Just as Hideyoshi did, Ieyasu encouraged foreign trade,[1] but was wary of foreigners. He wanted to make Edo a major port, but once he realized that the Europeans favored different ports in Kyūshū and after learning of China's refusal to his commercial exchange plans,[2]​ he began to control the existing trade and only allowed some ports to market, with specific products.

The beginning of the Edo period coincided with the last decades of the Nanban trade period, during which interaction with European powers in the economic and religious fields intensified. During this period, three hundred and fifty Shuinsen (ships with the royal seal) were also commissioned, which had three masts and were armed for trade in Asia.[4]​.

The "Christian problem" was, in effect, the problem of controlling both the daimyo converts in Kyūshū and trade with Europeans. Around 1600, there were between seven hundred and seven hundred and fifty thousand Christians in Japan.[3]​ The Tokugawa and their supporters regarded the new religion as a destabilizing factor that could threaten their power, especially in conjunction with the remnants of the Toyotomi followers.[5]​ In 1612, the servants of the shōgun and the residents of the Tokugawa lands were ordered to renounce the Christianity.[5]​ In the Tokugawa fiefdoms, Christian temples were demolished and preaching was prohibited.[5]​ More restrictions were announced from the following year,[5]​ including limitations on trade with foreigners in Nagasaki and in Hirado "Hirado (Nagasaki)"). In 1622, one hundred and twenty missionaries and converts were executed.[5]​ In 1624, the Spanish were expelled and diplomatic relations between Japan and Spain were broken.[5]​ In 1629, hundreds of Christians were executed. The population was forced to register in Buddhist temples, which were transformed into unofficial registration offices. [6] Faced with the impossibility of pursuing Christianity and maintaining foreign trade, the Government chose to sacrifice this during the time of the third shogun. [6] Through a series of decrees issued between 1633 and 1639, the country was isolated from the outside. He ordered that, if they left the country, they would never return.[6]​ Those who had settled abroad were prohibited from returning to the country.[6]​ The Portuguese and mestizos were also expelled from the empire.[6]​.

The shogunate perceived Catholicism as an extremely destabilizing factor, so it was persecuted. The Shimabara Rebellion of 1637-1638, in which Catholic samurai and peasants rebelled against their feudal and central governments, was suppressed, forcing the Kakure Kirishitan to secretly profess their faith. Shortly afterwards, the Portuguese were also expelled and members of the diplomatic mission were executed.

By 1650 Christianity had been almost entirely eradicated and foreign influence on political, economic and religious matters within Japan became limited. Only China, the Dutch East India Company and for a brief period the English were allowed to visit Japan during this period, only for commercial purposes and with access restricted only to the port of Dejima in Nagasaki. Other Europeans who arrived on Japanese shores were executed without trial.

After a long period of internal conflicts, the first objective of the newly established Tokugawa shogunate was to pacify the country. It created a balance of power that remained relatively stable for the next 250 years, influenced by Confucian principles of social order. Most samurai lost direct possession of the land and were faced with two options: lay down their weapons and become peasants or move to the main city of their fief and become paid servants of the daimyo. Only a few samurai remained in the northern outer provinces or as direct vassals of the shōgun, known as the 5000 hatamoto. The sankin kōtai system was also established in which it was stipulated that the families of the daimyos must reside in Edo, in addition to the fact that the daimyos must remain in Edo one year and the following year in their province.

The population was divided into four classes in a system known as mibunsei: in the first level were the samurai (about 5% of the population), in the second level were the peasants (more than 80% of the population), in the third were the artisans and at the end were the merchants. Only peasants lived in rural areas. Samurai, artisans and merchants lived in cities that were built around the daimyo castles, with each group having a specific area to occupy within the city. This system prevented the marriage of people of different classes.

Outside of these four social classes were the so-called eta and hinin, whose professions broke the molds of Buddhism. The Eta were butchers, tanners and gravediggers. The hinin served as guards or executioners. Other groups excluded from social classes included beggars and prostitutes.

Individuals had no legal rights in Japan. The family was the smallest legal entity contemplated, so maintaining the status and privileges of the family was of great importance at all levels of society. For example, the penal laws of the Edo period prescribed "unfree labor" (slavery) to the immediate family of executed criminals in Article 17 of the Gotōke reijō, but its practice was never established. The Gotōke reijō of 1711 was the compilation of statutes proclaimed between 1597 and 1696.[8]​.

The mandatory influx of feudal lords to Edo, an insignificant village at the beginning of the century, the settlement of merchants, artisans and the transfer to it of Buddhist and Shinto temples determined a rapid growth of the population. In the middle of that century, the population was already around four hundred and thirty thousand inhabitants, half of them military. military.[10]​ The commercial importance of Osaka also caused it to grow notably: from two hundred thousand inhabitants in 1660 it went to three hundred and eighty thousand in 1736 and then to four hundred and twenty thousand in 1765.[11]​.

By mid-century, Edo maintained a population of more than a million, while Osaka and Kyoto had more than 400,000. Some other castle cities saw significant growth. Japan had a growth rate of practically zero between the 1720s and 1820s, which is generally attributed to low birth rates as a result of famine, but some historians have presented various theories such as the high percentage of infanticides to artificially control population growth.[12]​.

Sources of manor income

The country was economically divided according to its political structure: a series of autonomous fiefdoms of which the main one was the group formed by the Tokugawa family and their associates.[13]​ These controlled lands that produced about seven million koku (four and a half from the shogunal clan itself and the rest from its associates), approximately a quarter of the national agricultural production.[14]​ In the 19th century, the income of the different lords came mainly from tributes. that the farmers had to pay, around 40% of the harvest.[13]​ In 1728 taxes increased significantly.[13]​ The responsibility for payment was not individual, but multi-family: the peasant population was grouped into groups of five families, which were made responsible for paying a certain amount; This system dated from the government of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, but the Tokugawa extended it to the entire country.[15]​.

