Europeans and Americans enjoyed technological superiority and possessed a modern navy with powerful warships powered by steam engines. If they wished, they could have inflicted great damage on Japanese ports and armies. Due to isolation and limited contacts with the outside world, Japan had lagged behind the West technologically and scientifically by the first half of the 19th century. After the fall of the shogunate, the leaders of the Meiji Era began a modernization process, a relatively quick catch-up with the West.
