Chapter 22 – Transitions in Asia

Ming Dynasty
 Ming Dynasty (led by Zhu) rids China of
the Mongols and lasts from 1368 – 1644
 Strong central gvt
 Confucian principles
 Reinstates civil service exam
 Energizes and emphasizes Chinese
culture to erase Mongol influence

Zheng He
 Chinese navigator in the
early 1400s
 Traveled to SE Asia, Indian
Ocean and East Africa (100
yrs before Europeans do)
 Chinese govt suddenly bans
the building of seagoing
ships in 1433 (when Zheng
He dies), Zheng He’s fleets
rot away and China turns
inward
 Confucian Scholars actually
burn records of his journeys
 State considered the
expeditions “silly” and a waste
of resources

 What might have happened if the Chinese spent
the 15th and 16th centuries exploring?

 Ming dynasty declines through the 16th
century
State still concerned about Mongols,
revamping the Great Wall
 1600’s – famines, plummeting economy,
peasant revolts
 1644 – Ming emperor invites Qing
warriors from Manchuria to quell a
peasant uprising, but oust the emperor
instead.
 Qing (Manchu) Dynasty from 1644 -
1914

Manchus
 Obsessed with remaining ethnically
elite (only 3% of the population)
 Ban marriage of Manchu’s and
Chinese
 Chinese forbidden to learn Manchu
language
 Need the best and brightest of the
ethnic Chinese to help run the gvt –
so competition on the civil service
exam intensifies (the Manchu’s don’t
care about class)

Qing Dynasty
 Will grow to
include
Taiwan and
parts of
Mongolia,
central Asia
and Tibet
 Tributary
states –
Burma,
Nepal, and
Vietnam

Isolationism
 Continue to focus inward
 Focus only stretches as far as tributary
states
 Fierce protectors of culture – ban
Christianity in 1724
 Trade is restricted to only one city and is
regulated by the government
 Silver streaming into Chinese economy

Japan
 1542 – Portuguese established trade, missionaries poured in
 300,000 or so Japanese converted to Christianity
 1100s-1500s – era of feudalistic heirarchies
 Era of daimyos (territorial lords) pledging allegiance to the shogun
(military overlord)
 1500s Civil War breaks out, several warlords emerge and dominate
the different Japanese Islands
 Toyotomi Hideyoshi – general, gains power, unifies Japan in
1590
 Dreams of expanding the empire, attacks Korea

1592 and 1597: Korea vs.
Japan
 Hideyoshi attacks Korea
 Korean Admiral Yi Sun-shin has his
70 foot “turtle boat”
 Iron covering, looks like a turtle,
has holes for oars and cannons
 Sinks hundreds of Japanese
vessels, even though the
Japanese have the musket from
the Portuguese
 Admiral Yi dies in the attacks, but
the Japanese don’t attack again until
the 1910s
 (Japanese invade Manchuria during
this time too, but will have to
withdraw after losing most of their
navy)

 After Hideyoshi’s death,
Tokugawa Ieyasu daimyo’s meet under
Tokugawa Ieyasu and
create the Tokugawa
Shogunate in 1603
 1603-1867
 Bakufu (tent gov’t, implied only
temporary gov’t replacement
of the emperor’s pwr)
 Claims personal
ownership to all the lands
 Institutes rigid social
class, (its Confucian met
caste)
 Warrior
 Farmer
 Artisan
 merchant
 **No Social mobility

Edo Period
 Tokugawa moves capital from Heian (Kyoto) to
Edo (Tokyo)
 Reversal in attitudes toward Western influence
 Christians are persecuted, missionaries expelled
 1580s – missionaries voted off the island
 1590s – persecution of converts/missionaries begins
 1614 – banned the faith
○ Kicked off the island, hunted down and killed
○ Rebellions persist, Christianity becomes and
underground faith
 National Seclusion Policy – Japanese prohibited
from traveling abroad and from receiving visitors to
Japan
 Only exceptions – Korea, China, and Netherlands
(Dutch and Nagasaki)

Rationale for Isolation
 Spain in the Philippines
 England and Portuguese hassling China
 When Portuguese come into Japan to
negotiate, Japanese kill them on the
spot

Isolation is good for the Arts

 Buddhism and Shinto still
influence culture
 Kabuki theatre
 Bunraku (puppet plays)
 Haiku
 Scrolls, wood-block prints and
paintings

South and Southeast Asia
 Portuguese spearhead exploration, Dutch
follow suit
 Port/Span are zealous missionaries,
Brit/Dutch not nearly as zealous
 Conversions difficult in S and SE Asia…
why?
Islam has existed for 1000 years
Hindu ideas and rituals have existed for over
2000 years
Areas of success?
○ Philippines

Effects of Europe on Asia
 Set up some bases that are new, more
powerful, wealthy port cities
 New trade routes
 Muslim Trade centers start to decline in
value
 Introduce sea warfare
 Diffusion causes
New food from Americas to enter Asia
Silver from Americas pours into Asia
Europeans get malaria and dysentary

Asian Reactions
 Some empires are just too strong and too
populated
 Cultures are too established
 China and Japan just aren’t interested
Missionaries contained
Limited trading contacts
China stopped trading and allowed Europe to take
over “global” (and now actually global) trade
 Because of isolation…
Asia does not keep up with Europeans
After 4000 years of technological superiority,
European technology surpass Asian technology
Fateful, consequential, critical time in history
But…does Europe still dominate?

Chapter 22 – Transitions in Asia

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Similar to Chapter 22 – Transitions in Asia (20)

More from Hals (20)

Chapter 22 – Transitions in Asia