| Economic imperialism remains the dominant paradigm in Political Economy when examining modern empires. The Core-Periphery relationships of World Systems Theory based around exploitation of labor and resources, or capitalist cycles of accumulation is a powerful theoretical tool, and a useful lens through which to view European colonialism. However, the expansion of the Japanese empire into Taiwan did not follow the same pattern of development and exploitation as its European counterparts, and had dramatically different outcomes for the former colonized state. This project compares standard economic analysis of Japanese colonialism with a modified version of Michael Mann's model of social power allowing for ideological drivers of expansion that incorporates the work of John K Fairbank on the Chinese World Order. Specifically attempting to identify the role of Confucianism as a governing ideology in Japanese imperial expansion from 1895 (the treaty of Shimonoseki) to 1937 (the beginning of Japanese militarism). |
