Period 4: Asia Flashcards
What were characteristics of the Ming dynasty?
- ruled from 1368 to 1644
- kicked out the Mongol rulers and restored power to the native Chinese in China
- built a strong centralized government based on tradition Confucian principles
- reinstated the civil service examination
Who was Zheng He?
- a Chinese navigator
- led fleets throughout southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean all the way to East Africa
- expeditions occurred 100 years before the Europeans
How did the Ming government try to improve its failing economy?
- changed easily counterfeited paper money to a “single-whip” system based on silver currency
- initially Japan supplied the silver but American silver sources were discovered so China established trade relations with the Spanish through the Philippines
- fueled a period of commercial expansion but the silver flooded the Chinese market leading to uncontrollable inflation
How did the Ming dynasty decline?
- pirates raided port cities
- the Portuguese set up shop in Macao
- famines during the 1600s
- peasant revolts erupted against the increasingly powerless Ming rulers
What did the last Ming emperor aka the Chongzhen emperor do to try to quell a peasant upring?
- invited a group of Qing emperors from Manchuria to help him quell a peasant uprising in 1644
- the Qing ousted the emperor
What were characteristics of the Qing or Manchu dynasty?
- 1644 to 1911
- the Qing attempted to remain an ethnic elite
- forbade the Chinese from learning the Manchu language or from marrying Manchus
- needed the help of ethnic Chinese to run the country because the Manchus were only 3% of the population
- thus the civil service examinations were used
Who was Emperor Kangxi?
- Qing emperor
- ruled from 1661 to 1722
- Confucian scholar
- conquered Taiwan and extended the empire into Mongolia, central Asia, and Tibet
Who was Emperor Qianlong?
- Qing emperor
- ruled from 1735 to 1796
- Confucian scholar
- added Vietnam, Burma, and Nepal to the vassal states of China
How did the Manchu protect their culture against Europeans?
- Christianity was banned in 1724
- trade was restricted to just one city, Canton (Guangzhou)
- trade with Europeans was still substantial
- the Europeans bought tea, silk, and porcelain in exchange for silver which led to a new class of merchants in Chinese coastal cities
How did Europeans impact Japan?
- the Portuguese established trade with and introduced guns to the Japanese in 1542
- Christian missionaries streamed into Japan within a decade
- a few hundred thousand Japanese converted to Christianity by 1600
- Jesuits took control of the port city of Nagasaki and trade flourished by 1600
Who was Tokugawa Ieyasu?
- established the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1600
- claimed personal ownership to all lands within Japan and instituted a rigid social class model, inspired somewhat by Confucianism but in practice was more like the caste system (warrior, farmer, artisan, and merchant)
What was the Tokugawa Shogunate?
- a strict and rigid government that ruled Japan from 1600 to 1868
What was the Tokugawa or Edo period ike?
- persecuted Christians within two decades
- a National Seclusion Policy prohibited Japanese from traveling abroad and prohibited most foreigners from visiting Japan (limited relations were kept with China, Korea, and the Netherlands) by 1635 which remained in place for nearly 200 years
What happened when a group of Portuguese diplomats and traders sailed to Japan to try to negotiate with the emperor and convince him to open up a dialogue in 1640?
The shogun had every member of the Portuguese delegation executed on the spot.
How did Japanese culture thrive during the Tokugawa period?
- Buddhism and Shintoism remained at the center of culture
- Kabuki theatre and haiku became popular
- artisans created richly detailed scrolls, wood-block prints, and paintings