The shogunal estate also obtained income from the cities, which it dominated thanks to the appointment of its rulers, often trusted vassals of the Tokugawa. to prohibit daimyos from minting money and reserving such activity for themselves.[15]​.

Agriculture

Agriculture was the main economic activity of the empire and over the centuries it had a notable development.[16]​ The cultivated land increased, irrigation techniques, utensils and cultivation methods improved, and productivity grew considerably.[17]​ Both the shogun and the daimyos encouraged the cultivation of new lands, usually through tax exemptions for the peasants who carried them out.[16]​ The century was the one in which there was greater clearing of new lands.[16]​ lands.[7]​ The increase in production and cultivated areas was mainly due to the development of public works dedicated to the extension of irrigation, which coincided in the second half of the century with the founding of new villages, dedicated to the cultivation of new farmland.[18]​ This new boost in agriculture was concentrated in the east of the island of Honshū, since in western Japan the same evolution had already occurred before.[18]​.

In addition to improving the production of rice, essential in Japan, the cultivation of other plants also increased: other cereals (wheat, soybeans, millet...), mulberry, tea, indigo, flax, tobacco, grapes, tangerines, pumpkins, potatoes or carrots.[19] Between the beginning of the century and the beginning of the century, silk production quadrupled; This made it possible to eliminate imports from China and later make the product the country's main export.[20]​ The spread of cotton, which arrived in the country at the end of the 19th or beginning of the 19th century, led to an important change in national clothing: the less favored classes went from wearing linen garments to wearing cotton ones.[20]​ The production of this new plant was concentrated in Kinai, a region that held the economic primacy of the empire.[20]​ The items they required were also manufactured there. specialized labor such as weapons, art objects or high-quality clothing.[20]​.

Commerce, population and urban life

In the century there was also a great increase in interregional trade, due in part to a great increase in the population, which in the middle of the following century went from twelve to thirty-two million.[21]​ This increase led to a greater demand for agricultural and artisanal products.[22]​.

The Tokugawa social system, which sharply separated the peasantry from the military establishment and forced soldiers to reside with their lord, favored the growth of cities.[22] Each great lord - of which there were about two hundred and sixty throughout the country - formed towns around their castle that had a population of between ten and thirty thousand people.[22] The military quarters, inhabited by soldiers whose income depended on pay and They lacked their own fiefdoms, they stood out as centers of large consumption.[22]​ The lack of sufficient own production fueled trade, which was necessary to supply them with the items they demanded.[22]​ The main nucleus of union between the manor economies and the national economy was the Kanai region, the primary supplier of manufactured products to the more backward rural areas, and the buyer of part of their rice crops, due to its great population.[23]​.

Another driving force of trade was the need for the daimyos to buy gold and silver to cover their mandatory stays in Edo and their trips between it and their fiefdoms, which were required by law.[24] Given the need to cover these expenses in gold and silver and the prohibition of exploiting mines and minting currency, the feudal lords had to acquire the precious metals, selling their assets for this purpose, mainly agricultural products obtained from taxes to the farmers.[24]​ This was another incentive for trade and the development of transportation.[24]​ The continuous transfer of the lords resulted in the improvement of the road network and communications: five large highways were created that linked Edo with the rest of the country, in which a system of lodgings and posts arose that favored transit.[24]​ Another reason for the multiplication of trade was the great demand of Edo, whose population was increasing. quickly, but it had a meager production that required the arrival of items from other regions.[10]​ Until the 19th century, Edo did not produce in sufficient quantities to supply itself or send products to other regions.[10]​ The distribution center for manufactured products and rice from the fiefdoms was Osaka.[10]​ Between one million and one and a half million koku from the western manors of the country were exchanged in Osaka.[25]​ To link the two cities, coastal shipping was extended, as it was easier to transport goods long distances by sea than by land.[11]​ In the century, four main maritime routes were established: Osaka-Edo, Kyushu-Osaka, Hokkaidō-Honshū and Tōhoku-Edo.[11]​.

As for foreign trade, at the beginning of the Tokugawa period the main task was to reestablish foreign relations, disrupted by the activity of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.[26] Trade with Korea and Manila recovered, but not with China.[4] Government control of trade between daimyos and abroad, which tightened rapidly at the beginning of the century, ended up eliminating it.[4] Ships needed an official permit to be able to engage in trade with others. territories.[4]​ The main import item was quality silk, which accounted for between 50 and 60% of total imports.[4]​ The main export was silver, which was delivered to balance the deficit trade balance.[27]​ About seventy thousand Japanese traveled abroad (mainly to Southeast Asia), of which ten thousand settled there, several thousand of them in the Spanish Philippines.[28]​ The main suppliers of silk to the avid Japanese market It was first the Portuguese, who in the century had to face competition from the English and the Dutch.[2] The Government also tried to moderate the huge profits of the Portuguese merchants, who at first had managed to set the selling price of imported silk.[2] Trade relations with the Dutch and English arose from Tokugawa Ieyasi's need to compete with the commercial activities of Toyotomi Hideyoshi from Osaka; To do so, it established links with the newcomers.[3]​ Competition between the different nations broke up the old Portuguese commercial monopoly on the islands.[3]​ After the English commercial withdrawal in 1623 and the breaking of relations with Spain in 1624, foreign trade was limited to Portugal and the Netherlands.[5]​ In 1639 the arrival of Portuguese ships was prohibited.[29]​ Chinese ships, which until then had been able to trade on the Japanese coast, they were limited to Nagasaki.[6]​ The Dutch were restricted to Dejima in 1641.[29]​ The almost total closure of foreign trade remained in force until 1853.[29]​ Subsequently, new measures were implemented to limit the export of gold and silver, which had grown despite the limited marketing.[30]​ Gradually, the amount was reduced. and the amount of imports, which could only be verified by Dutch and Chinese merchants tolerated by the Government.[31]​.

