Remaking the State: Meiji Japan 1600–1912 and Post-Soviet Russia 1964–2000 · TEST YOURSELF
Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia quiz: 8 questions
Try these 8 multiple-choice questions on Remaking the State: Meiji Japan 1600–1912 and Post-Soviet Russia 1964–2000 for free. After each answer, you can read the explanation.
Alternate attendance required each daimyo to spend every other year in Edo. What political effect mattered most?
The lords had to pay for processions and mansions in Edo, while their wives and heirs remained there as hostages. These costs consumed a large share of domain income and left domains in debt. The arrangement made rebellion much harder and helped maintain peace for 250 years.
Under the 1858 treaties, what did extraterritoriality mean?
Foreigners in the treaty ports came under their own consuls’ courts rather than Japanese courts; tariffs, meanwhile, were fixed by treaty. Ending extraterritoriality became a central Japanese diplomatic goal, achieved in 1899.
When the domains were abolished in August 1871, why did the lords offer almost no resistance?
Many domains were close to bankruptcy. The government took over their debts and gave the lords titles and secure incomes, allowing them to surrender responsibilities they could no longer afford. Imperial troops stood ready in Tokyo, and the guard deterred resistance: the buyout was backed by force.
About what share of Japan’s population could vote in the 1890 election for its first lower house?
The vote was restricted to men over 25 who paid at least 15 yen in direct tax: about 450,000 people, or roughly 1% of the population. The elected house could block new budgets, but real power remained with the emperor’s ministers.
What lesson did Japan’s leaders draw from the Triple Intervention of 1895?
Russia, Germany, and France forced Japan to return Liaodong; in 1898 Russia leased its tip for itself. Japan had won territory in war, only to see stronger powers take the gain away. The lesson that power decided such disputes encouraged rearmament and the 1902 alliance with Britain.
The 1987 Law on State Enterprise allowed factories to set wages and sell part of their output. Why did shortages grow worse?
Wages were freed while many prices stayed fixed and credit continued without effective control. People had more money to spend, but there were not more goods to buy with it. Unspent savings accumulated, shops emptied, and rationing spread; the experience discredited the reform and exposed a danger of partial reform.
Why did freeing prices in January 1992 so badly damage the value of ordinary Russians’ savings?
Soviet households had accumulated large savings partly because there was little to buy. Once prices were freed, the central bank continued creating money and prices rose about 2,500% in a year. Soviet-era ruble savings lost almost all their purchasing power, and many Russians blamed the reformers.
Which statement best compares the order of the two transitions?
Japan abolished the domains in 1871, then granted a constitution with limited participation in 1889. The Soviet Union held contested elections in 1989, and Russia freed prices in 1992, before courts and tax collection had been rebuilt. The order of these changes helped determine who bore the costs of each transition.
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