Tokugawa Shogunate

Eastern Response to the West The first Europeans to arrive in East Asia were far from their trade-post empires and colonies While initially attempted to establish trade-post forts and bully East Asians, East Asian resistance proved too strong East Asia was, at that point, too distant to attempt to conquer, so Europeans settled for simple trade rights Additionally, Europeans, specifically Catholic Spanish and Portuguese, made efforts to spread Christianity into East Asia and the Philippines While initially tolerated, China, and especially Japan, would soon oppose the presence of Westerners, their ideas, and their religions

Tokugawa Japan (1600-1868) Additionally, in Japan, a new form of government had taken hold: a centralized government called a Shogunate The most powerful shogun, Tokugawa, had successfully defeated all rival shoguns and opposition to finally unify Japan under a central gov. Located in Edo, Tokugawa surrounded his capital with friendly daimyo supporters and shogun allies The focus of this new government was law and order, while also attempting to maintain peace, unity stability, and prosperity In fact, this new era of unification and peace led to nearly 200 years of increasing Japanese population, wealth, knowledge, and infrastructure development, known as the Edo Period

Sakoku - Isolation While initially tolerated, a Western presence in Japan was quickly banned and eliminated in Japan during the 1630s The rebellion itself was over the issue of increased taxes in southern Japan, however, most of the peasants involved happened to be recently-converted Catholic Japanese While the Shimabara Rebellion of 1637 was brutally shut down by the Tokugawa Shogunate, the Edo government was quick to decide Western influence was the cause In order to ensure and maintain peace, the Tokugawa Shogunate initiated Sakoku – a complete cutting off of Japan from the outside world With the exception of light trade with China, Korea, and the Dutch, any foreigners or foreign interaction in or around Japan was punishable by death While peace would be maintained for the next 200 years, Japan would quickly fall behind the rest of the world economically, technologically, and militaristically