A programme of #DefensiveDevelopment that could have modernized #China, the #HundredDaysReform, was launched on #ThisDayInHistory in 1898. Opponents of change rallied around Empress Dowager #Cixi, who led a coup and imprisoned the #GuangxuEmperor. (He was later murdered in 1908.)

On #ThisDayInHistory in 1867, the last #Tokugawa #shōgun resigned. The #Bakufu system of military governance had dominated #Japan since 1185, with the imperial house largely powerless. The #Shogunate's end opened the way to the #MeijiRestoration and Japan's #DefensiveDevelopment.