3.8: Japan and Russia

The "Golden Age" of Japan

In the early seventeenth century, one family clan, the Tokugawa, emerged triumphant and set about a unification of Japanese territory. Although Japan had an emperor, the Tokugawa family was in charge. Japan was ruled by an aristocrat called a shogun.

From the 1530’s the Portuguese sought silver in Japan to take to China. Among other things, the great profits from this trade would help finance the Portuguese missionary efforts that always accompanied their commercial activities. While there were early hopes that Catholic missionaries would find success in India or China, Japan turned out to be the one region where significant numbers of conversions occurred. In fact, by the late 16th century missionary efforts had been rewarded with the conversion of hundreds of thousands of Japanese Christians.

However, as the Japanese islands became increasingly unified over that century, the new leadership came to see Christianization as a threat to its ambitions. Over the next half century, the issue of Japanese Christians and European missionaries would continue to vex the state until finally in 1635 the Portuguese would be formally expelled from Japan. Any missionaries who attempted to remain would be executed, and Japanese Christians would be forced to renounce their faith or suffer the consequences.

Still desiring foreign trade, however, the recently established Tokugawa Shogunate permitted Dutch merchants to trade at the single port of Deshima based on the understanding that they would not make any attempt to propagate Christianity among the Japanese. As this example demonstrates, far from being dominant, Europeans often found it necessary to bow to the whims of their hosts if they wished to continue their activities across Asia.Dutch learning was the study of European ideas in Japan at this time. Some members of the Japanese elite learned Dutch and about European technology, shipbuilding, and medicine. By 1670, there was a guild of Japanese interpreters in Nagasaki who could speak and read Dutch and European knowledge spread to high circles. Figure 3.8.1 shows a detailed drawing of a microscope from the 1700s by Morishima Chūryō. To both the left and the right of this microscope there is Japanese writing with information.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Description of a Microscope, by Morishima Chūryō, Artwork of a 1787 book "Sayings of the Dutch," in the Public Domain

Why were the Japanese so eager to learn about ideas from Europe? The Japanese openness to ideas from foreigners stemmed from Japan’s long historical relationship to outside influences particularly to Chinese philosophy and institutions. The Japanese did not consider embracing foreign learning as a sign of inferiority, especially when they knew that foreign ideas could put new ideas to good use at home. This openness to outside ideas contrasts with the major Asian land-based empires who were eager lenders but hesitant borrowers of foreign ideas.

The Russian Empire

There was no unified state called "Russia" before the late fifteenth century. Originally populated by Slavic tribal groups, Swedish Vikings called the Rus colonized and then mixed with the native Slavs over the course of the ninth century. The Rus were led by princes who ruled towns that eventually developed into small cities, the most important of which was Kiev in the present-day country of Ukraine. The Rus eventually converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity thanks to the influence of Greeks missionaries. Ivan IV was the first Russian ruler to claim the title of Tsar (also anglicized as Czar), meaning "Caesar." Russia expanded east and west and became a European land-based empire. The Czar had an enormous amount of power, because there were no legislative assemblies that he had to work with.

The institution of serfdom was cemented during the seventeenth century. When times were hard for Russian peasants, they frequently fled to the frontier, either Siberia or what would later be called Ukraine (meaning “border region”). In these regions, Russian commoners worked the land in a manner that gave them the impression that they owned it, or at least the goods produced there. Since Russia was so enormous, this exacerbated what the government saw as an ongoing labor shortage problem. Unlike western Europe, there was more than enough land in Russia, just not enough peasants to work it. Therefore, the Czarist state officially instituted serfdom in 1649 across the board, formalizing what was already a widespread institution. This made peasants legally little better than slaves, forced to work the land of the aristocrats and serve the state in a war when conscripted.

Review Questions

• How was the Japanese experience different from the Asian land-based empires?
• How was Russia different from the sea-based empires of western Europe?