Back to 10th century, people traded they had for the things that they needed but in some situation, trading doesn’t work because you can’t force people to trade their things that you wanted. This kind of bothering situation created some problems. From that situation everybody thinks that gold is variable so they start trading gold for the things that they needed. By using gold, it becomes easier to trade things. at this point, gold has a value. So thieves were scattered around to steal gold coins. This is the start were I.O.U is introduced. I.O.U is the first money. Bankers will secure their money by signing an I.O.U. I.O.U is a signed document acknowledging a debt but people doesn’t knew about it. Since I.O.U were introduced, inflation came. The bankers makes the worth of their I.O.U less and less until it worth nothing. In short they need to work harder to make less. Bankers makes money by making more loans. They print a lot of I.O.U’s without even using gold in it. By the use of interest, bakers makes a pretty penny and nobody is even wiser. As soon as people wanted to get their gold back, there were no gold to be claimed its not their gold any more. The man who introduced I.O.U (bankers) was hanged for what he did.He creates useless paper( I.O.U) as a replacement of gold. He was been inventing a machine to steal real money and enslave all the nations on earth. Banking is more powerful than the nuclear bomb, because it utterly destroy nation who is subjected to it.

 Last 1815 bankers finance both side of the war, England won over the enemy. Bankers of Lovisville pretended that England was condemn and started selling their English stocks. The English went into selling mania to get rid of worthless English money. Winning the war is just a trick by the bankers. Bankers waited until the stocks descend rapidly to pennies and thought that it is bad for human nothing. When the English leaders don’t have any choice but to give themselves over to bankers their money was gone. Then they became slaves to the bankers. Since that time, the English have been paying the national taxes directly to the private bankers. The people have no idea and the beggars bragged about what they did. They were just laughing all the way to the bank. The banker created the best pistol were they can control nations wealth and they don’t care who makes it laws and that is called Banking. They were seeking a way to conquer all the dreams of American.

Bankers try to take over a country many times and failed because Thomas Jefferson and the patriots about to stop the evil autocrat and he would not let the bankers win. Thomas Jefferson once said while having a conference with the private bankers,”to preserve our independence we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our choice between economy and liberty all profusion and servitude. I placed economy among first and most important republican virtues and public debt is the greatest of dangers to be feared. It is inappropriate in every generation to pay its I.O.U’s debts as it goes. But private bankers disagree because for them, ” we must need central bank to secure this countries finances. Jefferson responded,” if the american people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money first, by inflation and then by deflation. The bank corporations that will deprive the people of their property until their children wake-up homeless on every content their father conquered”. But bankers won the argument.

The first attempt of central bank lasted for only 20 years but doesn’t last anymore. The bankers tried again but cant stand with Andrew Jackson. Andrew Jackson prevent the bankers to have a bank again. By doing that, he had assassinates attempt but he survive. Andrew Jackson finally defeated the banks in 1836. He was once asked what was the greatest accomplishment in his life and he responded. ” I killed the bank”.With real money backed with real gold, our country experienced the greatest bang in any nations history.

It was beautiful power but the beggars greedy for more power and wealth were conducting their ambitious plan yet to once and for all take control of the finances of the U.S. In 1910 a secret meeting was held at a JP Morgan estate on Jekyll Island of the coast of Georgia this meeting was so secretive to concealed from government and public knowledge that the ten attendees used code names. J.P. Morgan (hula girl) claim that he is the richest man so therefore he should run the super secret bank. But J.D. Rocketfetter (“lube job” is the owner of all the oil in America) is against on JP Morgan, but Rothschild decide that none of them shall run the bank. They failed in the past already because of openness and the only key of success is secrecy. People must not know that they run the bank. The plan is to make them panic,then we show them a solution at will black timing we will have our central bank and so the people think it is theirs we shall christian it federal the Federal Reserve.

They strike on December 23rd 1913 when most of congress were at home eating fruitcakes. These bastards bankers presented their treasonous act to their newly elected accomplice Woodrow Wilson who had fortuitously already agreed to sign it before he was elected. After doing that, Fed now has the exclusive power to print Americas money. They load this money to peoples banks and the government putting interest then putting an immediate debt on peoples money. It is written more and more so each dollar they print will worthless than before. Since before the taxes did not go to the government, that’s why the government must payback there details to the Fed because it is the greatest theift that is happened in history.

On 1955, everything is cheap, would you agree that you have the same exact thing you had in 1955? of course, but the thing right now is that people needs to pay taxes and taxes are creator than what we expected. The IRS and the Feds inflation work together. They aren’t just taxing game, they are taxing their inflation. You are no bigger than you were in 1955. The highest they make the inflation, the more your money they take. You’re not paying taxes anymore, you are paying taxes on the same and now, you have less, they take our property away right in front of our eyes just like Thomas Jefferson said “they would well we are opposed around the world by monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covet means for expanding its sphere of influence.”

The last President who stand out for the Fed on June 4, 1963 President Kennedy signed executive order and power of the U.S treasury to issue real money. Without the fan, it would worked. Kennedy’s plan to dismantle the federal reserve machine had begun. Six months later, John F. Kennedy went to Dallas and never comeback anymore. A new president Lyndon Johnson throughout Kennedy’s order since
John F. Kennedy. No president has dared confront the secret powers behind the federal reserve, they consolidate bigger and bigger banks. print more and more money accountable for no one. Destroying our nations wealth for the benefit of a few bankers are too big to fail.

Written by rhea

The home of the Vikings stretched far in the north of Europ, From Greenland, Iceland, Irland, east England, Scotland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. They where expansionists and was always looking for better lands to inhabit and trade or to plunder and murder. The age that Vikings where in Scandinavia is from around 793-1066 AD.

There is not so much writings from the Vikings them selvs, most of the Vikings where not educated in the ways of writing and reading like most of people back in those days. There is however some writings from the English, but most of the knowlege that we have comes from a man named Snorre Sturlason, in his book the Kingsagas (Saga means stories) he writes about the stories that have been passed down from generation to generation. In his book he tells us about the origin of the Vikings, kings that have come and gone, their exploits and battles they fought, how they traded with the world and explored it at the same time, and of corse their religion the Norse Mythology.