During the period, Japan progressively studied Western scientific techniques and advances (called rangaku) through the information and books received from Dutch traders in Dejima. Areas of further study included geography, medicine, natural sciences, astronomy, art, languages, physics concepts such as the study of electrical phenomena, and mechanics. There was also a great development of mathematics, in a trend totally independent of that of the Western world. This strong current was called wasan.

The flowering of Neo-Confucianism was the greatest intellectual development of the period. The study of Confucianism had long been active by Buddhist clerics, but during this time this belief system drew strong attention to the conception of man and society. Ethical humanism, rationalism and the historical perspective of Neo-Confucianism were taken as a social model. By the middle of the century, Neo-Confucianism became the dominant legal philosophy and contributed directly to the development of the national system of learning, kokugaku.[33]​ Its main virtue for the shogunal regime was its emphasis on relations of hierarchy, submission to superiors and obedience, which extended to the entire society and facilitated the preservation of the feudal system.[34]​.

The growing application of Neo-Confucianism as well as advanced study contributed to the transition of the political and economic order of social classes. New laws were developed, new administrative systems were instituted. A new vision of government and society emerged in search of a more comprehensive mandate. Each person had a different place in society and was expected to work in a way that fulfilled their mission in life. Citizens were to be governed with benevolence by those assigned to rule. The government was all-powerful, but at the same time responsible and humane. Although Neo-Confucianism influenced the social class system, it was not applied in the same way as was customary in other countries such as China, where soldiers and clerics occupied the bottom rung of social classes, while in Japan some of these members constituted the government elite.

The spiritual life experimented with traditional culture, based on Buddhist principles, and Confucian principles. Two different ways of conceiving life: Buddhism gave great importance to the otherworldly world and Confucianism gave greater strength to humanism and practice.

Members of the samurai class added the traditions of bushido to their ideology and renewed their interest in Japanese history, resulting in bushido. A new lifestyle called chōnindō emerged in cities such as Osaka, Kyoto and Edo, which aspired to achieve the qualities of busido such as diligence, honesty, honor, loyalty and frugality. The study of mathematics, astronomy, cartography, engineering and medicine was also encouraged. The search for new forms of entertainment of the new culture became known as ukiyo and included geishas, ​​music, folk stories, theater kabuki, bunraku, poetry, and art, which is reflected in the style known as ukiyo-e. Literature also enjoyed great talents such as Chikamatsu Monzaemon or Matsuo Bashō.

Legislative and administrative transformations influenced intellectual and cultural revolutions. During the Tokugawa Order, education was developed in all areas. Various educational centers were established to meet the needs of different social classes. In each feudal domain, schools were established to teach the children of samurai families; They taught subjects of a cultural and moral nature and martial techniques.

Farmers demanded their education and instruction needs. Starting in the 19th century, terakoyas (temple schools) began to appear in which reading, writing and arithmetic were taught to children belonging to the middle class, especially in urban areas. It consisted of a class and a teacher, and twenty to thirty students attended. In rural communities there were schools for the children of wealthy members of the merchant class and farmers.

Ukiyo-e drawings began to be produced at the end of the century, but it was not until 1764 that Harunobu" produced the first polychrome print. Designers of the next generation such as Torii Kiyonaga and Utamaro created elegant representations of courtiers. The Ukiyo-e style gained great importance during the century and even many Western painters such as Edgar Degas and Vincent Van Gogh were influenced by its techniques (see Japonism).

Buddhism and Shinto remained an important part of Japanese society in the Edo period. Buddhism mixed with Neo-Confucianism provided standards of social behavior and, although they no longer had the same political force as in the past, it was promoted and practiced by the upper classes. With the ban on Christianity in 1640, Buddhism benefited, since the bakufu ordered that all inhabitants had to register in one of the temples. In this way, while Buddhism served as a social basis, Shintoism served as a basis for the political system and helped preserve national identity.

Decline of the Tokugawa shogunate

The end of this period is called bakumatsu. The causes of the end of this period are the subject of great controversy, but it can be seen that the common factor was the forced opening of Japan to the rest of the world by Commodore Matthew Perry "Matthew Perry (military)") and his navy known as the "black ships", which fired on the city of Edo.

The Tokugawa shogunate did not collapse simply because of its intrinsic flaws. The intrusion of foreigners helped precipitate a complex political struggle between the bakufu and the coalition of critics. The continuation of the anti bakufu movement in the middle of the century would finally end up overthrowing the Tokugawa shogunate. From the beginning the shogunate attempted to restrict the accumulation of wealth in families and attempted to encourage a "back to the land" policy, where farmers, the primary producers, were the ideal person within society.

Despite efforts to restrict goods, the standard of living for urban and rural residents increased significantly during the period, largely due to the period of peace experienced at this time.

An important challenge that the political class had to face was the nascent entrepreneurial class. The government ideal of an agrarian society failed, as it was neither compatible nor realistic with the new commercial distribution. A series of droughts and therefore entire crop failures resulted in twenty major famines between 1675 and 1837. Unrest among peasants increased and by the end of the century mass protests against high taxes and food shortages became almost routine. Now homeless families became tenant farmers while the rural poor moved to the cities. As the fortunes of previously wealthy families declined, others were able to accumulate more land and a new wealthy farming class emerged. The people who were able to benefit were able to diversify their production and hire employees, while others were left displeased. Many samurai fell on hard times and were even forced to produce crafts or work for pay for merchants.

Although Japan was able to acquire and refine a wide variety of scientific knowledge, the rapid process of industrialization of Western countries during the century created for the first time a great difference in terms of technology and weaponry between Japan and the rest of the industrialized countries, forcing the country to abandon its policy of isolation and contributing to the end of the Tokugawa regime.

Western intrusions increased at the beginning of the century. Russian warships and traders settled in Karafuto (on the island of Sakhalin, called Sakhalin Oblast under Russian and Soviet control) and in the Buril Islands), of which the southern ones are considered the northern islands of Hokkaidō. An English warship entered the port of Nagasaki searching for Dutch enemies in 1808, and sightings of warships and whalers increased in the decades of 1810 and 1820. Whaling and merchant ships from the United States also reached Japanese shores. Although the Japanese made a number of small concessions and allowed some landings, they were trying to keep foreigners out of the country altogether.

