| 1603 | Establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate |
| 1825 | Shogunate issues order to repel foreign ships |
| 1853 | U.S. Commodore Perry’s warships appear in Edo Bay (now Tokyo Bay) |
| 1854 | Perry reopens Japan to the Western world, ending the period of national seclusion that began in 1639 and lasted more than two hundred years |
| 1868 | Collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate Meiji Restoration |
| 1868–1869 | Boshin War |
| 1877 | Satsuma Rebellion |
| 1889 | Promulgation of the Meiji Constitution |
| 1894 | Outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War (August) Yalu River naval battle (September) |
| 1895 | Destruction of the Chinese fleet at Weihaiwei (February) Peace treaty signed at Shimonoseki (April) Triple Intervention (April–May)—Japan forced by Russia, France, and Germany to relinquish the Liaodong Peninsula |
| 1898 | Spanish–American War |
| 1900 | Boxer Rebellion in China |
| 1902 | Anglo-Japanese Alliance signed in London (January) |
| 1904 | Outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War (February) Battle over the crossing of the Yalu (April) Siege of Port Arthur (August–January 1905) Battle of the Yellow Sea (August) Battle of Ulsan (August) Battle of Liaoyang (August–September) Battle of Shaho (October) Russian Baltic Fleet departs the Baltic Sea (October) |
| 1905 | Battle of Mukden (March) Tōgō’s Combined Fleet defeats the Baltic Fleet at Tsushima off the coast of Kyushu (May) Peace treaty signed in Portsmouth (September) |