Eastern Asian Politics in the 1500s

Politics in Eastern Asia in the 1500s

East Asia in the 1500s was generally very chaotic with very unstable states and constant warfare.

The Ming Dynasty had a powerful centralized government. The empire was divided into 13 provinces. The major cities were Nanjing and Beijing. They contributed to the growth of private industry and small-scale industries. The Ming Dynasty in the 1500s was filled with official corruption and taxation. Additionally, the empire was threatened by surrounding states. Becoming weaker and weaker, the Ming Dynasty finally falls apart and is overthrown by the Manchus.

The Japanese Sengoku period was an equivalent to the Chinese Warring States Period. However, the Sengoku period eventually lead to the unification of political power under the Tokugawa shogunate. Tokugawa shogunate was a feudal military dictatorship and were lead by the shogun and lords who were all daimyo: feudal lords with their own bureaucracies, policies, and territories. The shogun had the military power of Japan and was more powerful than the emperor, who was a religious and political leader.

Joseon Dynasty was a monarchy government by a king. However, in the 1500s, weak rulers governed the country that was becoming weaker and weaker, facing great danger. Japanese invaders tried to use Korea as a stepping stone to conquer the Ming China using European firearms and advanced technology. Ming China later joined Korea, defeating Japan. Following the war, relations between Korea and Japan had been completely suspended.

Connections to the Outside World

    One of the earliest noted connections with the outside world for East Asia was the first maritime expedition of Zheng He who traveled with large numbers of ships and men across the sea in search for expansion. Although this seemed to be a major connection to the outside world at the time, the expedition of Zheng He was soon forgotten and didn't not make as big of a mark in history as did Columbus's travels. For a good time it was true that China felt that they were better than everyone else and could not learn anything new from other countries so they isolated themselves and made sure that no intermarriages occurred. This was relatively easy because of certain geographical features such as mountains or islands in the case of Japan. Therefore there was no mixing of different cultures. Under the rule of the Ming Dynasty there began a large amount of trading, which all began with the maritime expeditions. An example of a trading network would be the Silk Road, which spreads across the entire Asian continent. China used the Silk Road to trade everything from silk, spices, teas, and porcelain. Out of all of the countries included in East Asia, China would definitely be one of the more noted trading countries. Even to this day many things are made in China and then shipped over into the United States. Trading was the main source of outside connections to other countries because everyone else had something that someone else wanted.

Religion & Perspectives in East Asia

There were three main religions in East Asia around the 1500s, Confucianism, Shinto, and Taoism. Confucianism was founded and developed by Confucius, a Chinese philosopher in the sixth century BCE. This religion is based off of building on one's virtue and striving for moral perfection. It believes that human beings can be taught and perfected through religion. Shinto began in the Yamato Dynasty in Japan around the 500s BCE. Shinto is not as developed as most other religions, and follows the general code of Confucianism. Followers practice this religion with seasonal celebrations and they have many sacred places, in places like mountains or springs. The third type of religion found in East Asia is Taoism. Tao means the "path" or "way" of life. Taoism focuses mostly on nature, and

emphasizes three aspects: compassion, moderation, and humility. Followers of this religion believe and worship mainly in peace, flexibility, and spontaneity.

East Asians' main outlook on life is animistic. They believe that there are spirits in objects from nature (rocks, trees, sometime even animal... etc) This belief is not it's own religion in East Asia, rather it is an idea they included into their religions. These three prominent religions in the 1500s are actually the minority religious groups around Asia today. Now the most common religion in most of Asia is Islam, with more than 1.2 billion followers in their country alone!

(the starred symbols on the image above represent Confucianism, Shinto, and Taoism.)

East Asian Geography

      East Asian geography includes many different countries which are Japan, North and South Korea, China, Taiwan, and Mongolia. When compared to other countries such as Europe or the United States, it has many surprising similarities and many obvious differences. Everything from geographical features to natural features make a huge impact on the development of a country, therefore geography is a very crucial part to a country's well-being.
       The geography is similar to Europe and the United States in that they both have cold winters and warm summers; however, they are different in that most of the rainfall occurs during the summer months, as opposed to during the winter. This abundant water supply during the warm growing season allows for intensive agriculture, with two and sometimes three crop cycles per year.  They began their development around rivers, which provided everything from a drinking source to transportation. Most of these countries are surrounded by water on all or most sides such as Korea, which is a peninsula and Japan, which is made up of four main islands. Within the countries there are many different geographical characteristics such as mountains, steppe lands, plateaus, and deserts. China just happens to possess all of these features. Development varied among not only the countries themselves but certain areas within the country. For example, the coastline of China with its ports and fertile soil developed much faster than western China with it's deserts and mountains because they didn't have easy access to the water for transportation and farming, making it difficult to find arable land for agriculture. In East Asia there are also many natural features that affect the lives of those who live there often, such as tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, and typhoons. Volcanoes are especially common in Japan and they are very active and considered extremely dangerous. They were caused by the subduction of the Pacific plate under the Eurasian plate. The geography of a place is the main reason for why a country develops the way it does and once you understand the geography the history of a place makes perfect sense.