Snorre Sturlason was a man who lived around the 1200 AD and spent many years gathering stories, poems and very old sagn (Sagn: short often one-event stories that are told verbally over generations). For 10 years he gathered these stories and then put them down in his book. Snorre could however not have done this, had it not been for that he was one of the most powerful and wisest chieftain on Island, He owned large farms and had large pastures over the land. This meant that he could spend much time and energy to write the kingsagas.

Kringla heimsins, the round earth-disc that humans lived on, it is cut out of the ocean with lage bays which runs from out in the ocean and in to the land. Far east through deep forests, behind tall mountains and over big rivers, was there once a land named Åsaheim. From this place the people of Æsene wandered from their home and castle Åsgard. They started a journey that many of them would not manage to complete, and they would never get to see Åsgard again.

First in the row of the Æsene was a tall and big warrior, it was the chieftain of the Æsene, a powerfull wizard named Odin. He was the only one who knew where the journey would take them, and this would end up in a foreign land far to the north.

Odin was a beautiful man, so beautiful in fact that his friends got happy just by seeing him, when he spoke to the Æsene to comfort them under the hard and heavy journey, they would be filled with up with hope and faith in what he said. But when a threath of fight came, Odin would become so ugly and fierce that he would scare off his enemies. He could hex Æsene’s enemies so they would become blinded or paralyzed with fear. With the help of secret words of magic he could he could put out fires, calm down a storm or the winds to change. He could change shapes to what he wanted, either it is a bird, animal or a fish.

Odin also had two ravens that he had tought how to speak, he let the ravens fly all over the world so that they could tell him what they saw, this made him much wiser then any other man. Odin had mastered the most powerful of magics among these he could see into the future, he could find gold and treasures which was buried in the earth. With singing he could make hills and castles open up. In his pocket, Odin had a small tablecloth, this he could roll out and it would become a ship. The ship was called Skidbladne and with it he could travle over the ocean in any kind of weather.

Following behind Odin in the journey, was his most infamous warriors. In battle they could become mad as dogs, wild as wolfs and strong as bears. They would always fight without chainmail (armor) and neither fire or iron could do them any harm. They were called the Berserker since the often would ware bear skin. Where the fight was toughest, you would always find the berserker.

At the time when Æsene left their home Åsgard, the Roman emperor was ruling over large areas of the world, says Snorre. The undefeatable Roman armies had defeated countless different tribes and kingdoms, they also made the residents there into their slaves.

Since Odin was known in the arts of magic and could see into the future, he knew there was nothing that could save his people from the Romans. So he decided that Æsene had to flee and find new lands in the north, where they could live free. The long and hard journey would lead Æsene through unknown lands, the journey lasted for many years and they passed through countries that today is called Russia, Polen, Germany and Denmark, until they came to a place that today is called Sweden. They would settle here around a big lake called Mælaren and expand there people far and wide.

Odin lived in Sweden the rest of his life along with his wife Frigg. Their sons went on to build large farms around in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Odin became a very old man, when he became so old he understood that his time here was coming to an end, he called on his people to gather them so he could tell them what they would do while he was gone. All men that would die by their weapon, would come to me. Now i will travle home to Gudeheimen (home of the gods), and recive my friends there, did Odin say. After Odins death, Æsene thought he had traveled back to Åsgard to live there for all of time. They took the brother of Odins wife as king. He was called Njord, and was the ruler over the ocean and winds. All who would travle on the ocean would pray to Njord so that he would calm the ocean. Njord was also very rich in goods and gold. He would share his wealth with those who needed help. As long as Njord was king, there was peace in the land. The farmers would harvest more corn then ever before, fishers would have their boats filled with wish, and huters would alwast come home with a catch. Therefore the people thought that Njord was a god who would bring wealth to the people.

All men that would die by their weapon, would come to me. Now i will travle home to Gudeheimen (home of the gods), and recive my friends there, did Odin say. After Odins death, Æsene thought he had traveled back to Åsgard to live there for all of time. They took the brother of Odins wife as king. He was called Njord, and was the ruler over the ocean and winds. All who would travle on the ocean would pray to Njord so that he would calm the ocean. Njord was also very rich in goods and gold. He would share his wealth with those who needed help. As long as Njord was king, there was peace in the land. The farmers would harvest more corn then ever before, fishers would have their boats filled with wish, and huters would alwast come home with a catch. Therefore the people thought that Njord was a god who would bring wealth to the people. They would spread out and soon be known and feared as the vikings we know them as today.

Written and edited by Rhea S. Pasignahen

Bullying can lead suicide and death, According to Centers for Disease Control suicide is caused death number three in adolescent.Suicide case related bullying must be prevent, this situation contrary with the reality that even bullying occurs in school, but sometimes people does not aware or just think that as wickedness of the children.The studies show evidenced that bullying is very dangerous for the future of students as it could cause depression or even suicide.In 2010, they found that school children who have been bullied felt helpless, lonely and excluded when they were bullied, students who have been bullies have an increased risk of developing anxiety, depression.The term bullying has changed drastically over time. In the 18th and 19th centuries bullying was mainly viewed as physical or verbal harassment commonly linked with, “…death, strong isolation or extortion in school children.Historically, the most significant turning point for bullying took place in the mid 1970s. Dan Olweus, a research professor of psychology, was the first to conduct an intensive study on bullying among students using his own systematic researching methods (Voo, 2007, p112). He created the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP), which had significant results in reducing school bullying (Hazelden Foundation, 2007).This event caused worldwide devastation due to the situation itself, and because it uncovered the raw truth behind bullying. In the same time frame, bullying took another negative turn. With easy access to the internet, many teens have started using cyber space as a play ground for bullying. As more teens have resorted to using cell phones and social networks to communicate, cyber bullying has become a major issue. Presently, cyber bullying is on the rise due to social networks such as facebook and twitter where information can travel in seconds to a countless number of people.
It took many years for the term to be identified for the serious problems it presents. Due to researchers like Dan Olweus, gaining true understanding of bullying is now possible. Educators have been able to gain insights of these issues so they can help stop them from occurring. Indeed, with the growth of technology bullying will be difficult to track and school administrators will have to stay current as electronics continue to change. It is difficult to determine what the future of bullying will be, yet as the government continues to mandate school safety laws and begins to strictly hold bullies accountable for their actions, schools will become a safer place for children.

