Administrative change
Japanese annexation of the Ryukyu Kingdom, 1879
Japan formally abolished the Ryukyu Kingdom and annexed it as Okinawa Prefecture.
What happened
In 1879, the Meiji government annexed the Ryukyu Kingdom as Okinawa Prefecture, exiling the last king; Ryukyuan aristocrats resisted for nearly two decades.[1]
Sources for this page
Each number marks a specific claim. Notes give the source, its locator and how it relates to the claim.
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1.
Claim: The Ryukyu Kingdom, founded in 1429 and a semi-independent vassal state of the Japanese Satsuma Domain from 1609 while maintaining tributary relations with China, was formally annexed by the Meiji government of Japan in 1879 and reconstituted as Okinawa Prefecture, with the last Ryukyu king, Shō Tai, forcibly exiled to Tokyo; Ryukyuan aristocrats resisted the annexation for nearly two decades, and Okinawans were subsequently subject to assimilation policies.
- History of the Ryukyu Islands (Wikipedia) link, 1609 Satsuma Invasion and 1879 Annexation sections. Source record