The Bakufu during its last years—bakumatsu—has taken strong measures to try to reassert its dominance, although its involvement with modernization and foreign powers has made it a target of anti-Western sentiment throughout the country.
Naval students have been sent to study in Western naval schools for several years, starting a tradition of foreign-educated future leaders, such as Admiral Enomoto.
The French naval engineer Léonce Verny had been hired to build naval arsenals, such as those at Yokosuka and Nagasaki.
By the end of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868, the Japanese navy of the shogun will already possess eight western-style steam warships around the flagship Kaiyō Maru, which will be used against pro-imperial forces during the Boshin war, under the command of Admiral Enomoto.
A French Military Mission to Japan (1867) is established to help modernize the armies of the Bakufu.
Japan sends a delegation to and participates in the 1867 World Fair in Paris.
Tokugawa Yoshinobu (also known as Keiki) had reluctantly became head of the Tokugawa house and shogun following the unexpected death of Tokugawa Iemochi in mid-1866.
Tokugawa Yoshinobu tries to reorganize the government under the Emperor while preserving the shogun's leadership role, a system known as kōbu gattai.
Fearing the growing power of the Satsuma and Chōshū daimyos, other daimyo call for returning the shogun's political power to the emperor and a council of daimyos chaired by the former Tokugawa shogun.
On November 9, 1867, a secret order is created by Satsuma and Chōshū in the name of Emperor Meiji commanding the "slaughtering of the traitorous subject Yoshinobu."
Just prior to this however, and following a proposal from the daimyo of Tosa, Yoshinobu resigns his post and authorities to the emperor, agreeing to "be the instrument for carrying out" imperial orders.
The Tokugawa Shogunate has ended.
