Throughout history, foreign policies and views of foreigners differed from empire to empire. The Ottoman Turks, an incredibly long lasting, Muslim empire, were quite welcoming towards foreigners. Their leaders were tolerant of other religions and were open for foreign merchants to enter their markets. In contrast, the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan shut themselves out from the world. Under Oda Nobunaga, Japan was fair but after his death this changed. They persecuted Christians and only allowed the Dutch to trade with them at a specific port. These two powerful empires have foreign policies that show how varied, yet similar, foreign policies can be, and show how differently leaders of the same empire view the same topic. The Ottomans and Japan …show more content…
The Ottoman empire had a long history of using foreigners as slaves. The Janissaries were boys taken from the Balkans to be soldier-slaves for the Ottomans. They took these boys from their homes and used them as a cavalry in their strong military. Near the end of the empire, the Janissaries had gained much power which eventually aided in the fall of the empire. The Ottomans were not scared of the outside world. They continued to expand their vast empire, almost until it fell. The Ottomans spread themselves out and had many various cultures and people living within their empire. This is very different from how Japan came to later view and treat foreigners. Under Nobunaga, Japan traded with foreigners and was tolerant of new religions. However under the Tokugawa shogunate, the empire completely changed these policies. The Buddhist uprisings in Japan had ended, so the need for Christians in court was nonexistent. Along with this, the people of Japan became more dedicated to their faith than to the shogun. They would refuse to follow some orders of the shogun if they believed it went against their newfound religion. This greatly angered Tokugawa and he began to persecute the Christians. He eventually led Japan into a period of isolationism. Isolationism has been long used in history, even in the United States. Before entering World War II, the United States took on a policy of isolationism to protect themselves. Japan turned away from the world as a way of keeping themselves safe from foreign invasion. Unlike the Ottomans, Japan never let foreigners gain significant power, and when it seemed like they may the shogun essentially removed all foreigners. Japan stopped trading with foreigners almost all together, save for the Dutch at a small port. No foreigners were to step on Japanese land. Japan shut themselves out of the rest of the world to protect
In the early 1800’s, Japan had blocked off all trade from other countries. Foreign whaling ships could not even reload or repair their ships in Japan territory. This offended many other countries. In 1852, Matthew Perry was sent to Japan to negotiate open trade. Japan felt threatened by the United States, and gave in to their demands. Japan was frightened by their stipulations, and immediately began to reform. They developed a new education system that was similar to America and Europe’s. They also developed a Western style judiciary system.
"(Doc. A) The beliefs Japanese grew up with were that the Emperor was sublime and his empire should be followed everywhere nerveless by everyone. They were trained to be dedicated; willing to do anything to please their superior. “An old order... (European and American)... is now crumbling.
Stetson Conn (1990) wrote “For several decades the Japanese population had been the target of hostility and restrictive action.” It was easy for the government to take advantage of the Japanese-Americans because they were already the target of aggression. Since the Japanese population was already in such a low position in society, taking advantage of their circumstances was easy for the government. The Japanese found themselves having to defend their presence in a country that was supposed to be accepting; this also happened to the Chinese before the Japanese. (Terry, 2012)
10. The Japanese restricted Trade with European traders in order to curb European cultural, religious, and economic influence on the Japanese archipelago. The rising merchant class threatened the Shoganate, as well as the religion of Catholicism, which introduced the traditional Japanese customs and religion. The Japanese, after fighting for unification, were in danger of being splintered yet again into warring factions with separate economic situations and religions, and the Shoganate didn’t want this to happen, and therefore heavily restricted immigration and trade by the Europeans.
Feudal Japan and Feudal Europe had similarities and differences. Both Feudal Japan and Feudal Europe had professional warriors, for Japan it was the samurai, and for Europe the knights. They both had religious beliefs such as Buddhism and Christianity. Japan was an island and was isolated, whereas Europe wasn’t isolated nor an island. Feudal Japan lasted from 1185-1603, while Feudal Europe lasted from the 9th to the 15th centuries.
Japan, at first, let the newcomers in and learned about them, and let them learn a little from them. However, they didn't have very good experiences, like as portrayed in document twelve, the Japanese thought of the Europeans as arrogant and full of themselves, and the Europeans, like Will Adams in document fourteen, didn't like what the Japanese did, in holding them there when they wanted to leave, and the way they treated the women as completely there just to serve and help the men, as was mentioned in document eleven. The Japanese, as in document fifteen, said that innovations had to be reported, and listed them right next to factional conspiracies, as if they were both equally bad, showing that the Japanese didn't want to advance technologically, and wanted to stick with tradition. The Europeans as we already know, where rapidly advancing technologically, because of their fierce rivals with each other, making Japan dislike them even more. The Europeans, who were trying to spread Christianity as well as become rich, thought that the Japanese would convert quickly, as Francis Xavier wrote in document thirteen, “They see clearly that their ancestral law is false and the law of God true, but they are deterred by fear of their prince from submitting to the...