The Dances were brought together in the late 1960’s by Samuel L. Lewis also known as Murshid Sam (1896-1971), a Sufi Murshid (teacher) and Rinzai Zen Master, who also studied deeply in the mystical traditions of Hinduism, Judaism, and Christianity. From his rich life experiences, Lewis in his early 70’s began to envision and create the Dances as a dynamic method to promote “Peace through the Arts”. From the early days and his original body of about 50 dances, the collection has grown since his passing to more than 500 dances which celebrate the sacred heart of Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Sikhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Aramaic, Native American, Native African, Celtic, Goddess, Pagan and Universalist traditions. In this creation, Lewis was deeply influenced by his contact and spiritual apprenticeship with two people: Hazrat Inayat Khan, who first brought the message of universal Sufism to the West in 1910, and Ruth St. Denis, a feminist pioneer in the modern dance movement in America and Europe. Hazrat Inayat Khan was one of the influenced of SAMUEL L. LEWISHazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927) brought the Sufi Message of Love, Harmony and Beauty to Europe and the U.S. from India in the years 1910 – 1926.He was born into a family of musicians. He became the musician of the soul, for his work was mostly performed in the higher spheres, tuning people to their real pitch. He also called for the awakening of the individual as the awakening of the consciousness of humanity to the divinity in every person, our inheritance of the divine perfection. He offered beautifully spoken teachings on the unity of religious ideals and the one source of all human religious expression. Ruth St. Denis (1878-1968) was a pioneer of contemporary dance in America.She was a sensation in her early years performing individual dances like Radha and Incense. She also entered the inner realization of the figures of divinity that she chose to perform – like Holy Mother Mary, Kwan Yin, the Buddha and others and from that feeling danced a vision of perfection. She presented a wordless show of unity before thousands of audiences all over the world throughout her life.

FERDINAND MARCOS, in full Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, (born September 11, 1917, Sarrat, Philippines—died September 28, 1989, hunolulu, Hawaii, U.S.), Philippine lawyer and politician who, as head of state from 1966 to 1986, established an authoritarian regime in the philippines  that came under cristicism for corruption and for its suppression of democratic processes.
Marcos attended school in manila and studied law in the late 1930s at the University of the Philippines, near that city. Tried for the assassination in 1933 of a political opponent of his politician father, Marcos was found guilty in November 1939. But he argued his case on appeal to the Philippine Supreme Court and won acquittal a year later. He became a trial lawyer in Manila. During World War II he was an officer with the Philippine armed forces. Marcos’s later claims of having been a leader in the Filipino guerrilla resistance movement were a central factor in his political success, but U.S. government archives revealed that he actually played little or no part in anti-Japanese activities during 1942–45.

From 1946 to 1947 Marcos was a technical assistant to Manual Roxas the first president of the independent Philippine republic. He was a member of the House of Representatives (1949–59) and of the Senate (1959–65), serving as Senate president (1963–65). In 1965 Marcos, who was a prominent member of the Liberal Party founded by Roxas, broke with it after failing to get his party’s nomination for president. He then ran as the nationalist party candidate for president against the Liberal president, Diosdado Macapagal. The campaign was expensive and bitter. Marcos won and was inaugurated as president on December 30, 1965. In 1969 he was reelected, becoming the first Philippine president to serve a second term. During his first term he had made progress in agriculture, industry, and education. Yet his administration was troubled by increasing student demonstrations and violent urban guerrilla activities.

On September 21, 1972, Marcos imposed martial law on the Philippines. Holding that communist and subversive forces had precipitated the crisis, he acted swiftly; opposition politicians were jailed, and the armed forces became an arm of the regime. Opposed by political leaders—notably Benigno Aquino, Jr., who was jailed and held in detention for almost eight years—Marcos was also criticized by church leaders and others. In the provinces Maoist communists and Muslim separatists undertook guerrilla activities intended to bring down the central government. Under martial law the president assumed extraordinary powers, including the ability to suspend the writ of habeas corpus . Marcos announced the end of martial law in January 1981, but he continued to rule in an authoritarian fashion under various constitutional  formats. He won election to the newly created post of president against token opposition in June 1981.

Marcos’s wife from 1954 was Imelda Romualdaz Marcos , a former beauty queen. Imelda became a powerful figure after the institution of martial law in 1972. She was often criticized for her appointments of relatives to lucrative governmental and industrial positions while she held the posts of governor of Metropolitan Manila (1975–86) and minister of human settlements and ecology (1979–86).
By 1983 Marcos’s health was beginning to fail, and opposition to his rule was growing. Hoping to present an alternative to both Marcos and the increasingly powerful New People’s Army, Benigno Aquino Jr. , returned to Manila on August 21, 1983, only to be shot dead as he stepped off the airplane. The assassination was seen as the work of the government and touched off massive antigovernment protests. An independent commission appointed by Marcos concluded in 1984 that high military officers were responsible for Aquino’s assassination. To reassert his mandated, Marcos called for presidential elections to be held in 1986. But a formidable political opponent soon emerged in Aquino’s widow, Corazon Aquino , who became the presidential candidate of the opposition. It was widely asserted that Marcos managed to defeat Aquino and retain the presidency in the election of February 7, 1986, only through massive voting fraud on the part of his supporters. Deeply discredited at home and abroad by his dubious electoral victory, Marcos held fast to his presidency as the Philippine military split between supporters of his and of Aquino’s legitimate right to the presidency. A tense standoff that ensued between the two sides ended only when Marcos fled the country on February 25, 1986, at U.S. urging. He went into exile in Hawaii, where he remained until his death.