By the 1830s there was a general feeling of crisis. Famine and natural disasters had great consequences on the population. The widespread unrest led to a peasant revolt against officials and merchants in Osaka in 1837 and, although this revolt only lasted one day, it caused an overall dramatic effect. Some shogun advisors believed that the solution lay in a return to the martial spirit, imposing more restrictions on foreign trade, suppressing rangaku, censoring literature, and eliminating the "luxuries" of the government and the samurai class. The opposition saw the opportunity to end the Tokugawa and used the political banner of sonnō jōi ("Reverence the emperor, expel the barbarians"), which called for unity under imperial rule and opposed the intrusion of foreigners. The bakufu's concern increased upon learning of the achievements of Westerners in establishing colonial enclaves in China after the first Opium War of 1839-1842, so more reforms were implemented, especially economic, to try to strengthen the country against the foreign threat.

Japan rejected a demand by the United States (which greatly increased its presence in the Asia-Pacific region at this time) to establish diplomatic relations in July 1846 presented by Commodore James Biddle.

End of isolation

When Commodore Matthew Perry "Matthew Perry (Military)") reported with a squadron to Edo Bay in July 1853, Abe Masahiro was responsible for relations with the Americans. Masahiro had no experience or precedent of how to handle these types of threats to national security, so he tried to balance the desire of the senior advisors who wanted compromises with Westerners, that of the emperor who wanted to keep foreigners out, and that of the daimyō who wanted to go to war. Due to the lack of consensus, Masahiro decided to accept Perry's demands to open Japan to international trade, but at the same time ordered military preparations. In March 1854 the peace and amnesty treaty "Treaty of Kanagawa" opened two ports to American ships seeking supplies, guaranteeing good treatment for American sailors, and allowed a consul to establish himself in Shimoda, a port on the Izu Peninsula south of Edo. A trade agreement seeking to open more trade zones was forced five years later.

The resulting damage to the image of the bakufu was significant. Debates over government policies were not unusual and had generated strong criticism in the bafuku. Masahiro then began to seek the support of new allies, so he made different consensuses with the fudai, the shinpan and the tozama. The Ansei Reform of 1854-1856 sought to strengthen the regime by ordering the acquisition of warships and weapons from the Netherlands, and the construction of new port defenses began. In 1855, a naval training school with Dutch instructors was established in Nagasaki, a Western-style military school was established in Edo, and the following year the translation of Western books began.

Opposition to Masahiro increased among fudai circles, which opposed opening the bakufu councils to the tozama daimyo, so he was replaced from his position and in 1855 he was appointed president of the Hotta Nariaki council. At the head of the dissident faction was Tokugawa Nariaki), who professed a strong loyalty to the emperor coupled with strong anti-Western sentiments and who had been appointed in charge of national defense in 1854.

In the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate, contacts with foreigners increased due to concessions granted in the treaty with the United States in 1859, which included opening more ports for diplomatic representatives, unsupervised trade in four additional ports, and foreign residences in Osaka and Edo. The concept of extraterritoriality was also accepted (foreigners were subject to the laws of their country and not those of Japan). Hotta lost the support of key daimyos and when Tokugawa Nariaki opposed a new treaty, Hotta sought imperial support. Court officials, sensing the weakness of the shogunate, rejected Hotta's requests and for the first time in many centuries involved the emperor in domestic politics. When the died without a designated heir, Nariaki appealed to the court for the support of his own son, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, a candidate who had the support of the and . The won the political struggle by installing Tokugawa Yoshitomi"), arrested Nariaki and Yoshinobu, executed one of the intellectual leaders of the named Yoshida Shōin, and signed treaties with the United States and five other nations, ending more than 200 years of isolation.

Bakumatsu modernization and its conflicts

During the last years of the shogunate, known as bakumatsu, the bakufu took a series of strong measures to try to regain its dominance, although its involvement with modernization and relations with foreign powers were about to make it the target of the anti-Western sentiment that predominated in the country.

During this stage the army and navy were modernized. A naval school was established in Nagasaki in 1855 and large numbers of students were sent to other countries for several years for training, beginning a tradition of future leaders educated abroad, as in the case of Admiral Enomoto Tateaki. French naval engineers were hired to build naval arsenals. By the end of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1867, the Japanese navy already had eight steam warships, which were used against pro-imperial forces during the Boshin War. A French military mission was also established to modernize the shōgun's army.

Some extremists who viewed the emperor as a symbol of unity incited various sectors of society to violence against the shogunate, the authorities of the different feudal domains and against foreigners. The outcome of a new conflict known as the Anglo-Satsuma War led to a new treaty to expand trade concessions in 1865, but Yoshitomi was not able to confront the military power of the Western countries. Finally in 1867 Emperor Kōmei died, being succeeded by his youngest son, Emperor Meiji.

Tokugawa Yoshinobu reluctantly became the head of the Tokugawa house and shōgun. He tried to reorganize the government under the figure of the emperor while trying to preserve the active role of the shōgun. Fearing the recent power of the daimyos of Satsuma and Chōshū, other daimyos called for the shogun to return power to the emperor as well as a council of daimyos headed by the shōgun Tokugawa. Tokugawa Yoshinobu accepted the plan in late 1867 and resigned, announcing the "imperial restoration." The leaders of Satsuma, Chōshū, and other domains nevertheless decided to rebel, besieged the imperial palace, and announced their own restoration on January 3, 1868.

After the Boshin War, the bakufu system was abolished and Tokugawa Yoshinobu was reduced to the rank of a simple daimyo. Resistance continued throughout 1868 and the shogun's naval forces under Admiral Enomoto Takeaki continued the fight for another six months in Hokkaidō, where they founded the short-lived Ezo Republic.

