Northern Eurasia 1500-1800

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Northern Eurasia1500-1800

• C.20

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Japan
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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

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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.

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Civil War and the Invasion of Korea, 1500-1603

• In the 12th century Japans 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.

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Civil War

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

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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.

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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.

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Hideyoshis 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
• Hideyoshi invaded Manchuria and Korea but after
  Hideyoshis death in 1598 the other Japanese
  leaders withdrew their forces and made peace with
  Korea in 1606

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Consequences of Hideyoshis invasion

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

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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.)

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Tokugawa Shogunate

• Tokugawa Ieayasu established this new Shogunate
  in 1603.
• They created a new capital city, Edo. 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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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Trade w/ Europeans

• Japan began to trade with Portugal, Spain, and
  the Netherlands, and England
• The govt 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.

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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.

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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.

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• 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.

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Elite Decline and Social Crisis

• During the 1700s population growth put a strain
  on the well-developed lands of central Japan.
• The central govt wasnt 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.

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• 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.

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The Later Ming and Early Qing Empires
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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.

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Ming continued.

• The Ming empire began to flourish during the
  1500s 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.

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Why is China called China???

• Europeans were highly impressed by Chinas
  imperial power, exquisite manufactures, and large
  population.
• They bought the blue-on-white porcelain commonly
  used by Chinas upper classes and referred to
  these fine dishes as china

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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.

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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 govt showed little interest in
  developing the economy.
• 4. The govt tried to use paper currency even
  though it wasnt generally accepted b/c silver
  had won the approval of the markets
• 5. Ming factories were disorderly and
  inefficient.

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Ming collapse and rise of the Qing

• One would think that the economic problems just
  mentioned would bring the Ming down but it
  didnt.
• What brought about the collapse of the Ming was
  the result of growing rebellion within and the
  rising power of the Manchu outside Chinas
  borders.

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Ming collapse

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

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

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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

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• Catholic missionaries accompanied Portuguese and
  Spanish traders, and the Jesuits had notable
  success converting Chinese elites.
• The Jesuit Matteo Ricci (15521610) used his
  mastery of Chinese language and culture to gain
  access to the imperial court

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Emperor Kangxi (r. 16621722)

• Kangxi (r. 16621722) 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.

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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.

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Beginning of the end

• Population explosion which caused an intensified
  demand for rice, wheat, and land.
• More peopleless land per 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 wasnt
  being maintained.
• Interior China was miserable due to this
• To summarize the empire had grown large and the
  govt couldnt deal with it.

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The Russian Empire

• Russian had modest beginnings in 1500, Russian
  expanded rapidly during the next three centuries.
• Russia became one of Europes major powers by
  1750.

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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
  1240s-1480
• Moscow became the most important Russian city and
  the center of political power

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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.