Taking very successful steps in getting rid of this exploitation and adapting to the modern world, the Japanese aimed to observe European countries one by one while doing this. In this direction, Fukuchi Genichiro, who was part of one of the many delegations sent on different dates to study the organizations and cultures of European states, came to Istanbul in 1871. Although the Ottomans were non-Christian, they were considered European and had very close contacts with European countries.
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This situation of the Ottoman Turks especially attracted the attention of the Japanese. Because the Japanese themselves were in a similar situation, although they were part of a different equation. The years 1880-81 were a period in which things accelerated in Ottoman-Japanese relations. During this period, Japanese Foreign Affairs Advisor Yoshida Masaharu came to the Ottoman capital on an official visit. The aim was to crown the developing bilateral relations with a trade and friendship agreement. Even in the same years, the Russian ambassadors of the parties, St. In St. Petersburg they put their heads together and tried to come up with a friendship and trade agreement. Of course, there were some reasons why the Japanese and the Turks got so close.
They hadn't made contact for the sake of their father or for his dark eyebrows black eyes. Both states had their own expectations in this partnership. Japan had been on the brink of war with the Russian Empire for some time, and it was a very profitable business for them to make an alliance with the Ottomans in order to squeeze their potential enemies from the Black Sea. Their main goal was to capture the Asian market.
Japan, following the path of Western countries, was looking for a country to exploit and they wanted to take a piece of the Ottomans for themselves, which everyone had been through with capitulations in some way. Although the Ottomans did not have great expectations, they thought it was wise to invest in a rising power that could cause problems in the Far East against Russia and England. This thought seemed reasonable because it was in line with the policy of the sultan of the period to "establish relations with the eastern countries that might work one day tomorrow".
However, the desired result did not come out of the meetings of the ambassadors. Because the Japanese did not want to make a trade agreement on equal terms, they wanted to have the capitulations given to the European states. The Ottomans, too, left the table because they did not agree to a trade agreement on equal terms with the logic of "We lost our legs to Europe, and this should not trouble us". Despite this, the two states gradually became closer to each other. In 1887, Emperor Meji's uncle, Prince Komatsu Akihito, presented the Sultan with the Order of Chrysanthemum, which brought the relations between the two states to the next level.
Prince Komatsu and his wife, Princess Yoriko, were duly hosted at Dolmabahçe Palace and returned to their country with good impressions after the trip. The following year, the Tokyo government asked if they wanted to give the sultan a greater order to thank the prince for his hospitality, and if they would in turn give the same level of honor to their emperor. With this request, the Ottoman government understood that it needed to take a concrete step for the future of the relations between the two countries. While the Japanese Minister of Commerce and Agriculture was in Istanbul, the Ottomans said that the order to be given to the Japanese emperor would be sent by a ship.
The engagement would have been personally presented by the Ottomans, but the question of how and with which ship this job would be carried out was already plaguing their minds…. That Ship Will Go One Day In general, history; We all have the perception that commanders, politicians, kings, dictators, in short, individuals direct them. But history rather than people; events, facts and circumstances give direction. One of the most important events that gave direction to the 19th century Ottoman history is the 93 War, the Ottoman-Russian War of 1877-1878, which we unfortunately do not focus on and do not include in the textbooks.
This war led to a major change in the Tanzimat policy adopted by the Ottomans until that day. On top of that, the Ottoman Empire, which went bankrupt economically shortly after the war, was of a different type, with different dynamics, together with Sultan Abdulhamit the 2nd; he adopted a management approach that sometimes gives what is wanted but sometimes has mistakes.
It was the 93 War and the environment created by this war, rather than Abdulhamid II himself, who determined the main lines of the politics of the Abdulhamid period. Until the aforementioned war, France and especially England supported the Ottoman Empire against Russia in many areas and protected the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire as if it were a European state.
However, this attitude changed after the war and the Western European states' perspectives towards the Ottoman Empire changed. According to this change of perspective, the Ottomans also started to seek a new position. One of the policies that the Ottomans made or felt obliged to change in the game that was re-established after the 93 War was those related to the sea. Sultan Abdulaziz, who had been the state leader just before the 93 War, tried to modernize and strengthen the Ottoman Navy with an appropriate move, adding many warships to the Ottoman navy.
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