This timeline highlights noteworthy events and social, political, and economic trends in the history of the United States from 1492 to the 20th century. The documents shown were chosen from among those contributed to the World Digital Library by WDL partners. At the bottom of the timeline are listed the ten eras in the McRel Standards for United States History used in many schools: Three Worlds Meet (Beginnings to 1620), Colonization and Settlement (1585-1763), Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1820s), Expansion and Reform (1801-1861), Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877), The Development of the Industrial United States (1870-1900), The Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930), The Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945), Postwar United States (1945 to early 1970s), and Contemporary United States (1968 to the present). The documents on the timeline also can be viewed on an interactive map.

Columbus reaches America; claims for Spain

Following his first voyage across the Atlantic, Columbus wrote a brief report on the “Islands of India beyond the Ganges.” His intent was to announce his recent discoveries and to garner financial and political support for another voyage. The first edition of the letter was printed in Spanish, in Barcelona, in April 1493. Within a month, Stephan Plannck published a Latin translation in Rome. Plannck’s preamble gave credit to Fernando of Aragon for supporting the expedition but omitted any mention of Queen Isabel. Plannck soon published a corrected edition that mentioned Isabel’s role. It was this Latin edition that circulated widely and spread the news of Columbus’ discoveries throughout Europe.

Saint Augustine Map, 1589

This engraved hand-colored map or view-plan by Baptista Boazio depicts Sir Francis Drake’s attack on Saint Augustine on May 28-29, 1586. Boazio, an Italian who worked in London from about 1585 to 1603, made maps to illustrate accounts of English expeditions and campaigns. He prepared a series of maps marking Drake’s route for Walter Bigges’ work on Drake’s expedition to the West Indies, first published in 1588 and followed by later editions. This map highlights an episode from Drake’s Caribbean expedition, pictorially portraying how the English corsair (privateer) captured and burned the fort and city of Saint Augustine. The plan includes an illustration of a mahi-mahi, also known as a dolphinfish, which Boazio most likely copied from drawings by John White, governor of the Raleigh settlement in what was then Virginia (present-day North Carolina). Boazio’s map is the earliest engraving of any city or territory now part of the United States. Another version of the map survives in the collections of the Library of Congress. The two maps differ in their coloring, but are otherwise identical.

The Coasts, Points, Harbours and Islands of New France

This portolan-style chart on vellum was compiled by Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635), the founder of New France, and was originally intended for presentation to the King of France. One of the great cartographic treasures of America, the map offers the first thorough delineation of the New England and Canadian coasts from Cape Sable to Cape Cod, showing Port Royal; Frenchman’s Bay; the St. John, St. Croix, Penobscot, and Kennebec Rivers; and Mount Desert Island, which Champlain himself named. The place names and coast line correspond closely to Champlain’s narrative in his Voyages, published in 1613. Champlain personally designed and drew the chart. Most charts of the time were drawn by professional cartographers who depended on information obtained from explorers and navigators. Champlain based this work entirely on his own exploration and observations, including interviews with Native Americans, and on his own mathematical calculations. The map shows habitations along the shoreline, both French settlements and Indian villages. Forests are represented by stylized drawings of trees. Hill symbols indicate higher elevations visible from the shore. Dangerous shoals are shown as groups of small dots, and anchors represent locations where Champlain himself set anchor.

Dutch build Fort Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan Island

Joan Vinckeboons (1617–70) was a Dutch cartographer and engraver born into a family of artists of Flemish origin. He was employed by the Dutch West India Company and for more than 30 years produced maps for use by Dutch mercantile and military shipping. He was a business partner of Joan Blaeu, one of the most important map and atlas publishers of the day. Vinckeboons drew a series of 200 manuscript maps that were used in the production of atlases, including Blaeu’s Atlas Maior. This 1639 pen-and-ink and watercolor map shows Manhattan Island as it appeared some 25 years after the establishment of the Dutch fur trading settlement known as New Amsterdam (present-day New York City). Also shown are Staten Island, Coney Island, and the North (Hudson) River. The numbered index at the lower right indicates the names of farms and buildings and their owners. The letters in the index indicate the locations of Fort Amsterdam, three mills, and the slave quarter of the settlement. The map was once part of a manuscript atlas belonging to the Dutch firm of Gerard Hulst van Keulen, which published sea atlases and navigational handbooks for over two centuries. With the demise of the firm, the atlas was acquired and broken up by the Amsterdam book dealer Frederik Muller, who in 1887 sold 13 maps from the atlas attributed to Vinckeboons to the collector and bibliographer Henry Harrisse. This map is part of the Henry Harrisse Collection in the Library of Congress.

First book printed in the United States, The Bay Psalm, produced in Cambridge, Massachusetts

The Bay Psalm Book, as this work is commonly known, is the first book printed in British North America. The Reverend Jesse Glover imported the first printing press to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1638, some 18 years after the first English settlers landed at Plymouth Rock. A London printer, Stephen Daye, came with the press and established a printing office in Cambridge. The following year, the residents of the colony asked John Eliot, Thomas Welde, and Richard Mather to undertake a new translation from the Hebrew of the Book of Psalms, for use in the colony’s churches. Mather was the principal author and translator, but was assisted by about 30 other New England ministers. The book was printed in 1640. Reissued in successive editions, it remained in use for more than 100 years. This copy, from the John Carter Brown Library, is one of 11 copies of the first edition known to exist and one of only four perfect copies. The book is in its original binding, with the title page signed by Mather.