Just as Hideyoshi did, Ieyasu encouraged foreign trade,[1] but was wary of foreigners. He wanted to make Edo a major port, but once he realized that the Europeans favored different ports in Kyūshū and after learning of China's refusal to his commercial exchange plans,[2]​ he began to control the existing trade and only allowed some ports to market, with specific products.

The beginning of the Edo period coincided with the last decades of the Nanban trade period, during which interaction with European powers in the economic and religious fields intensified. During this period, three hundred and fifty Shuinsen (ships with the royal seal) were also commissioned, which had three masts and were armed for trade in Asia.[4]​.

The "Christian problem" was, in effect, the problem of controlling both the daimyo converts in Kyūshū and trade with Europeans. Around 1600, there were between seven hundred and seven hundred and fifty thousand Christians in Japan.[3]​ The Tokugawa and their supporters regarded the new religion as a destabilizing factor that could threaten their power, especially in conjunction with the remnants of the Toyotomi followers.[5]​ In 1612, the servants of the shōgun and the residents of the Tokugawa lands were ordered to renounce the Christianity.[5]​ In the Tokugawa fiefdoms, Christian temples were demolished and preaching was prohibited.[5]​ More restrictions were announced from the following year,[5]​ including limitations on trade with foreigners in Nagasaki and in Hirado "Hirado (Nagasaki)"). In 1622, one hundred and twenty missionaries and converts were executed.[5]​ In 1624, the Spanish were expelled and diplomatic relations between Japan and Spain were broken.[5]​ In 1629, hundreds of Christians were executed. The population was forced to register in Buddhist temples, which were transformed into unofficial registration offices. [6] Faced with the impossibility of pursuing Christianity and maintaining foreign trade, the Government chose to sacrifice this during the time of the third shogun. [6] Through a series of decrees issued between 1633 and 1639, the country was isolated from the outside. He ordered that, if they left the country, they would never return.[6]​ Those who had settled abroad were prohibited from returning to the country.[6]​ The Portuguese and mestizos were also expelled from the empire.[6]​.

The shogunate perceived Catholicism as an extremely destabilizing factor, so it was persecuted. The Shimabara Rebellion of 1637-1638, in which Catholic samurai and peasants rebelled against their feudal and central governments, was suppressed, forcing the Kakure Kirishitan to secretly profess their faith. Shortly afterwards, the Portuguese were also expelled and members of the diplomatic mission were executed.

By 1650 Christianity had been almost entirely eradicated and foreign influence on political, economic and religious matters within Japan became limited. Only China, the Dutch East India Company and for a brief period the English were allowed to visit Japan during this period, only for commercial purposes and with access restricted only to the port of Dejima in Nagasaki. Other Europeans who arrived on Japanese shores were executed without trial.

After a long period of internal conflicts, the first objective of the newly established Tokugawa shogunate was to pacify the country. It created a balance of power that remained relatively stable for the next 250 years, influenced by Confucian principles of social order. Most samurai lost direct possession of the land and were faced with two options: lay down their weapons and become peasants or move to the main city of their fief and become paid servants of the daimyo. Only a few samurai remained in the northern outer provinces or as direct vassals of the shōgun, known as the 5000 hatamoto. The sankin kōtai system was also established in which it was stipulated that the families of the daimyos must reside in Edo, in addition to the fact that the daimyos must remain in Edo one year and the following year in their province.

The population was divided into four classes in a system known as mibunsei: in the first level were the samurai (about 5% of the population), in the second level were the peasants (more than 80% of the population), in the third were the artisans and at the end were the merchants. Only peasants lived in rural areas. Samurai, artisans and merchants lived in cities that were built around the daimyo castles, with each group having a specific area to occupy within the city. This system prevented the marriage of people of different classes.

Outside of these four social classes were the so-called eta and hinin, whose professions broke the molds of Buddhism. The Eta were butchers, tanners and gravediggers. The hinin served as guards or executioners. Other groups excluded from social classes included beggars and prostitutes.

Individuals had no legal rights in Japan. The family was the smallest legal entity contemplated, so maintaining the status and privileges of the family was of great importance at all levels of society. For example, the penal laws of the Edo period prescribed "unfree labor" (slavery) to the immediate family of executed criminals in Article 17 of the Gotōke reijō, but its practice was never established. The Gotōke reijō of 1711 was the compilation of statutes proclaimed between 1597 and 1696.[8]​.

The mandatory influx of feudal lords to Edo, an insignificant village at the beginning of the century, the settlement of merchants, artisans and the transfer to it of Buddhist and Shinto temples determined a rapid growth of the population. In the middle of that century, the population was already around four hundred and thirty thousand inhabitants, half of them military. military.[10]​ The commercial importance of Osaka also caused it to grow notably: from two hundred thousand inhabitants in 1660 it went to three hundred and eighty thousand in 1736 and then to four hundred and twenty thousand in 1765.[11]​.

By mid-century, Edo maintained a population of more than a million, while Osaka and Kyoto had more than 400,000. Some other castle cities saw significant growth. Japan had a growth rate of practically zero between the 1720s and 1820s, which is generally attributed to low birth rates as a result of famine, but some historians have presented various theories such as the high percentage of infanticides to artificially control population growth.[12]​.

Sources of manor income

The country was economically divided according to its political structure: a series of autonomous fiefdoms of which the main one was the group formed by the Tokugawa family and their associates.[13]​ These controlled lands that produced about seven million koku (four and a half from the shogunal clan itself and the rest from its associates), approximately a quarter of the national agricultural production.[14]​ In the 19th century, the income of the different lords came mainly from tributes. that the farmers had to pay, around 40% of the harvest.[13]​ In 1728 taxes increased significantly.[13]​ The responsibility for payment was not individual, but multi-family: the peasant population was grouped into groups of five families, which were made responsible for paying a certain amount; This system dated from the government of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, but the Tokugawa extended it to the entire country.[15]​.

