Mathew C Perry- I don't have anything relatively witty to put about him in the title

   Mathew C. Perry was commanded a squadron (that is a funny word) of heavily armed warships. I think that his boat in reality would tip over because if you have so many arms then you are top heavy. That is really not good. If your boat tipped over that would suck. Well... anyway he eventually got to Japan. Japan is not nearly as cool as China. Or India for that matter. While there, Perry gave the Japanese a letter from the president to grant trading rights. The Japanese were amazed by the powerful ships. In 1854, Perry returned and signed a treaty about opening Japan for trade with the US.
    After this, Japan realized that they needed to be as technological advanced in order to make it in the modern world. Or as modern as the 1854 world was. Look at them today. Making cars, televisions, and comic books.
 
   Perry represents the theme "economic interests drove expansion." The only reason he went to Japan was to try and get them to trade with the US or us. Trade = Money. Money = Economics. Therefore Trade= Economics. During this time, everyone cared about money. Even the president, who is part of the government. Proving that economics controlled government policy.

Picture from www.teachersparadise.com/ency/en/media/a/a1/matthew_c__perry.jpg