Northern Eurasia 1500 1800 C 20 Japan Introduction

Northern Eurasia 1500 -1800 C. 20

Japan

Introduction The three centuries b/w 1500 -1800 saw the rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan, the Qing Empire in China, and the Russian Empire This chapter will discuss the following: Japanese reunification The Later Ming and Early Qing Empires The Russian Empire

Japanese Reunification Why was Japan able to unify in shorter amount of time than China and Russia? Well, Japan is smaller in size than both China and Russia and Japan differed in its response to new contacts with western Europeans.

Civil War and the Invasion of Korea, 1500 -1603 In the 12 th century Japan’s imperial unity had fell under the control of numerous warlords known as, daimyo. Each daimyo had its own town, a small bureaucracy and army. The armies that were devoted to the daimyo were known as samurai.

Civil Warfare among the different daimyo was common There was a prolonged civil war in the 1500 s that brought the separate Japanese islands under the control of powerful warlords The most significant and powerful of the warlords was, Hideyoshi.

Hideyoshi In 1592 Hideyoshi launched an invasion of the Asian mainland with 160, 000 men. His intentions were to conquer the Korean peninsula and make himself emperor of China as well.

Korea and Japan Korean and Japanese languages are closely realated but the dominant influence on Korean culture had been China. Korea had accepted their subordinate realtionship with their giant of a neighbor and had paid tribute to China. Korea was a model Confucian state with its own system of writing and made use of moveable type and printing.

Hideyoshi’s invasion Koreans used all the military techonolgy of the times against the Japanese. They used covered warships called “turtle boats”, They were still no match for the mentally unstable Hideyoshi invaded Manchuria and Korea but after Hideyoshi’s death in 1598 the other Japanese leaders withdrew their forces and made peace with Korea in 1606

Consequences of Hideyoshi’s invasion Korean nobility (yangban) were able to lay claim to so much tax-paying land that royal revenues fell by twothirds. The battles in Manchuria weakened Chinese garrisons which then permitted Manchu opposition to consolidate. This then allowed Manchu to be in possession of Beijing, China’s capital, by 1644.

Tokugawa Shogunate What is a Shogun? A Shogun is a hereditary commander in chief in feudal Japan. A Shogunate is dictatorship: a form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution or laws or opposition etc. )

Tokugawa Shogunate Tokugawa Ieayasu established this new Shogunate in 1603. They created a new capital city, Edo is now modern-day Tokyo. He helped to create a trade route b/w Edo and the imperial city of Kyoto which help to develop the Japanese economy. Even though their was more political unity, the daimyo still had a lot of power.

Peaceful times in the Tokugawa Shogunate Economic integration was the name of the game rather than political centralization. The Shogunate required the daimyo to visit Edo frequently there were good roads and maritime transport that would link the city to the castle towns on three or four main islands of Japan. The Shogun paid the daimyo in rice and the lords paid their followers in rice. To pay personal expenses you had to convert the rice into cash. Rice exchanges were then established at Edo and Osaka.

Peace continued…. The peace of the Tokugawa era forced the warrior class to become more domesticated in a way. The samurai became better educated, more attuned to elite tastes, and generally more interested in consumption. For example, the samurai became excellenct customers of silk, sake (rice wine), fans, porcelain, books, etc…

Japan and the Europeans Japan began directly interacted with Europeans in the mid-sixteenth century and this brought them new opportunities and problems. The first major impact was that of military technology. By 1543 the daimyo were fighting with Western-style firearms.

Trade w/ Europeans Japan began to trade with Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands, and England The gov’t closely regulated their activities Few goods went to Europe The Japanese sold the Dutch copper and silver which the Dutch exchanged in China for silks and they then resold in Japan.

Catholic Missionaries Portuguese and Spanish merchant ships brought Catholic missionaries. The Japanese response was mixed. Large numbers of ordinary Japanese found the new faith deeply meaningful but members of the elite were inclined to oppose it as disruptive and foreign. Nevertheless, by 1580 more than 100, 000 Japanese had become Christians and one daimyo gave the Jesuit missionaries the port city of Nagasaki.

Japan and Europe cont…. By the early seventeenth century there were nearly 300, 000 Japanese Christians but this did not change the fractious politics of the day. The new Shogunate in Edo became the center of new hostility towards Christians and Europeans in 1614. They issued a decree charging that Christians were trying to overthrow the government and seize land. They then ordered the movement eliminated.

