Beginning our discussion of the day, we went over what we considered to be some of the overarching themes present throughout the world in the beginning of the 20th century. With imperialism affecting almost all of the countries in the world (whether it be by force, submission, or resistance), militarism and social Darwinism were also brought up. One of the most beneficial additions in the 20th century was the continued expansion of trade; a subject we saw highlighted within the Japanese city of Yokohama. Yokohama was a small port city focused on exports with a population of 200k. Under Japan’s tight regime, they were not allowed to trade with foreigners, with the exception of the Dutch and the Chinese. This all changed when the US brought gunboats to the city in 1853 and threatened them to enact trade. Lacking much in the way of options, the Japanese government was forced to comply, and Yokohama was developed as a center of trade. They made a name in selling silk and silk products, as the US wasn’t outputting as much cotton due to their civil war, and China and Europe were suffering silkworm blights. With so many people coming in and out of the city, it did not take long for disease to take root. Namely, cholera took the lives of hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens, and the government looked to their new visitors as the cause – specifically the Chinese. This compounded with the Japanese government’s preexisting xenophobia made many citizens wary of outsiders, and helped give cause to their goals of gathering colonies. Within decades, the Japanese had set out to create “clean” communities across the Pacific, with the Chinese pictured as the root of their problem. The story of Yokohama’s past provides an interesting explanation of how imperialism can be justified (politically, not morally) by factors such as trade and social Darwinism.