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Japan

In the first century ad Japanese societies were organized in self-sufficient villages under local chiefs. By 57 ad written evidence show that these chiefs had begun to visit or send emissaries to the Chinese court. By the 6th century one of these local chiefs from Yamato had been able to bring many of the others into a loose centralized order. The Yamato chiefs drew heavily upon Chinese ideas in consolidating their power in Japan.

By 645 a Yamato prince, Naka no Oe, who would later be known as ruler Tenji, had begun to introduce a series of reforms aimed at consolidating the power of the central government. This, according to historians, marked the transformation of the Yamato ruler from "great lord" (taikun) to "emperor" (tenno).

By the 8th century, the Yamato emperors were sending troops to subdue the Ainu in northern Honshu. The military leaders who conducted these campaigns were given the title of sei-i-tai shogun.

By the 9th century the emperor's role was growing more ceremonial. Real political power shifted to influential aristocrats, who, in turn, depended on local samurai warriors living in the provinces on small fortified estates for tax collection.

In 1180 civil war broke out in Japan. When it ended in 1885 the victorious war leader, Minamoto Yorimoto, set up a military government that ultimately replaced the central imperial government. The emperor named Yorimoto shogun in 1192 and empowered to preserve domestic peace -- effectively making him the supreme military commander of Japan. His was the first Bafuku or Shogunate to ruled over all Japan.

An attempted Mongol invasion in 1274 was repelled by the shogunate aided by a storm (Kamikaze) which destroyed much of the invading fleet. The Mongols tried again in 1282 and were similarly defeated.

Japan had another civil; war in 1333. The Kamakura shogunate was ousted and replaced by the Asikaga Shogunate. But the civil war continued. Retired emperor Go-Daigo, who had initiated the rebellion that toppled the Kamakura wanted to supplant the shogunate with imperial authority. He set up a rival court in Yoshino and for 56 years his forces fought the Ashikaga. In 1392 the third Ashikaga shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, persuaded the emperor at Yoshino to abdicate.

A dispute over shogun succession led to a new ten-year civil war, the Onin War, between 1467 and 1477. For more than a hundred years after the war there was no solid central authority. The country fell under various regional warlords each controlling his own little tuff. The first Europeans (the Portuguese) arrived during this time in 1543. They brought trade and introduced firearms and Christianity.

The country was eventually reunified in 1600 by Tokugawa Ieyasu. He set up his capital at Edo (Tokyo) and in 1603 assumed the title of Shogun. The Tokugawa Shogunate welcomed trade with the West but saw Christianity as subversive. They forbade import of Christian books and travel outside Japan. The Dutch were allowed in but confined to an island off Nagasaki. Trade with other Asian countries continued.

In the late 18th century Russian, British and French traders began arriving and challenged Tokugawa isolationism. The Americans arrived in the 1853 and obtained a friendship treaty in 1854. More unequal treaties followed opening a reluctant Japan to Western trade and influence.

A wave of anti-foreign sentiments swept the country in the 1860s and this contributed to undermining the shogunate's authority. In January 1868 a palace coup engineered by young samurai saw the rise of emperor Meiji who abolished the office of shogun and introduced a new imperial government. The Meiji government began a series of reforms designed to help Japan quickly catch up with the West. Meiji sent delegates abroad to gain Western knowledge and centralized national authority.

In 1881 the emperor granted Japan a constitution which was promulgated in 1889. It placed most of the powers of state in the hands of the “sacred and inviolable" emperor. It guaranteed the Japanese people certain basic political and religious freedoms and established a bicameral legislature.

Japanese society was on a fast track to modernization. The government imported modern factories such as mechanized silk-reeling and cotton-spinning mills, glass, brick and cement. They brought in foreign technical experts to work the factories and train Japanese workers. The government sent hundreds of young Japanese to study in the United States and Europe.

By the close of the 19th century, the Meiji government had modernized Japan and brought it to near parity with the West.

In 1894, Japan went to war with China and won. China ceded Taiwan and some other islands to Japan. In 1904 Japan attacked a Russian fleet that was trying to assert Russian influence over Korea and Manchuria. In May 1905 the Russians sued for peace. In 1910 Japan colonized Korea. With the acquisition of Korea, the Meiji government had succeeded in establishing Japan as one of the world’s great powers, on par with Europe and the United States.