The shogunal estate also obtained income from the cities, which it dominated thanks to the appointment of its rulers, often trusted vassals of the Tokugawa. to prohibit daimyos from minting money and reserving such activity for themselves.[15]​.

Agriculture

Agriculture was the main economic activity of the empire and over the centuries it had a notable development.[16]​ The cultivated land increased, irrigation techniques, utensils and cultivation methods improved, and productivity grew considerably.[17]​ Both the shogun and the daimyos encouraged the cultivation of new lands, usually through tax exemptions for the peasants who carried them out.[16]​ The century was the one in which there was greater clearing of new lands.[16]​ lands.[7]​ The increase in production and cultivated areas was mainly due to the development of public works dedicated to the extension of irrigation, which coincided in the second half of the century with the founding of new villages, dedicated to the cultivation of new farmland.[18]​ This new boost in agriculture was concentrated in the east of the island of Honshū, since in western Japan the same evolution had already occurred before.[18]​.

In addition to improving the production of rice, essential in Japan, the cultivation of other plants also increased: other cereals (wheat, soybeans, millet...), mulberry, tea, indigo, flax, tobacco, grapes, tangerines, pumpkins, potatoes or carrots.[19] Between the beginning of the century and the beginning of the century, silk production quadrupled; This made it possible to eliminate imports from China and later make the product the country's main export.[20]​ The spread of cotton, which arrived in the country at the end of the 19th or beginning of the 19th century, led to an important change in national clothing: the less favored classes went from wearing linen garments to wearing cotton ones.[20]​ The production of this new plant was concentrated in Kinai, a region that held the economic primacy of the empire.[20]​ The items they required were also manufactured there. specialized labor such as weapons, art objects or high-quality clothing.[20]​.

Commerce, population and urban life

In the century there was also a great increase in interregional trade, due in part to a great increase in the population, which in the middle of the following century went from twelve to thirty-two million.[21]​ This increase led to a greater demand for agricultural and artisanal products.[22]​.

The Tokugawa social system, which sharply separated the peasantry from the military establishment and forced soldiers to reside with their lord, favored the growth of cities.[22] Each great lord - of which there were about two hundred and sixty throughout the country - formed towns around their castle that had a population of between ten and thirty thousand people.[22] The military quarters, inhabited by soldiers whose income depended on pay and They lacked their own fiefdoms, they stood out as centers of large consumption.[22]​ The lack of sufficient own production fueled trade, which was necessary to supply them with the items they demanded.[22]​ The main nucleus of union between the manor economies and the national economy was the Kanai region, the primary supplier of manufactured products to the more backward rural areas, and the buyer of part of their rice crops, due to its great population.[23]​.

Another driving force of trade was the need for the daimyos to buy gold and silver to cover their mandatory stays in Edo and their trips between it and their fiefdoms, which were required by law.[24] Given the need to cover these expenses in gold and silver and the prohibition of exploiting mines and minting currency, the feudal lords had to acquire the precious metals, selling their assets for this purpose, mainly agricultural products obtained from taxes to the farmers.[24]​ This was another incentive for trade and the development of transportation.[24]​ The continuous transfer of the lords resulted in the improvement of the road network and communications: five large highways were created that linked Edo with the rest of the country, in which a system of lodgings and posts arose that favored transit.[24]​ Another reason for the multiplication of trade was the great demand of Edo, whose population was increasing. quickly, but it had a meager production that required the arrival of items from other regions.[10]​ Until the 19th century, Edo did not produce in sufficient quantities to supply itself or send products to other regions.[10]​ The distribution center for manufactured products and rice from the fiefdoms was Osaka.[10]​ Between one million and one and a half million koku from the western manors of the country were exchanged in Osaka.[25]​ To link the two cities, coastal shipping was extended, as it was easier to transport goods long distances by sea than by land.[11]​ In the century, four main maritime routes were established: Osaka-Edo, Kyushu-Osaka, Hokkaidō-Honshū and Tōhoku-Edo.[11]​.

As for foreign trade, at the beginning of the Tokugawa period the main task was to reestablish foreign relations, disrupted by the activity of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.[26] Trade with Korea and Manila recovered, but not with China.[4] Government control of trade between daimyos and abroad, which tightened rapidly at the beginning of the century, ended up eliminating it.[4] Ships needed an official permit to be able to engage in trade with others. territories.[4]​ The main import item was quality silk, which accounted for between 50 and 60% of total imports.[4]​ The main export was silver, which was delivered to balance the deficit trade balance.[27]​ About seventy thousand Japanese traveled abroad (mainly to Southeast Asia), of which ten thousand settled there, several thousand of them in the Spanish Philippines.[28]​ The main suppliers of silk to the avid Japanese market It was first the Portuguese, who in the century had to face competition from the English and the Dutch.[2] The Government also tried to moderate the huge profits of the Portuguese merchants, who at first had managed to set the selling price of imported silk.[2] Trade relations with the Dutch and English arose from Tokugawa Ieyasi's need to compete with the commercial activities of Toyotomi Hideyoshi from Osaka; To do so, it established links with the newcomers.[3]​ Competition between the different nations broke up the old Portuguese commercial monopoly on the islands.[3]​ After the English commercial withdrawal in 1623 and the breaking of relations with Spain in 1624, foreign trade was limited to Portugal and the Netherlands.[5]​ In 1639 the arrival of Portuguese ships was prohibited.[29]​ Chinese ships, which until then had been able to trade on the Japanese coast, they were limited to Nagasaki.[6]​ The Dutch were restricted to Dejima in 1641.[29]​ The almost total closure of foreign trade remained in force until 1853.[29]​ Subsequently, new measures were implemented to limit the export of gold and silver, which had grown despite the limited marketing.[30]​ Gradually, the amount was reduced. and the amount of imports, which could only be verified by Dutch and Chinese merchants tolerated by the Government.[31]​.

