Why wasn't Japan colonized?

Japan wasn’t actually completely free of European interference. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to land in Japan when a group of Portuguese traders anchored their ship on the shores of Nipponese in 1543. A new relationship between Japan and Portugal suddenly began to grow, mostly centered on economics, but religion quickly became a talking point as well.

Commerce was a huge factor in the Portuguese influence over Japan. Most of their trading goods were coming from China, which had long been off-limits to Japan after a ban of contact was put in place by the Chinese emperor. This meant that the Portuguese had something that the Japanese really wanted but would be unable to get on their own. It was a perfect system and worked well for a few decades. The Japanese could purchase goods like silk and porcelain from China, without having to go directly through Chinese merchants, and the Portuguese were able to expand their influence into Asia even further. Firearms were another popular purchase of the Japanese, especially during the Sengoku Period of civil war.


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♦Music by Epidemic Sound

♦Sources :

James, David H. The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Empire.

Duus, Peter. The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-asia/art-japan/edo-period/a/arrival-of-a-portuguese-ship

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2013/05/26/books/the-rarely-if-ever-told-story-of-japanese-sold-as-slaves-by-portuguese-traders/

Japan's Medieval Population: Famine, Fertility, and Warfare in a Transformative Age (Choice Outstanding Academic Books)
by University of Hawaii Press
https://amzn.to/3hEhHDc

♦Script & Research :
Skylar Gordon


#History #Documentary #Japan