Return of Chinese Rule
Ming China
1368-1644
Defining Characteristics
• Confucianism Returns
Examination System
Scholar Class
Mobility through merit
• Powerful Military
Best seafaring vessels
One of the largest land empires
•Cultural Expressions: Pottery and the Novel
Defining Characteristics
• Urban Revival
Rebuilding of the Forbidden City… Beijing
• Early attempts at Exploration
Areas of Exploration: India, Arabia, East Africa
Zhenge He
1390 Chinese govt. restricts explorations
1430 Exploration efforts ended
•Interactions with Europeans
Indirect Trade brought in massive amounts of silver
Curious about Missionaries…later rejected them
Permitted Portuguese at Macao
Rise of the Manchus (Qing
Dynasty)
Rise of the Manchus (Qing
Dynasty)
• 1644-1911
• Invaders from the North
• Open up trade with Europe— Limited to South
Maintained Confucian attitudes—”Europeans are barbaric”
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Importance of Tea
Boom of Port Cites… Canton (Guangzhou)
Christian missionary presence— no successes
Government Structure… Dyarchy
Video Prompt
China successfully embarked on voyages of
discovery a 100 years before the
Europeans did…
….Then, in the 1430s, they stopped
What if China had continued to explore?
How might history had been different?
Think long term
Rise and Rule of Tokugawa Shogunate
1603-1868
-End of 1500s- Ashikaga Shogun
collapses: Clan Wars return
-3 Lords emerge…fight for
control
2 of the lords attempted to
centralize rule--failed
-The third lord fills the voidTokugawa:
(daimyo of Edo) declared himself
shogun by 1603
Great Peace
• Emergence of Tokugawa Ieyasu…powerful daimyo of Edo
(modern Tokyo)
• Unites the daimyo..ending feudal warfare
Tozama and Fudai Daimyo at peace
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New capital at Edo (Tokyo)… Emperor in Kyoto
Shogun’s twin responsibilities:
Samurai take on administrative duties
Economic Changes
Rise in Commerce and manufacturing in cities
Common Currency
Merchant Class
Home grown cotton
Great Peace
• Initial period of openness with West
1. Gunpowder technologyIntroduced by Portuguese
Aid in unification
2. Presence of Christian
Missionaries
Some Conversions
Francis Xavier
Most successful in Southern Islands
Emerges as an “External Society”
• Self Imposed Isolation
1. Religion
1612: Expelling of Christian Missionaries
1614: Christianity banned
Why?
Suspicious of Motives
Missionaries destroy idols
Newly converted involved in riots
Self Imposed Isolation
2. Trade and Travel
Only Dutch Merchants were permitted
Little or no missionary activity
Allowed at Nagasaki harbor
Japanese merchants confined to cities and
China
Western Books were banned
Restricted Travel Abroad
Why Isolation?
• Fear outside ideas weakens Shogun
authority
•Samurai Culture reinforces Group
conformity
•Island Geography
•Shinto beliefs