• Portuguese traders reached China in 1514
• The Ming allowed the Portuguese to build a trading post
at Macao, near Canton.
• European goods were inferior to Chinese products and
the Chinese demanded payment in gold and silver.
• Trade was supervised by imperial officials and Europeans
had to sail away when the trading season ended.
• A few Europeans, like
Jesuit priest Matteo
Ricci, made a positive
impression on Ming
China
• Ricci learned to
speak Chinese and
adopted Chinese
dress but had little
success spreading
religion.
• The Ming dynasty was failing and in 1644, Manchu
armies seized Beijing and made it their capital.
• The Manchu set up a new dynasty called the Qing
(“pure”) – two important rules were Kangxi and his
grandson Qianlong.
• Kangxi ruled for 61 years and spread Chinese power and
culture into central Asia.
• Qianlong ruled for 60 years, expanded China's borders,
and ruled the largest area in China's history .
• The Chinese economy grew, new crops from the Americas
boosted farm output, and the population boomed
• Handicraft industries grew and European demand for
Chinese goods increased
• Restricting foreign
trade proved
disastrous - in the
1800s China learned
about western
advances the hard way
• Like China, Korea restricted outside contacts in the 1500s
and 1600s and became known as the "Hermit Kingdom”
• A Japanese invasion in the 1590s devastated the land of
Korea
• In 1636, the Manchus conquered Korea and Korea
became a tributary state
• The Portuguese
reached Japan in
1543, followed by the
Spanish, Dutch, and
English
• At first, Japan was
more open to
European
missionaries like
Francis Xavier than
China
• The Tokugawa shoguns became hostile and saw
foreigners as agents of an invading force
• They expelled missionaries and executed thousands of
Japanese Christians
• By 1638, the
Tokugawas barred all
western merchants,
forbid Japanese travel
abroad and outlawed
the building of large
ships
• They permitted just one or two Dutch ships a year to
trade at a small island in Nagasaki harbor
• Japan maintained a policy of strict isolation until it was
forced to reopen contacts with the western world in 1853