Northern Eurasia 1500-1800

1. In 1592 Hideyoshi launched an invasion of the Asian mainland with 160,000 men. 2. The most dramatic consequences were in China. The battles in Manchuria weakened Chinese garrisons there, permitting Manchu opposition to consolidate. Manchu forces invaded Korea in the 1620s and eventually compelled the Yi to become a tributary state. 3. Artisan achievements in steel, making, pottery, and lacquer were made in Japan in the 1600 and 1700s. 4. One of the three impacts of European contact with Japan was on Japanese military technology. Within the first thirty years of the arrival of the first Portuguese in 1543, the daimyo were fighting with western-style firearms, copied and improved by Japanese armorers. Another one of the impacts of European contact with Japan was in trade. Japan welcomed trade from distant Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, and England, but the government closely regulated their activities. The third impact of European contact with Japan was the import of Catholic missionaries. Ordinary Japanese people found the new faith deeply meaningful and a lot of Japanese converted to Christianity but Japanese elite opposed it as disruptive and foreign.

5. The eventual response of the Japanese government to Christianity was persecution in earnest in 1617, and the beheadings,. Crucifixions, and forced recantations. 6. One of the three reasons to the instability of the Tokugawa Shotgunate was the growing power of the merchant class. Another one of the reasons for the instability of the Tokugawa Shotgunate was its decentralized government system which limited its ability to regulate merchant activities and actually stimulated the growth of commercial activities. The third reason for the instability of the Tokugawa Shotgunate was the belief of Confucian idea that agriculture should be the basis of state wealth and that merchants should occupy lowly positions in society because of their reputed lack of moral character.