The document summarizes the history of several East Asian dynasties and societies from the 14th-19th centuries. It discusses the Ming Dynasty in China, the naval explorations of Zheng He, the decline of the Ming and rise of the Qing Dynasty, Japan's isolationist Tokugawa Shogunate, and the initial impacts of European contact in Asia.

2. 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

3. 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

4. Columbus v. Zheng He

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

6.  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

7. 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)

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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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)

12.  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

13. 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)

14. 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

15. Isolation is good for the Arts
 Buddhism and Shinto still
influence culture
 Kabuki theatre
 Bunraku (puppet plays)
 Haiku
 Scrolls, wood-block prints and
paintings

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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?