What Were The Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Tokugawa Dynasty

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Japan’s Tokugawa (or Edo) period, lasted from 1603 to 1867. This was the final era of the traditional Japanese government before the modern era. The Qin dynasty lasted from 221-206BC. Thought it was brief, it was very important in Chinese history. The main weakness of the Tokugawa was an internal crisis and Western intrusion. However, the Tokugawa had a great economy, commerce and manufacturing industry. The strengths of the Qing Dynasty were the ability to improve methods of irrigation, which increased farm production. However, the military was still not strong enough to protect against few invasions. In addition, the population was increasing rapidly, and the government was too weak to police and protect all of the people.

Tokugawa Leyasu’s dynasty of shoguns, presided over 250 years. The Leysu dynasty brought years of peace and prosperity in Japan, including the rise of a new merchant class …show more content…

“To guard against external influence, they also worked to close off Japanese society from Westernizing influences, particularly Christianity. When the Tokugawa shogunate grew increasingly weak by the mid-19th century, two powerful clans joined forces in early 1868 to seize power as part of an “imperial restoration” named for Emperor Meiji.” This restoration was the beginning of the end of feudalism, or the way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour, in Japan. The Tokugawa regime acted to exclude missionaries because of suspicion of foreign intervention and colonialism. Eventually, they issued a complete ban on Christianity in Japan. Near the beginning, there were an estimated 300,000 Christians in Japan. The ban forced Christianity underground. “In this effort to