The Boston Massacre

In Boston in the late 1760s, the stirrings of what became the American Revolution began as residents grew angry about the heavy taxation to which they were subjected. With the Townshend Acts of 1767, the British placed taxes on imported goods, including glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea. To enforce the acts, they imposed a heavy military presence on the Massachusetts colonists that exacerbated tensions between the local populace and representatives of the crown. On March 5, 1770, British sentries guarding the Boston Customs House were surrounded by jeering Bostonians slinging hard-packed snowballs. The small group of soldiers lost control when one of their regiment was struck. Despite explicit orders to the contrary, they shot into a crowd of civilians, killing three and injuring eight others, two of them mortally. This sensationalized portrayal of the skirmish was engraved, printed, and sold by future Revolutionary War hero Paul Revere. Revere copied the print from a design by Henry Pelham for an engraving later published under the title “The Fruits of Arbitrary Power, or the Bloody Massacre.” Revere’s print appeared on or about March 28, 1770. Among those injured in the massacre was the African-American sailor Crispus Attucks.

Declaration of Independence

John Dunlap, official printer to the Continental Congress, produced the first printed versions of the American Declaration of Independence in his Philadelphia shop on the night of July 4, 1776. After the Declaration had been adopted by the Congress earlier that day, a committee took the manuscript document, possibly Thomas Jefferson’s “fair copy” of his rough draft, to Dunlap for printing. On the morning of July 5, copies were dispatched by members of Congress to various assemblies, conventions, and committees of safety as well as to the commanders of Continental troops. Also on July 5, a copy of the printed version of the approved Declaration was inserted into the “rough journal” of the Continental Congress for July 4. The text was followed by the words “Signed by Order and in Behalf of the Congress, John Hancock, President. Attest. Charles Thomson, Secretary.” It is not known how many copies of what came to be called “the Dunlap broadside” were printed on the night of the fourth. Twenty-five copies are known to exist: 20 owned by American institutions, two by British institutions, and three by private individuals. Shown here is a copy from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.

George Washington chairs Constitutional Convention, meeting in Philadelphia

In 1787, the confederation of the 13 American states was descending into disarray. The coffers were empty, New York and New Jersey were in a dispute over duties charged on goods crossing state lines, farmers in Massachusetts were rebelling, and Spain and Britain were encroaching on American territories in the west. The Federal Convention was called to address the problems of governing the young republic under the existing Articles of Confederation. The convention responded by framing the document that became the United States Constitution. The convention delegates elected George Washington, the hero of the Revolutionary War, to be the convention’s president. The artist Charles Willson Peale decided to use the convention to sell printed engravings of a new portrait of the general as part of his portrait series of the authors of the Revolution. Peale’s previous attempts to sell prints of the nation’s leaders had proved disappointing and this one fared no better. Although it was not a commercial success, this portrait is considered historically important. Depicting the leader of a nation in crisis, it is one of the few portraits of Washington that bears no trace of a smile.

Kentucky becomes the 15th state

David H. Burr (1803–75) was a surveyor and cartographer, who served as topographer to the United States Post Office Department in 1832–38 and as geographer to the House of Representatives in 1838–47. Under the direction of the postmaster general, Burr compiled information from postmasters throughout the country about transportation routes—post roads, railroads, and canals—and the location of post offices to produce a large set of state and regional maps. Published in 1839 by the prominent London mapmaking firm of John Arrowsmith, Burr’s The American Atlas offers a detailed picture of settlement and transportation patterns in the United States in the decades before the Civil War. Shown here is Burr’s map of Kentucky and Tennessee, one of 13 maps in the atlas. Kentucky and Tennessee were the first part of the United States west of the Alleghenies to be settled by American pioneers, most of whom came initially from Virginia and North Carolina. Kentucky was admitted to the Union on June 1, 1792, becoming the 15th state. Tennessee was admitted exactly four years later, on June 1, 1796, as the 16th state.

Thomas Jefferson elected third president of the United States

Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States of America and one of the founding fathers of the republic. With the nation still in the process of solidifying its identity, political figures became a popular subject for contemporary artists, much as kings, aristocracy, and religious figures had been in the past. Portrait painters also hoped to earn money by painting politically important individuals, either from the subject himself or from enthusiasts in his entourage. The French artist Charles Balthazar Julien Fevret de Saint-Mémin (1770-1852) did two engravings of Jefferson (although research suggests that he retooled the old portrait for the second engraving). For the accurate depiction of his sitters’ facial proportions, Saint-Mémin relied upon the “physiognotrace,” an invention that he brought with him from his native France. The physiognotrace was a mechanism designed to trace a subject’s profile with great exactitude. This method became quite popular among American engravers for a time, including with Saint-Mémin’s artistic rivals, the Peales.

First continental map of the United States

This 1816 map by John Melish (1771–1822) is the first to show the United States as a continental state, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. Melish was a Scot who traveled extensively in the United States in 1806–7. In 1809 he returned to America and settled permanently in Philadelphia, where he advertised himself as “Geographer and Publisher” and set up the first U.S. firm dedicated to map publishing. In an accompanying booklet to this map, Melish explained that he initially intended to end his map at the Continental Divide. He decided to extend it to the Pacific Ocean for “part of this territory unquestionably belongs to the United States.” In 1816, much of the western part of the present-day United States was under Spanish control, but the young republic had staked a claim to the Oregon Territory. This claim was buttressed by the Lewis and Clark expedition, which had reached the Pacific in 1805, and by the New York merchant John Jacob Astor’s chain of fortified fur-trading posts extending from the Missouri River to the mouth of the Columbia River. Melish’s map became well known and was used in treaty negotiations with the European powers over the future borders of the United States.

Insurgency in the Philippines

The Spanish-American War of 1898, in which the United States wrested Cuba, the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico from Spain, was one of the first wars to be captured by the motion picture camera. Fighting in the Philippines between Spanish and U.S. forces ended in August 1898. On January 1, 1899, a constitutional convention declared the establishment of a new Philippine Republic, with Emilio Aguinaldo, the leader of Philippine resistance to Spanish rule, as president. The United States refused to recognize the new government, and in February 1900 fighting broke out between Aguinaldo’s forces and U.S. troops. The American Mutoscope & Biograph Company sent two expeditions to cover the Philippine Campaign, as the war and its aftermath were called in the company catalog. This film, which was shot on February 18, 1900, shows a large number of Filipino boats on the Pasig River near Manila. Aguinaldo eventually was captured and declared his allegiance to the United States, but sporadic fighting between U.S. and Philippine forces continued until 1913. The Philippines became a commonwealth in 1935 and was granted full independence on July 4, 1946.

