Harris Treaty
Edo (Tokyo) Bay, Japan
What happened
US Consul General Townsend Harris negotiated the treaty with Japan's Tokugawa shogunate. Harris, the first American consul in Japan, worked for about 18 months to reach a trade agreement. The treaty was signed on the deck of the USS Powhatan in Edo Bay. It opened Kanagawa and Nagasaki to trade and let Americans live in treaty ports under their own courts.
Why it matters
Why it matters: It went much further than the Convention of Kanagawa and limited Japan's control over foreigners for the first time. It became the model for treaties with other Western powers.
What came next
Anger at the treaties helped bring down the shogunate. Japan sent its first embassy to the United States in 1860.
Did you know?
A 2017 study estimated that the new trade raised Japan's economic output by about 7 per cent.
Timeline
- 31 March 1854Convention of Kanagawa.
- 29 July 1858The Harris Treaty is signed.
- 4 July 1859The treaty takes effect.
- 1860Japan's first embassy to the United States.