During the period, Japan progressively studied Western scientific techniques and advances (called rangaku) through the information and books received from Dutch traders in Dejima. Areas of further study included geography, medicine, natural sciences, astronomy, art, languages, physics concepts such as the study of electrical phenomena, and mechanics. There was also a great development of mathematics, in a trend totally independent of that of the Western world. This strong current was called wasan.

The flowering of Neo-Confucianism was the greatest intellectual development of the period. The study of Confucianism had long been active by Buddhist clerics, but during this time this belief system drew strong attention to the conception of man and society. Ethical humanism, rationalism and the historical perspective of Neo-Confucianism were taken as a social model. By the middle of the century, Neo-Confucianism became the dominant legal philosophy and contributed directly to the development of the national system of learning, kokugaku.[33]​ Its main virtue for the shogunal regime was its emphasis on relations of hierarchy, submission to superiors and obedience, which extended to the entire society and facilitated the preservation of the feudal system.[34]​.

The growing application of Neo-Confucianism as well as advanced study contributed to the transition of the political and economic order of social classes. New laws were developed, new administrative systems were instituted. A new vision of government and society emerged in search of a more comprehensive mandate. Each person had a different place in society and was expected to work in a way that fulfilled their mission in life. Citizens were to be governed with benevolence by those assigned to rule. The government was all-powerful, but at the same time responsible and humane. Although Neo-Confucianism influenced the social class system, it was not applied in the same way as was customary in other countries such as China, where soldiers and clerics occupied the bottom rung of social classes, while in Japan some of these members constituted the government elite.

The spiritual life experimented with traditional culture, based on Buddhist principles, and Confucian principles. Two different ways of conceiving life: Buddhism gave great importance to the otherworldly world and Confucianism gave greater strength to humanism and practice.

Members of the samurai class added the traditions of bushido to their ideology and renewed their interest in Japanese history, resulting in bushido. A new lifestyle called chōnindō emerged in cities such as Osaka, Kyoto and Edo, which aspired to achieve the qualities of busido such as diligence, honesty, honor, loyalty and frugality. The study of mathematics, astronomy, cartography, engineering and medicine was also encouraged. The search for new forms of entertainment of the new culture became known as ukiyo and included geishas, ​​music, folk stories, theater kabuki, bunraku, poetry, and art, which is reflected in the style known as ukiyo-e. Literature also enjoyed great talents such as Chikamatsu Monzaemon or Matsuo Bashō.

Legislative and administrative transformations influenced intellectual and cultural revolutions. During the Tokugawa Order, education was developed in all areas. Various educational centers were established to meet the needs of different social classes. In each feudal domain, schools were established to teach the children of samurai families; They taught subjects of a cultural and moral nature and martial techniques.

Farmers demanded their education and instruction needs. Starting in the 19th century, terakoyas (temple schools) began to appear in which reading, writing and arithmetic were taught to children belonging to the middle class, especially in urban areas. It consisted of a class and a teacher, and twenty to thirty students attended. In rural communities there were schools for the children of wealthy members of the merchant class and farmers.

Ukiyo-e drawings began to be produced at the end of the century, but it was not until 1764 that Harunobu" produced the first polychrome print. Designers of the next generation such as Torii Kiyonaga and Utamaro created elegant representations of courtiers. The Ukiyo-e style gained great importance during the century and even many Western painters such as Edgar Degas and Vincent Van Gogh were influenced by its techniques (see Japonism).

Buddhism and Shinto remained an important part of Japanese society in the Edo period. Buddhism mixed with Neo-Confucianism provided standards of social behavior and, although they no longer had the same political force as in the past, it was promoted and practiced by the upper classes. With the ban on Christianity in 1640, Buddhism benefited, since the bakufu ordered that all inhabitants had to register in one of the temples. In this way, while Buddhism served as a social basis, Shintoism served as a basis for the political system and helped preserve national identity.

Decline of the Tokugawa shogunate

The end of this period is called bakumatsu. The causes of the end of this period are the subject of great controversy, but it can be seen that the common factor was the forced opening of Japan to the rest of the world by Commodore Matthew Perry "Matthew Perry (military)") and his navy known as the "black ships", which fired on the city of Edo.

The Tokugawa shogunate did not collapse simply because of its intrinsic flaws. The intrusion of foreigners helped precipitate a complex political struggle between the bakufu and the coalition of critics. The continuation of the anti bakufu movement in the middle of the century would finally end up overthrowing the Tokugawa shogunate. From the beginning the shogunate attempted to restrict the accumulation of wealth in families and attempted to encourage a "back to the land" policy, where farmers, the primary producers, were the ideal person within society.

Despite efforts to restrict goods, the standard of living for urban and rural residents increased significantly during the period, largely due to the period of peace experienced at this time.

An important challenge that the political class had to face was the nascent entrepreneurial class. The government ideal of an agrarian society failed, as it was neither compatible nor realistic with the new commercial distribution. A series of droughts and therefore entire crop failures resulted in twenty major famines between 1675 and 1837. Unrest among peasants increased and by the end of the century mass protests against high taxes and food shortages became almost routine. Now homeless families became tenant farmers while the rural poor moved to the cities. As the fortunes of previously wealthy families declined, others were able to accumulate more land and a new wealthy farming class emerged. The people who were able to benefit were able to diversify their production and hire employees, while others were left displeased. Many samurai fell on hard times and were even forced to produce crafts or work for pay for merchants.

Although Japan was able to acquire and refine a wide variety of scientific knowledge, the rapid process of industrialization of Western countries during the century created for the first time a great difference in terms of technology and weaponry between Japan and the rest of the industrialized countries, forcing the country to abandon its policy of isolation and contributing to the end of the Tokugawa regime.

Western intrusions increased at the beginning of the century. Russian warships and traders settled in Karafuto (on the island of Sakhalin, called Sakhalin Oblast under Russian and Soviet control) and in the Buril Islands), of which the southern ones are considered the northern islands of Hokkaidō. An English warship entered the port of Nagasaki searching for Dutch enemies in 1808, and sightings of warships and whalers increased in the decades of 1810 and 1820. Whaling and merchant ships from the United States also reached Japanese shores. Although the Japanese made a number of small concessions and allowed some landings, they were trying to keep foreigners out of the country altogether.

