Samurai

The samurai (侍) were members of the elite warrior class in Japan before the industrial era. They were generally retainers of some lord.

In 1853, the United States forced Japan to open its borders to foreign trade under the threat of military action. Fearing an eventual invasion, the Japanese abandoned feudalism for capitalism so that they could industrialize and build a modern army. The samurai were retainers to the daimyo, so when the daimyo class was abolished and power was re-centralized at the imperial court, the samurai class in turn became defunct. The introduction of modern firearms rendered the traditional weapons of the samurai obsolete, and as firearms are easy enough for peasant conscripts to master, Japan had no more need for a specialist warrior caste. By 1876 their special rights and privileges had all been abolished.