1. Chapter 22: Asian Transitions in an era of Global Change

2. European Arrival
Vasco de Gama and his Portuguese crew arrive in India in 1498
Found a sea route around Africa
Initial trading in Calicut
Asians weren’t interested in European-made goods
Asians were, however, ready to trade for silver bullion!

3. Asian Sea Trade Network
3 Main Zones
West: Arab Zone-glass, carpet, and tapestry making.
Center: Indian Zone-superb cotton textiles.
East: Chinese Zone-paper, porcelain, and silk textiles.
Places like Japan, East Africa, and South East Asia were known to contribute raw materials.

5. European Arrival
There were two characteristics of the trading system that needed to be understood by the Europeans
First…NO CENTRAL CONTROL
Second…Military force was absent from commercial exchanges

6. European Arrival
Mercantilist Policy of Europeans
Silver flow would enrich and strengthen merchants and rulers from rival kingdoms (Muslims)
De Gama turns to force instead of peaceful trading.
Creates tribute payments along the coast
Portuguese were united in their drive for wealth and religious converts.

7. European Arrival Portuguese trading empire
Establish control over key Asian products, particularly spices, such as cinnamon
Resistance, poor discipline, corruption, and shipping losses take a heavy toll on the empire by the end of the 16th century.
English and Dutch compete to win control over the trading system
The Dutch are the victors (short-term), and the English fall-back to India

8. Dutch Trading Empire Fortified towns and factories (supply)
Warships on patrol
Monopoly control over limited products
More efficient than the Portuguese

9. Conversion Conversion only occurred in isolated areas
Somewhat successful on the Northern islands of the Philippines.
Friars built new settlements with town squares where the church was located.
Represents a mix of Christian and Filipino ways

10. China and the Ming Dynasty
Restoration of ethnic Chinese rule under the Ming Dynasty ( )
Largest population of any civilization of the time
Renewed agricultural/commercial growth
Europeans use New World bullion to pay for goods
High degree of technology
Large numbers of skilled engineers and artisans
Centralized bureaucracy

12. China and the Ming Dynasty-Hongwu
Return of the Scholar-Gentry
Abolished the position of chief minister
Instituted Public beatings for bureaucrats found guilty of corruption and incompetence

13. Ming China
Spanish and Portuguese mercantile contacts imports crops from the New World
From the Andes highlands
Maize, sweet potatoes, peanuts
Grown on inferior soil with little irrigation
Cultivation spread quickly through marginal areas
Zhenghe Expeditions

15. Ming China After 1400, China aims to LIMIT China’s overseas commerce
Ming war fleet dramatically declines
As the Chinese shut themselves in, the Europeans were irresistibly drawn to the Middle Kingdom for converts.
Some scholars show interest in Christianity, but never took a real hold on the court, or the people.

16. Ming China-Decline
Highly centralized, absolutist structure developed by Hongwu and continued by Yunglo could not be continued.
Official corruption
Isolation of weak rulers
Public works projects fall into disrepair.
Floods, droughts, famine afflict the land
Increased foreign threats, mostly by the Manchu
The last emperor of the Ming, Chongzhen, commits suicide as the walls of the Forbidden City are scaled by rebels…the Dynasty ends in 1644.

17. Japan
Kamakura Shogunate: , establishment of the Shogunate under Minamoto no Yoritomo
Ashikaga Shogunate: , weaker with most of the power lying in the hands of regional Daimyo
By 1500’s, continual civil war amongst the Daimyo
Three able-military leaders were needed to restore unity and order

18. Japan
Oda Nobunaga used firearms that Japan had gained from the Portuguese in the 1540s.
Deposed the last of the Ashikaga Shoguns in 1573
By 1580 he puts most of Honshu island under his command
Killed in 1582

19. Japan
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (one of Nobunaga’s Generals) moved to punish those who betrayed Nobunaga and renewed the drive to break the power from the Daimyo.
Ruled most of Japan by 1590
Launched two attacks on Korea in 1592 and 1597 with almost 150,000 soldiers
No real success…
Dies in 1598

20. Japan Tokugawa Ieyasu concentrates on consolidating power at home.
By 1603 he was granted power as Shogun by the Emperor
Beginning of the TOKUGAWA SHOGUNATE
Ends civil wars, brought the semblance of political unity to the islands
Rules from Edo (later to be, Tokyo)

21. The Tokugawa Shogunate

22. The Tokugawa Shogunate
Europeans had increasing contact with the Japanese throughout the warring period
Brought goods traded in India, China, and SE Asia
Exchanged for Silver, copper, pottery, etc.
Traders and missionaries brought firearms, printing presses, and other western devices, like clocks
Contacts with Europeans changed warfare (guns), and led to increased commercial contacts with China, Korea, Philippines, and Siam

23. Conversion (before Tokugawa)
Jesuits employ the top-down model of impressing the leader (in this case, Nobunaga in the 1570s)
Convert many of the Daimyo’s
Nobunaga himself was said to be at the verge of conversion.
Hundreds of thousands of converts by the early 1580s
Hideyoshi though, was distrustful of the Europeans, and saw the writing on the wall…
Commercial and Military ventures first…then conquer the islands
Conversion is cut short in the 1580s

24. Tokugawa Isolationism
Beginning in the 1580’s, amid skepticism about the intentions of the Europeans official measures are taken to restrict foreign activities in Japan.
Christian Missionaries are ordered off the islands by Hideyoshi
Ieyasu continues the persecution and bans Christianity by 1614.
Missionaries are hunted, killed, or expelled.
Japanese were required to renounce their faith, or face imprisonment, torture and execution.

25. Tokugawa Isolationism
1630: All Japanese ships were forbidden to trade, or even sail overseas
1640s: Only a limited number of Dutch and Chinese chips were allowed to trade on the island of Deshima, in Nagasaki Bay.
Copper export was restricted
Western books banned
Foreigners were permitted to live and travel only to VERY restricted areas.
By the 1650s total isolationism was almost complete.
Emphasis on Japan’s unique historical experience