Write how the Meiji Restoration affected the Japanese politically, socially, and economically.

When the Meiji emperor was restored as head of Japan in 1868, the nation was a militarily weak country, was primarily agricultural, and had little technological development. It was controlled by hundreds of semi-independent feudal lords. The Western powers - Europe and the United States - had forced Japan to sign treaties that limited its control over its own foreign trade and required that crimes concerning foreigners in Japan be tried not in Japanese but in Western courts. The Meiji period ended in 1912, after the death of the emperor. This gave Japan a powerful army and navy, well developed transport and communication system, a constitution with an elected parliament, and much more.