Causes of transition in Tokugawa Japan
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Question
What was the Sengoku period?
Answer
The 'Warring States' age (c.1467–1600) of near-constant civil war among rival daimyo, when Japan's central authority collapsed.
Question
Who were the daimyo?
Answer
Powerful regional warlords, each with a private samurai army, who fought each other for land and power during Sengoku.
Question
Why did the Sengoku wars create demand for reunification?
Answer
A century of burned villages and broken harvests made both ordinary people and lords crave stability, so whoever could deliver peace would be welcomed as ruler.
Question
Name the three unifiers of Japan, in order.
Answer
Oda Nobunaga, then Toyotomi Hideyoshi, then Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Question
What did Oda Nobunaga do?
Answer
The first unifier — a ruthless daimyo who used firearms to smash rivals and seize Kyoto, conquering about a third of Japan before his death in 1582.
Question
What did Toyotomi Hideyoshi achieve?
Answer
The second unifier — Nobunaga's general, who united almost all Japan by 1590 and reorganised society, but died in 1598 leaving a young heir.
Question
How did firearms and Europeans reach Japan?
Answer
From the 1540s Portuguese traders arrived by sea; they introduced firearms in 1543, and Christian missionaries followed — a disruptive new foreign influence.
Question
What was the Battle of Sekigahara (1600)?
Answer
Ieyasu's decisive victory over a coalition of rival daimyo, which made him the unchallenged master of Japan.
Question
When and where was the Tokugawa Shogunate founded?
Answer
In 1603, when Ieyasu became shogun; his bakufu was based at Edo, the city now called Tokyo.
Question
What is a bakufu?
Answer
The shogun's military government (literally 'tent government'), run by the warrior class rather than the emperor.
Question
What was the Tokugawa shogunate's main aim after 1603?
Answer
To end warfare for good and impose lasting central control over a fragmented, heavily-armed warrior society.
Question
Compare Sengoku Japan with Tokugawa Japan.
Answer
Sengoku: endless daimyo warfare, no central government, powerless shogun. Tokugawa: lasting peace, a strong bakufu at Edo, a shogun with supreme power.
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Topic 9.3 hub
Case study 2 — Tokugawa Japan (Asia and Oceania)
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