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JAPAN AS A WORLD POWER
153

defeat of China that at least expedited her formal and nominal recognition in the comity of nations. The new treaties which formulated this recognition went into effect in 1899, from which date it may be eminently proper to begin a seventh period,[1] that of "Cosmopolitanism," in the history of New Japan. And by Japan's successes in the second war with China arising out of the Boxer troubles, she confirmed her claim to recognition as a world power; and this recognition was completed through the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902. Not many years ago the ideal was still such a narrow theme as "The Japan of the Japanese"; then the vision widened out so as to include "The Japan of Asia"; but now the horizon is unlimited and extends to "The Japan of the World." Indeed, the Japanese have outgrown "Native Japan," and even "Asiatic Japan," into "Cosmopolitan Japan." They are interested, not only in national, but also international, problems.

It has already been pointed out that the complete recognition of Japan as a world power was manifested in the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. This is the greatest political event of 1902,[2] so far as concerns directly the future of the Orient and indirectly the affairs of the Occident. This convention between Great Britain and Japan caused profound surprise and widespread rejoicing, and in Japan particularly it was the occasion for numerous feasts, even in various provincial localities, where more or less pro-

  1. ↑ See p. 104.
  2. ↑ Renewed in 1905 and 1911.
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