Lesson Two

Yokohama Boomtown Curriculum, Lesson 02

Amity and Commerce?

Introduction
In 1864, the Treaty of Kanagawa established relations between the United States and Japan. But the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, four years later, was the pivotal agreement that opened Japan to trade with the United States and paved the way for Japanese trade with many European nations.

The Yokohama Boomtown unit takes the Treaty of Amity and Commerce as its point of departure. This treaty is better known as the Harris Treaty after Townsend Harris, the U.S. consul who negotiated its terms. Yokohama Boomtown considers the chain of events, changes, and exchange that the Harris Treaty engendered by examining one of the international commercial centers—Yokohama—that the treaty brought into being.

In this lesson students consider specific terms of the Harris Treaty, analyzing the degree to which the treaty promoted amity and commerce for both the U.S. and Japan. They then analyze visual sources within Yokohama Boomtown to defend their position on the equity of the treaty.

National History Standards

Objectives
At the conclusion of this lesson, students will be able to:
• Define “amity” and “commerce.”
• Identify and discuss the terms of the Harris Treaty and evaluate whether they supported the goals of amity and commerce for both countries.
• Create a visual essay or PowerPoint presentation using visual data from Yokohama Boomtown to illustrate the impact/products of the Harris Treaty from either Japanese or American perspective.

Time Required
1–2 class periods

Materials and Preparation
• Discussion of Harris Treaty (essential background for teachers) within Yokohama Boomtown
• Harris Treaty (May be printed in advance for student use or viewed online)
• Internet access for all students
• Handouts 02-A and 02-B for all students

Procedure
1. (Optional.) Depending on student background, it may be useful to discuss historical U.S. treaties and their intended outcomes before looking at the Harris Treaty. Ask students if they can name any U.S. treaties. Select a treaty with which students are familiar and ask students to consider the context in which the treaty was written.

• What was the historical context of the treaty? That is, why was a treaty needed?
• Did one side seem to benefit more from the treaty than the other?
• If so, why would a group sign an imbalanced treaty?
• What questions might you have for the signers of some of these treaties?

Explain that these questions will be relevant when considering the Harris Treaty, which opened trade between Japan and the United States.

2. Before beginning this lesson, students should be familiar with the “opening” of Japan to the West by Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853 and 1854. If necessary, review the basics of that encounter, detailed in the MIT Visualizing Cultures unit Black Ships & Samurai, with students.

3. Explain that several years after Perry negotiated the initial U.S. treaty with Japan—the Treaty of Kanagawa—American consul to Japan Townsend Harris negotiated a more far-reaching and significant treaty that provided for open trade between the two countries as well as some trade advantages to the United States and to Japan. The treaty was officially named the United States Treaty of Amity and Commerce but was known as the Harris Treaty after the American negotiator.

Ask students to consider the official title of this treaty. Most students will be familiar with the term “commerce.” If necessary, ask for the meaning of “amity,” which is generally defined as a friendly relationship, often in the context of international relations. Ask students to speculate why the treaty would be named the “United States-Japan Treaty of Amity and Commerce.” What did the title indicate about the intent of the treaty? About the relationship between these two countries at the time?

4. Divide students into groups of eight and distribute Handout 02-A to each student. Assign each group to analyze the eight articles of the treaty. Within their groups, each student is responsible for writing a summary of one of the eight articles. Note that students will be working with outdated vocabulary and may need to refer to dictionaries for help. Allow approximately 10–15 minutes for students to complete this portion of the group assignment.

Next, ask students within each group to share their information. Other students in the group should fill in the remainder of the matrix on Handout 02-A with information provided by other group members so that at the end of group sharing, all students have a completed matrix.

5. Bring the class together. Briefly review student interpretations of the treaty articles and ask the class to determine whether each article addressed the goal of amity, commerce, or both. Using student responses on Handout 02-A, organize the articles according to whether they seemed designed to benefit Japan, the United States, or both. Spend some time discussing this issue through the following questions:

• Were there articles of the treaty that might not have contributed to amity from Japanese perspectives?
• Were there specific articles that benefited Japan?
• Are there sections of the treaty that make you wonder why the U.S. or the Japanese agreed to this treaty? (Students might bring up Article XI, where it is stated that Americans will be tried in American courts and punished according to American law. Article VIII, with its reference to allowing “the free exercise of [Americans in Japan] their religion, and for this purpose shall have the right to erect suitable places of worship” might be perceived as controversial.)
• Why would Article X, allowing Japan to purchase munitions from the U.S., be part of the treaty?

Explain to students that the Harris treaty is often referred to as an unequal treaty, much like the treaties that Western countries had negotiated with China in the wake of the Opium Wars. Are students surprised at this designation? How does this label fit with the formal name, The Treaty of Amity and Commerce?

6. As a culminating assignment, students will draw upon evidence in the Essay section of Yokohama Boomtown to create a PowerPoint presentation or illustrated essay that responds to the following statement:

To what extent did the Treaty of Amity and Commerce result in amity and commerce?

Introduce students to the body of evidence available to them for their PowerPoint presentation or essay. Via LCD projector and classroom connection to the Internet, show students the home page of the Yokohama Boomtown unit. Navigate from the home page to the unit menu by clicking on the enter button. Then go to the Essay.

Point out the “sections” within the Essay at the top of the “Introduction” page. Explain that in each section of the Essay, the author of the unit explores a dimension of the impact of the Harris Treaty as commerce and amity developed between Japan, the United States, and other nations who—following the example of the United States—negotiated similar treaties with Japan.

Distribute Handout 02-B, which contains student directions. Students will first develop a “thesis” statement responding to the question, and then locate five images within the Yokohama Boomtown Essay that support their statement.

Have students provide you with their statement and defending images in the format that works best for them (e.g., cut and paste into a Word document, PowerPoint presentation, or Publisher article). Students should explain in writing how their image choices support their view on the treaty.

Lesson developed by Meredith Melzer.

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