Born Apr. 10, 1794, in South Kingston, R.I.; died Mar. 4, 1858, in New York. US naval figure, commodore (1841).
Perry fought in the USA’s wars with Great Britain from 1812 to 1814 and with Mexico from 1846 to 1848. In 1852 he headed a squadron that was sent to force the Japanese government, which had been pursuing an isolationist policy, to establish diplomatic and trade relations with the USA. He compelled the Japanese government, under threat of military action, to sign a treaty in 1854 that opened the ports of Hakodate and Shimoda to American vessels and set the stage for the one-sided treaties that the USA and the European powers later concluded with Japan. Perry was the author of extensive plans for American expansion in the Far East. He made a number of attempts to seize the Bonin and Ryukyu islands and Taiwan.