Japan has been a home for Shinto and Buddhist religions for centuries. The Christian missionaries during the 16th, 19th and 20th centuries worked hard to evangelize the Japanese nation but could not get desired success. There efforts in past failed partly due to sanctions imposed by the local rulers. The Jesuits missionaries traveled with Spanish and Portuguese traders to many areas of America and Asia-Pacific and established their churches and religious missions. They were funded, sponsored and trained by their respective governments in order to spread Christianity. At several places they preached the Christian faith by force but the aboriginal population did not accept it wholeheartedly. Initially the Jesuits targeted the elite class of the country and a large number was converted. The rulers also forced their subject to embrace the same faith. About 300,000 Japanese were converted in the first phase. Later on, Christianity was prohibited as the rulers started seeing them as a threat to their authority. Following a change of regime, the ban was lifted and missionaries were again allowed to enter Japan. Like many Native American tribes, the Japanese also resisted the new religion. As a result, presently Christians form only 1% of the total population in Japan. This paper is focused on how the Christian religion was introduced in Japan, the evolution of evangelism, establishment of churches, the restrictions and hurdles faced by the missionaries and priest of the new religion and the response of Japanese nation towards an alien faith. All these queries are answered in detail given as follows.
The Ottomans and Spanish built flourishing empires based on different philosophies from 1450 to 1800. The Ottoman and Spanish were two powerful empires during that time. During the building of the two empires, the Spanish and the Ottoman both developed similarities in their social, political, and economic structures. The Ottoman took control of Europe, while the Spanish saw it as easy to monitor new lands. The different tactics employed made the both empires flourish. For instance, the Spanish were not tolerant of religion. They conquered other areas with the aim of converting Christians to Islam, if they refused, they would be killed. On the other hand, the Ottoman leaders incorporated leaders of diverse culture
There were many important empires on the Eurasia continent; The Qing Dynasty, The Ming Dynasty, The Tokugawa Shogunate, The Mughal Empire, The Safavid Empire, The Russian Empire and The Ottoman Empire They all had their similarities and their differences and their influence on the modern day are strong. Two of the of the countries that shared many similarities but also had their differences where the Russian empire and the Ottoman empire.
A great deal of the world's history is the history of empires. Different people ruled the countries of the world at different points of time. The Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire were two of the greatest empires. It is essential for people to have knowledge about the history of empires, how they lived, their languages, their religions, and government systems in order to learn from their cultures, accomplishments, and blunders. Although the Roman and Ottoman Empire were ruled at distinctive places and times, they had a lot of similarities and differences.
European feudalism was based on contract and Japanese feudalism was based on personal relationship with the lord and vassal. This helps prove that the differences between European and Japanese feudalism made limited government more likely to develop in the West because a contract limits what the lords and vassals could do. William, the king of English, said, “I command you [the vassal] to summon all those who are under your charge......and bring ready with you those five knights that you owe me[.]”1 This helps prove that European feudalism was based on contract because when you owe someone something, it implies an agreement. The key terms are I command you and owe. The vassal has to send troops because he has to. He is under the rule of his lord. The lord tells his vassal that “[H]e will perform everything [that] was in [their] agreement [because] [he] submitted himself to him and chose his will.”2 This helps prove that European feudalism was based on a contract because a contract implies an agreement. The vassal chose the lord himself, so therefore, the vassal is under the lord's rule and needs to follow the agreement. On Japan's view of feudalism, their feudalism wasn't based on contract. On page 122 and 124 of The Tale of Heike, it implies personal relationships with the lord and vassal. “Despite his predicament, [the lord] still thought of [his vassal].”3 When the lord dies, the vassal kills himself saying, “For whom do I have to fight now?”4 This helps prove that Japanese feudalism was based on a personal relationship with lord and vassal because the lord and vassal actually cared for each other. Even through major problems, the lord and vassal's actions showed how close their relationship was with each other. Also on page 5...
The people of Japan wanted to stay isolated so that people would not invade them. Also Japan did not want people to take their religion away. Japan also isolated itself because they didn’t want European
Turkey’s history stretches back at least 40,000 years. The Ottoman Empire was one of the enduring and extensive Empires of the history. Islam and Islamic organizations were tolerating the Ottoman Empire. It spread over the Eastern Mediterranean from the Byzantine Empire. During Suleiman the Magnificent (5120-66) ruling it was at its height, at that time it increased and took over the Balkans, Hungary, and borders of Vienna. The Empire started to weaken after it’s conquer at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 and it started to lose its navy. That was the begging of its weakening after 400 years of power in World War I. Modern Turkey has inherited secularism from the Islamic Ottoman Empire. The government came out with a plan to banish and disseminate
Europe is always in a position of strength, The Oriental is irrational, depraved, childlike, "different", thus the European is rational, virtuous, mature, "normal".
In 1639 in Japan, for example, the world was not able to come in and Japanese were impossible to go abroad due to the closure of Japan, although Dutch and China were allowed to trade with Japan at that time. After 1854 when Matthew Calbraith Perry came to Japan and forced to open up the Japanese door to the world, Japan restarted trading with other countries. Japanese people invent their traditional cultures such as clothes and language by themselves no matter how increases the interaction with the western imperial power. Its culture is slightly influenced by Chinese but not by the West. Japan has its own distinctive traditional culture; nonetheless, without the interaction with the west, her culture could not be highlighted to be