Martin Luther King, Jr. leads March on Washington

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place in August 1963 and was the setting for the celebrated “I Have a Dream” speech by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. A. Philip Randolph, a labor leader and founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, proposed a large march on the capital as a way of prodding Congress and the administration of President John F. Kennedy to act on civil rights. Others involved in its planning included King himself, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People President Roy Wilkins, and John Lewis, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. The march was entirely peaceful, and drew an estimated 200,000-300,000 people. It is widely credited with helping to pass breakthrough civil rights legislation in 1964 and 1965. Shown here on the day of the march are King and Mathew Ahmann, Executive Director of the National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice.

China’s unbroken story: from 500,000 years ago

Northern China, in the plains around the Huang Ho (or Yellow River), bears evidence of more continuous human development than any other region on earth.

500,000 years ago Peking manlives in the caves at Zhoukoudian, about 30 miles (48km) southwest of the modern city of Beijing.

The Shang dynasty: 1600 – 1100 BC

The city of An-yang, rediscovered in the 20th century, is an important centre of the first Chinese civilization – that of the Shang dynasty, which lasts from about 1600 to 1100 BC. Known to its occupants as the Great City Shang, its buildings are on both banks of the Huan river, to the north of the Yellow River. 

An-yang is at the heart of a society in which human sacrifice plays a significant role. Archaeology reveals this, as does an extraordinary archive of written records – stored on what the peasants of this area, in modern times, have believed to be dragon bones. 

The dragon bones are the records, kept by the priests, of the questions asked of the oracle by the Shang rulers. The answer is found by the method of divination known as scapulimancy. 

The priest takes a polished strip of bone, usually from the shoulder blade of an ox, and cuts in it a groove to which he applies a heated bronze point. The answer to the question (in most cases just yes or no) is revealed by the pattern of the cracks which appear in the bone. With the bureaucratic thoroughness of civil servants, the priests then write on the bone the question that was asked, and sometimes the answer that was given, before filing the bone away in an archive.

Sacrifice, silk and bronze: 1600 – 1100 BC

Several of the inscriptions on the oracle bones mention sacrifices, sometimes of prisoners of war, which are to be made to a silkworm goddess. There is even a Shang court official called Nu Cang, meaning Mistress of the Silkworms. 

Silk, China’s first great contribution to civilization, has been an important product of the region for at least 1000 years before the Shang dynasty and the beginning of recorded history. The earliest silk fragments unearthed by archaeologists date from around 2850 BC. 

The writing on the Shang oracle bones is in pictorial characters which evolve, often with only minor modifications, into the characters used in written Chinese today – 3500 years later. There can be no better example of the continuity underpinning Chinese civilization. 

The excavations at An-yang demonstrate that Shang craftsmen have reached an astonishing level of skill in the casting of bronze. And they reveal a reckless attitude to human life. A building cannot be consecrated at An-yang, or a ruler buried, without extensive human sacrifice (see the Sacrificial guardians of An-yang). 

The roots of Chinese culture: 1600 – 1100 BC

The area controlled by the Shang rulers is relatively small, but Shang cultural influence spreads through a large part of central China. In addition to their writing of Chinese characters, the Shang introduce many elements which have remained characteristic of this most ancient surviving culture. Bronze chopsticks, for example, have been found in a Shang tomb. 

The Shang use a supremely confident name for their own small territory; it too has stood the test of time. They call An-yang and the surrounding region Chung-kuo, meaning ‘the Central Country’. It is still the Chinese name for China. And the Shang practise another lasting Chinese tradition – the worship of ancestors. 

Most of the elaborate bronze vessels made in Shang times are for use in temples or shrines to ancestors. The richly decorated urns are for cooking the meat of the sacrificed animals. The most characteristic design is the li, with its curved base extended into three hollow protuberances – enabling maximum heat to reach the sacrificial stew. 

The bronze jugs, often fantastically shaped into weird animals and birds, are for pouring a liquid offering to the ancestor – usually a hot alcoholic concoction brewed from millet. 

In Shang society ancestor worship is limited to the king and a few noble families. The good will of the king’s ancestors is crucial to the whole of society, because they are the community’s link with the gods. Over the centuries the king becomes known as the Son of Heaven. The shrine to his ancestors – the Temple of Heaven in Beijing – is the focal point of the national religion. 

In subsequent dynasties, and particularly after the time of Confucius, ancestor worship spreads downwards through the Chinese community. It becomes a crucial part of the culture of the Confucian civil servants, the mandarins.

The Zhou dynasty: c.1100 – 256 BC

In about 1050 BC (the date is disputed among scholars by several decades in either direction), a new power is established in China. This is the Zhou dynasty, deriving from a frontier kingdom between civilization and marauding tribes, westward of An-yang, up towards the mountains. After forming a confederation of other neighbouring states, the Zhou overwhelm the Shang rulers. The new capital is at Ch’ang-an (now known as Xi’an), close to the Wei river. 

From here the Zhou control the entire area of central China, from the Huang Ho to the Yangtze. They do so through a network of numerous subordinate kingdoms, in a system akin to feudalism. 

In 771 BC the Zhou are driven east from Xi’an, by a combination of barbarian tribes and some of their own dependent kingdoms. They re-establish themselves at Loyang, where they remain the nominal rulers of China (known as the Eastern Zhou) until 256 BC. During this long period their status is largely ceremonial and religious. Their main role is to continue the sacrifices to their royal ancestors – from whom the rulers of most of the other rival kingdoms also claim descent. 

