born(p) in Newport, Rhode Island on April 10, 1794, the younger brother of another United States ocean officer, Oliver Hazard Perry. Perry was an American oceanic officer who had seen action in the contend of 1812 aboard the USS President, flagship of Stephen Decatur. He later helped found the country of Liberia in west Africa as a haven for free black Americans, and was given the labour of " promiscuousing" lacquer to diplomatic and commercial relations with the United States with the confide that U.S. sailors could receive better treatment in the process. Perry believed that "our people must of course be drawn into the contest for empire." In 1852, he accepted operate of the East India squadron in order to lead an expedition to lacquer. The U.S. State segment directed him to negotiate a treaty of amity and commerce that would open Japan to relations in as full a guide as possible. Perry prepared steadily for the formidable task of inducing 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 hand over of force would prove essential to the "opening" of Japan. He, therefore, shaped a handsome 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 breathe black smoke and appearing as "floating volcanoes" to the alarmed Japanese. half-dozen days later, with great pomp and ceremony, Perry went ashore to the accompaniment 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 reply to President Millard Fillmores necessitate 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 enthusiasm than the year before, this succession accompanied by three armed naval bands playing The jumper lead Spangled Banner. To impress the Japanese with American technological and military might, he exhibited a quarter-scale steam locomotive with tracks, a telegraph apparatus designed by Samuel Morse, a daguerreotype camera, and an illustrated history of the Mexican War, featuring the American naval gush of Veracruz. The Japanese yielded, and on March 31, 1854, they signed the Treaty of Kanagawa. These agreements promised safe repatriation of shipwrecked American seamen, opened ports as coal and supply stations, and established American consular privileges at these ports, and granted most-favored-nation trading status to the United States.