Question:
1603 - 1850 (Edo period)
Explain Japan's relationship with other countries.
How strong was her military
Answer:
During the Edo period, the Tokugawa family ruled, with Ieyasu as shogun (complete ruler) of Japan. The Tokugawa rulers began to fear that contact with foreign traders may lead to Japan being invading by a Western nation, resulting in Japan becoming a colony of the west. In an attempt to prevent this, he introduced the "closed door policy" into Japan in the early 1600's. No people were allowed to enter Japan and no people were allowed to leave. All foreign books were banned and burnt. All foreign trade was cut off, with the exception of dutch traders whom were allowed to trade at Nagasaki port (under strong supervision) only once a year. All other foreign sailors shipwrecked on the coasts were killed, as were any other sailors trying to enter Japan. This policy lasted up too 200 years.
Japan was underdeveloped by Western standards.They were still mostly using weapons such as swords and bows and arrows. Although they knew about guns, very few samuri soldiers would have had one. However, in the early 1600's they were not too weak military wise. When Tokugawa first rose to power, he made Edo (modern day Tokyo) the capital of Japan and moved his military there. He built no defensive walls but instead relied on the mountains surrounding Edo to protect it, along with numerous blind alleys and gates designed to hinder and confuse invaders. This would have been considered foolish by most Western powers.
During the Edo period, very little technology-wise changed for Japan. Due to their lack of any forms of contact, they were unable to "borrow" ideas from other nations. In the early 19th century, the west had started building ships and industrializing, while Japan was still using wooden boats and didn't even use electricity. The military was very weak like most Asian countries at that time.
However despite this, the closed-door policy could be considered a success as Japan never went to war with any western nation or any nation for that matter. Japan was very peaceful during the Edo period and the arts and crafts flourished during this time. Much of Japans best artwork was made during this time.
So to sum up, Japan had no relationship with any nations, besides The Netherlands, with whom it traded with once a year only. Her military was weak at the beginning of the period and only continued to get weaker and weaker as the rest of the world was advancing in technology, while Japans technology was getting no better. However despite all this, it was a peaceful period for Japan and is a time when Japan truly established its identity.