In the 8th century there are hundreds of small kingdoms in central China. By the end of the 5th there are only seven. Tension and constant warfare give the period its character.

confucius and confucianism

A lasting result of these troubled centuries is the adoption of the ideas of K’ung Fu Tzu, known to the west as Confucius. Like other spiritual leaders of this same period (Zoroaster, Mahavira, Gautama Buddha), Confucius is essentially a teacher. As with them, his ideas are spread by his disciples. But Confucius teaches more worldly principles than his great contemporaries. 

The unrest of his times prompts him to define a pattern of correct behaviour. The purpose is to achieve a just and peaceful society, but the necessary first step is within each individual. Confucius lays constant emphasis on two forms of harmony. Music is good because it suggests a harmonious state of mind. Ritual is good because it defines a harmonious society. 

The Confucian ideals are deeply conservative, based on an unchanging pattern of respect upwards, to those higher in rank (older members of a family, senior members of a community), which brings with it a corresponding obligation downwards. The pattern is extended outside this immediate world, with the highest respect accorded to the dead – in the form of ancestor worship. 

This concept of mutual obligation shares something with feudalism, but it gives less honour to military prowess. It is more like a utopian bureaucracy, with responsible Confucians on hand at every level to oil the machinery of state. 

Confucius runs a school in his later years, proclaiming it open to talent regardless of wealth. His young graduates, more intellectually agile than their contemporaries, are much in demand as advisers in the competing kingdoms of China. So the master’s ideas are spread at a practical level, and his disciples begin as they will continue – as civil servants. Known in China as scholar officials, they acquire the name ‘mandarin’ in western languages from a Portuguese corruption of a Sanskrit word. 

The idea of a career open to talent becomes a basic characteristic of Chinese society. By the 2nd century BC China’s famous examination system has been adopted.

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Daoism: from the 4th century BC

Confucianism is so practical a creed that it can scarcely be called a religion. It is ill-equipped to satisfy the human need for something more mysterious. China provides this in the form of Daoism. 

Laozi, the supposed founder of Daoism, is traditionally believed to have been an older contemporary of Confucius. It is more likely that he is an entirely mythical figure. The small book which he is supposed to have written dates from no earlier than the 4th century BC. It is an anthology of short passages, collected under the title Daodejing. Immensely influential over the centuries, it is the basis for China’s alternative religion. 

Daodejing means ‘The Way and its Power’. The way is the way of nature, and the power is that of the man who gives up ambition and surrenders his whole being to nature. How this is achieved is a subtle mystery. But the Daodejingsuggests that the Way of water(the humblest and most irresistible of substances) is something which a wise man should imitate. 

In the late 20th century, an era of ecology and New Age philosophies, the ‘alternative’ quality of Daoism has given it considerable appeal in the west. In Chinese history it is indeed alternative, but in a different sense. In the lives of educated Chinese, Daoism has literally alternated with Confucianism. 

Confucianism and Daoism are like two sides of the same Chinese coin. They are opposite and complementary. They represent town and country, the practical and the spiritual, the rational and the romantic. A Chinese official is a Confucian while he goes about the business of government; if he loses his job, he will retire to the country as a Daoist; but a new offer of employment may rapidly restore his Confucianism. 

The same natural cycle of opposites is reflected in the Chinese theory of Yin and yang, which also becomes formulated during the long Zhou dynasty. 

Legalism: from the 4th century BC

Although the Zhou dynasty is the cradle of the two most lasting schools of Chinese thought, Confucianism and Daoism, it is brought to an end by a more brutal philosophy usually described as Legalism. Expressed in a work of the 4th century BC, the Book of Lord Shang, it responds to the lawlessness of the age by demanding more teeth for the law. A strict system of rewards and punishments is to be imposed upon society. But the ratio is to be one reward to every nine punishments. 

Punishment produces force, force produces strength, strength produces awe, awe produces virtue. Virtue has its origin in punishments’, proclaims the Book of Lord Shang.It is read with attention by the ruler of the Qin. 

The Qin dynasty: 221 – 206 BC

By the 4th century BC the numerous Zhou kingdoms have been reduced, by warfare and conquest, to just seven. The most vigorous of these is the Qin kingdom, occupying the Wei valley. This region, as when the Zhou were here centuries earlier, is a buffer state between the civlized China of the plains and the barbaric tribal regions in the mountains. 

The Qin have learnt from their tribal neighbours how to fight from the saddle, instead of in the cumbersome war chariots used by the Zhou kingdoms. And Legalism gives them a healthy disregard for the Confucian pretensions of the more sophisticated kingdoms. In particular they are unimpressed by the claims to preeminence of the feeble state of Zhou. 

In 256 the Qin overrun Zhou, bringing to an abrupt end a dynasty which has lasted on paper more than 800 years. In the following decades they conquer and annexe each of the other five kingdoms. The last is subdued in 221 BC. 

The whole of central China is now for the first time under a single unified control, in effect creating a Chinese empire. The Qin ruler who has achieved it gives himself an appropriate new title, Shi Huangdi, the ‘first sovereign emperor’. His Qin kingdom (pronounced ‘chin’) provides the name which most of the world has used ever since for this whole region of the earth – China.

Shi Huangdi rapidly sets in place a dictatorship of uniformity, based on terror. Much use is made of a scale of five standard punishments – branding on the forehead, cutting off the nose, cutting off the feet, castration and death. 

The only approved commodities in this empire are items of practical use. These do not include books or Confucians. In 213 BC it is ordered that all books (except those on medicine, agriculture and divination) are to be burnt (see Bamboo books). A year later it is reported that 460 Confucian scholars have been executed. 

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The collapse of the first empire: 210-206 BC

Like other megalomaniacs, Shi Huangdi predicts that his empire will last almost to eternity. 11,000 generations is his claim. In the event it lasts less than one generation – from 221 to 206 BC. 

When the emperor dies, in 210, the arrangement of his tomb reflects both his paranoia and his power. In his determination that no thief shall discover and desecrate his resting place, the workmen who construct it are buried with him – or so Chinese tradition has always maintained, adding that the tomb has crossbows permanently cocked to impale any intruder. When the tomb is eventually discovered, in 1975, it reveals an even more amazing secret – the famous Terracotta armyof Xi’an. 

