Cultural Exchanges Between the Europeans and the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan

European merchants found that the Chinese trade was the second most important after the Southeast Asian spice trade, which was their number one source of income Merchants from western Europe found China to be appealing only after the Ming court because of the huge population and skills in manufacturing A Portuguese ship arrived in China in late 1513, but it was not allowed to trade. In 1517, a formal Portuguese embassy was stuck in the Chinese protocol and procrastination, and in 1522 China expelled the Portuguese. The Portuguese finally obtained permission to trade from a base in Macau on the southern coast in 1557.

Spain's trade in China was conducted in the Philippines from Manila, where silver- laden galleons came from South America. The Spanish and the Netherlands both kept trading outposts on the island of Taiwan for a time, but in 1662 they were forced to grant control to the Qing, who first incorporated Taiwan into China. By then, the Dutch East India company had moved the Portuguese into the Indian Ocean as the most important European traders. The Portuguese had attempted to dominate the spice trade by seizing from a local Malay ruler in 1511 Malacca, a strategic town on the narrow strait at the end of the Malay Peninsula.

The Netherlands removed it in 1641 and left Portugal little foothold in the East Indies with the exception of the islands of Ambon and Timor. Analyze the impacts on Japan, Korea and China characterized by the Imjin War. The Imjin War, the biggest conflict in East Asian history in the pre- twentieth century, had no europeans involved. The war had lasting effects in Korea for seven years, from 1592 to 1598, caused the demise of the Ming dynasty in China and produced tension between Japan and Korea that have lasted to this day. Between 1500 and 1800, Japan changed in three different dimensions: external and internal military conflicts, political strengthening and growth and more trade and culture.

Japan's smaller size, together with its relatively homogeneous population and natural borders, made political unification more achievable than in China's great empire. After the Onin War, the Ashikaga Shogunate had weakened and opened up opportunities for daimyo to fight for land and influence throughout Japan. Warfare was common among the various daimyo and culminated in a prolonged civil war at the end of the 1500s. Each daimyo had their samurai, a castle town, a small bureaucracy and a band of warriors. After the Imjin War was prevented by invasions of Manchu, which lasted until the end of the 1630s. Even after the Korean king had submitted to the new Qing dynasty, factionalism broke out among the officials who became a violent problem in the Choson dynasty once again from 1392 to 1910

Explain how the centralization of Japanese political power was thwarted by increasing economic power of merchants and manufacturers. What characterizes the social and cultural shift of power from the daimyo to the merchant class? Japan developed in the post-war era, despite the wartime losses, growing economically and changing politically After Hideyoshi's demise, the last of the three unifiers, Tokugawa Ieyasu from 1543 to 1616, asserted his dominance over other daimyo and established a new military regime known as the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1603. In Edo, now Tokyo, the shoguns created a new capital. Trade on the well- maintained road between Edo and the capital of Kyoto helped the development of the Japanese economy and the establishment of other centers of trade

The Tokugawa Shogunate gave Japan more political unity than the islands had seen in centuries, but the regional daimyo retained a great deal of power and autonomy. Ieyasu and his successors fought for political centralization, but economic integration in Tokugawa Japan proved more important. Since the shoguns often required the daimyo to visit Edo, good roads and sea transport connected the city to the castle towns on three of Japan's four main islands. Commercial traffic along these routes was developed. Lords got their income in rice locally and paid rice to their followers.

The recipients converted much of this rice into cash, a practice which led to the development of rice exchanges in Edo and Osaka( OH- sah- kah), where rice prices were speculated by merchants. By the late 17th century Edo was one of the biggest cities in the world with almost a million inhabitants. Analyze the effects of the influences of Confucianism on Korea during the Choson period. Analyze the various causes and impacts that led to the economic decline and eventual fall of the Ming Dynasty. The last Chinese dynasty, the Qing, reached its peak under Kangxi, but began to lose ground under Emperor Qianlong when the British sent Lord MaCartney to China. Analyze the changes and continuities that occurred during the Qing dynasty that eventually led to its decline.