B/w 1633 -39 a series of decrees ordered the end of European trade. The new Shogunate wanted to make sure no new Christians emerged so they ordered people to show certificates from Buddhist temples attesting to their religious orthodoxy and thus their loyalty to the regime. They did still allow trade with the Dutch for their needs.

Elite Decline and Social Crisis During the 1700 s population growth put a strain on the well-developed lands of central Japan. The central gov’t wasn’t able to stabalize rice prices and halt the economic decline of the samurai. The samurai had to convert the rice to cash in the market. Rice brokers made themselves rich by controlling the interest rates on rice.

The shoguns tried to protect the samurai from decline by curbing the power of the merchant class. Their legitimacy rested on their ability to reward and protect the interests of the lords and samurai who has supported them.

The Later Ming and Early Qing Empires

The Ming Empire 1500 -1644 Like Japan, China after 1500 experienced civil and foreign wars, and important change in government, and new trading cultural trading relations with Europe and its neighbors. It was just on a much larger scale than that of the Japanese. The Ming Empire last from 1368 -1644 and came after the Mongol Yuan dynasty.

Ming continued…. The Ming empire began to flourish during the 1500 s due to their assembly line production of porcelain. There was also an eager market for silk, lacquered furniture. This golden age was followed by many decades of political weakness, warfare, and rural woes until the Qing emerged.

Why is China called China? ? ? Europeans were highly impressed by China’s imperial power, exquisite manufactures, and large population. They bought the blue-on-white porcelain commonly used by China’s upper classes and referred to these fine dishes as “china”

Achievements of the Ming Urban elites had created a culture that included novels, operas, poetry, porcelain, and painting. Small business owners would make money by catering to the elite with businesses dealing with printing, tailoring, running restaurants, or selling paper, ink, etc.

Problems plaguing the Ming 1. Rapid growth in the trading economy led to rapid growth in the urban areas. 2. Price inflation due to the flood of silver from Europe 3. Ming gov’t showed little interest in developing the economy. 4. The gov’t tried to use paper currency even though it wasn’t generally accepted b/c silver had won the approval of the markets 5. Ming factories were disorderly and inefficient.

Ming collapse and rise of the Qing One would think that the economic problems just mentioned would bring the Ming down but it didn’t. What brought about the collapse of the Ming was the result of growing rebellion within and the rising power of the Manchu outside China’s borders.

Ming collapse The following were the reasons as to why the Ming collapsed: Insecure borders Mongols united Manchuria Pirates, arghhhhh Inability of the military to protect the coast Japanese invasions

The Ming emperor was dead by his own hand the imperial family had fled. The new empire would be called the Qing empire and headed by a Manchu family.

Trading Companies and Missionaries Europeans were eager to trade with China Enthusiasm for international trade developed slowly in China, particularly in the imperial court Over the course of the sixteenth century, the Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch gained limited access to Chinese trade

Catholic missionaries accompanied Portuguese and Spanish traders, and the Jesuits had notable success converting Chinese elites. The Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552– 1610) used his mastery of Chinese language and culture to gain access to the imperial court

Emperor Kangxi (r. 1662– 1722) took formal control over his government in 1669 (at the age of sixteen) by executing his chief regent Kangxi was an intellectual prodigy and a successful military commander who expanded his territory and gave it a high degree of stability.

Chinese Influences on Europe The exchange of ideas and information between the Qing and the Jesuits flowed in both directions The wealth and power of the Qing led to a tremendous enthusiasm in Europe for Chinese things such as silk, tea, porcelain, other decorative items, and wallpaper.

Beginning of the end Population explosion which caused an intensified demand for rice, wheat, and land. More people=less land person for farming Increased demand for building materials and firewood reduced the woodlands. This put China at risk for flooding due to deforestation. The Grand Canal was nearly unusable b/c it wasn’t being maintained. Interior China was miserable due to this To summarize the empire had grown large and the gov’t couldn’t deal with it.

The Russian Empire Russian had modest beginnings in 1500, Russian expanded rapidly during the next three centuries. Russia became one of Europe’s major powers by 1750.

The Drive across Northern Asia The Russians were a branch of the Slavic people of eastern Europe. Most were Orthodox Christians like the Greeks. The Mongols had ruled the Russians from 1240 s-1480 Moscow became the most important Russian city and the center of political power

Russian Society and Politics to 1725 As the empire expanded it incorporated a diverse set of peoples, cultures, and religions. This often produced internal tensions The Cossacks were a good example of the results of cultures and people diverging.