By the 1830s there was a general feeling of crisis. Famine and natural disasters had great consequences on the population. The widespread unrest led to a peasant revolt against officials and merchants in Osaka in 1837 and, although this revolt only lasted one day, it caused an overall dramatic effect. Some shogun advisors believed that the solution lay in a return to the martial spirit, imposing more restrictions on foreign trade, suppressing rangaku, censoring literature, and eliminating the "luxuries" of the government and the samurai class. The opposition saw the opportunity to end the Tokugawa and used the political banner of sonnō jōi ("Reverence the emperor, expel the barbarians"), which called for unity under imperial rule and opposed the intrusion of foreigners. The bakufu's concern increased upon learning of the achievements of Westerners in establishing colonial enclaves in China after the first Opium War of 1839-1842, so more reforms were implemented, especially economic, to try to strengthen the country against the foreign threat.

Japan rejected a demand by the United States (which greatly increased its presence in the Asia-Pacific region at this time) to establish diplomatic relations in July 1846 presented by Commodore James Biddle.

End of isolation

When Commodore Matthew Perry "Matthew Perry (Military)") reported with a squadron to Edo Bay in July 1853, Abe Masahiro was responsible for relations with the Americans. Masahiro had no experience or precedent of how to handle these types of threats to national security, so he tried to balance the desire of the senior advisors who wanted compromises with Westerners, that of the emperor who wanted to keep foreigners out, and that of the daimyō who wanted to go to war. Due to the lack of consensus, Masahiro decided to accept Perry's demands to open Japan to international trade, but at the same time ordered military preparations. In March 1854 the peace and amnesty treaty "Treaty of Kanagawa" opened two ports to American ships seeking supplies, guaranteeing good treatment for American sailors, and allowed a consul to establish himself in Shimoda, a port on the Izu Peninsula south of Edo. A trade agreement seeking to open more trade zones was forced five years later.

The resulting damage to the image of the bakufu was significant. Debates over government policies were not unusual and had generated strong criticism in the bafuku. Masahiro then began to seek the support of new allies, so he made different consensuses with the fudai, the shinpan and the tozama. The Ansei Reform of 1854-1856 sought to strengthen the regime by ordering the acquisition of warships and weapons from the Netherlands, and the construction of new port defenses began. In 1855, a naval training school with Dutch instructors was established in Nagasaki, a Western-style military school was established in Edo, and the following year the translation of Western books began.

Opposition to Masahiro increased among fudai circles, which opposed opening the bakufu councils to the tozama daimyo, so he was replaced from his position and in 1855 he was appointed president of the Hotta Nariaki council. At the head of the dissident faction was Tokugawa Nariaki), who professed a strong loyalty to the emperor coupled with strong anti-Western sentiments and who had been appointed in charge of national defense in 1854.

In the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate, contacts with foreigners increased due to concessions granted in the treaty with the United States in 1859, which included opening more ports for diplomatic representatives, unsupervised trade in four additional ports, and foreign residences in Osaka and Edo. The concept of extraterritoriality was also accepted (foreigners were subject to the laws of their country and not those of Japan). Hotta lost the support of key daimyos and when Tokugawa Nariaki opposed a new treaty, Hotta sought imperial support. Court officials, sensing the weakness of the shogunate, rejected Hotta's requests and for the first time in many centuries involved the emperor in domestic politics. When the died without a designated heir, Nariaki appealed to the court for the support of his own son, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, a candidate who had the support of the and . The won the political struggle by installing Tokugawa Yoshitomi"), arrested Nariaki and Yoshinobu, executed one of the intellectual leaders of the named Yoshida Shōin, and signed treaties with the United States and five other nations, ending more than 200 years of isolation.

Bakumatsu modernization and its conflicts

During the last years of the shogunate, known as bakumatsu, the bakufu took a series of strong measures to try to regain its dominance, although its involvement with modernization and relations with foreign powers were about to make it the target of the anti-Western sentiment that predominated in the country.

During this stage the army and navy were modernized. A naval school was established in Nagasaki in 1855 and large numbers of students were sent to other countries for several years for training, beginning a tradition of future leaders educated abroad, as in the case of Admiral Enomoto Tateaki. French naval engineers were hired to build naval arsenals. By the end of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1867, the Japanese navy already had eight steam warships, which were used against pro-imperial forces during the Boshin War. A French military mission was also established to modernize the shōgun's army.

Some extremists who viewed the emperor as a symbol of unity incited various sectors of society to violence against the shogunate, the authorities of the different feudal domains and against foreigners. The outcome of a new conflict known as the Anglo-Satsuma War led to a new treaty to expand trade concessions in 1865, but Yoshitomi was not able to confront the military power of the Western countries. Finally in 1867 Emperor Kōmei died, being succeeded by his youngest son, Emperor Meiji.

Tokugawa Yoshinobu reluctantly became the head of the Tokugawa house and shōgun. He tried to reorganize the government under the figure of the emperor while trying to preserve the active role of the shōgun. Fearing the recent power of the daimyos of Satsuma and Chōshū, other daimyos called for the shogun to return power to the emperor as well as a council of daimyos headed by the shōgun Tokugawa. Tokugawa Yoshinobu accepted the plan in late 1867 and resigned, announcing the "imperial restoration." The leaders of Satsuma, Chōshū, and other domains nevertheless decided to rebel, besieged the imperial palace, and announced their own restoration on January 3, 1868.

After the Boshin War, the bakufu system was abolished and Tokugawa Yoshinobu was reduced to the rank of a simple daimyo. Resistance continued throughout 1868 and the shogun's naval forces under Admiral Enomoto Takeaki continued the fight for another six months in Hokkaidō, where they founded the short-lived Ezo Republic.