Turmoil follows the death of the Qin emperor. During it his chief minister, Li Ssu, receives his own dose of Legalist medicine. 

His downfall is engineered by a palace eunuch, who arranges for him to suffer each of the first four punishments in turn and then, without nose, feet or genitals, to be flogged and cut in two at the waist. 

A series of peasant rebellions, resulting from the brutality of the regime, accompanies the rapid collapse of the Qin dynasty. From the chaos there emerges the first undeniably great Chinese dynasty, the Han.

But the centralizing effort of the Qin ruler does bequeath some lasting benefits to China. The Chinese will never again forget a political ideal deriving from this time – that the natural condition of their great and isolated land mass is to be a single entity. A practical token of this ideal is left by the Qin emperor in the form of the Great Wall of China – a boundary which securely defines the nation on the only side where nature does not already do so by mountain, jungle or sea.

The han dynasty: 221 – 206 BC

The Han is the first of the five great Chinese dynasties, each of them controlling the entire area of China for a span of several centuries. The others are the T’ang (7th-10th centuries), Song (10th-13th), Ming (14th-17th) and Qing (17th-20th).  The Han is a great deal earlier than any of these, and it lasts – with one minor interruption – longer than any other. At its peak the imperial power stretches from the Pamir Mountains in the west to Korea in the east and to Vietnam in the south. With justification the Han dynasty comes to seem a golden age, and the Chinese have often described themselves as the ‘sons of Han’.

The Han kingdom was one of the five states engulfed between 230 and 221 BC by the Qin emperor. During the rebellions which follow his death, the Han throne is seized in 206 by a man of peasant origin. After four years of warfare he is strong enough to claim the Qin empire. As founder of a great dynasty he is later given the title Kaozi – ‘exalted ancestor’. As befits his origins, Kaozi is a rough character, with little respect for the Chinese official classes. The first great Chinese historian, Sima Qian, writing a century later, gives a vivid but improbable glimpse of the man. ‘Whenever a visitor wearing a Confucian hat comes to see the emperor, he immediately snatches the hat from the visitor’s head and pisses in it’.

Confronted by the practical problems of running the empire, Kaozi overcomes his aversion to the Confucians. He even commissions a Confucian work on the principles of good government. And his successors make the Confucians the scholar-officials of the state.  Under the most powerful of the Han emperors, Wudi (the ‘martial emperor’), scholars of other disciplines are banned from court. The Confucian examination system is made a cornerstone of the administrative system (see Chinese examinations). And an imperial academy is set up to study the supposed works of the master (most of them, in reality, written or compiled by his disciples).

The Chinese architectural tradition: from the 1st c. BC

No architecture survives in China from the early dynasties (with the spectacular exception of the Great Wall) because the Chinese have always built in wood, which decays. On the other hand, wood is easily repaired.  When timbers of a wooden structure are replaced and repainted, the building is as good as new – or as good as old. The conservative tendency in Chinese culture means that styles, even in entirely new buildings, seem to have changed little in the 2000 years since the Han dynasty.

Documents of the time suggest that Han imperial architecture is already of a kind familiar today in Beijing’s Forbidden City, the vast palace built in the 15th century for the Ming emperors. Carved and painted wooden columns and beams support roofs with elaborate ornamented eaves.  The painting of buildings provides ample opportunity for the Chinese love of rank and hierarchy. The Li Chi, a Confucian book of ritual complied in the Han dynasty, declares that the pillars of the emperor’s buildings are red, those of princes are black, those of high officials blue-green, and those of other members of the gentry yellow.

Minor improvements are introduced with the advance of technology. The colourful ceramic roof tiles of Chinese pavilions are an innovation in the Song dynasty in the 11th century. But in broad terms the civic buildings of China retain their appearance through the ages.  A good example is the magnificent Temple of Heaven in Beijing. Its colours, frequently restored, are so fresh that the building looks new. But the structure dates from the early 15th century, in the Ming dynasty, and its appearance on its marble platform is almost identical to Marco Polo’s description of its predecessor in the 13th century.

The reign of the emperor Wudi: 142 – 87 BC

At the peak of the Han dynasty, under the emperor Wudi, the Chinese empire stretches to its greatest expanse and seems to need for nothing. Even the valuable commodities which previously have been acquired from beyond the empire’s northern boundary – horses and jade – are now regarded as home produce. They come from the steppes to the north of the Himalayas, where the nomadic Xiongnu are now increasingly brought under Chinese control.  Sima Qian, writing during Wudi’s reign, depicts the empire as Proudly self-sufficient, in his list of what is available and in which regions.

Wudi employs military force more effectively than his predecessors against the Xiongnu, who are constantly pressing from the north. Searching for allies against these ferocious neighbours, he is intrigued by reports that there are other nomadic tribes, the Yueqi, enemies of the Xiongnu, living to the west of them.  In 138 Wudi sends an envoy on a dangerous mission to make contact with these potential allies. The 13-year adventure of the envoy, Zhang Qian, is one of the great early travel stories (see the Journey of Zhang Qian). It is also the first fully documented contact between China and the west, and a significant step towards the opening of the Silk Road.

The contribution of the Han

Several important technical advances are made in China during the Han dynasty. In warfare, the Chinese skill in working bronze is applied to the invention of the crossbow.  In the story of communication there are two major turning points. Paper is invented, with a traditional date of AD 105. And although true printing must wait a few more centuries, an initiative of AD 175 proves an important stepping stone towards the first printed texts in Chinese.

Engraved texts: 2nd – 8th century AD

The emperor of China commands, in AD 175, that the six main classics of Confucianism be carved in stone. His purpose is to preserve them for posterity in what is held to be authentic version of the text. But his enterprise has an unexpected result.  Confucian scholars are eager to own these important texts. Now, instead of having them expensively written out, they can make their own copies. Simply by laying sheets of paper on the engraved slabs and rubbing all over with charcoal or graphite, they can take away a text in white letters on a black ground – a technique more familiar in recent centuries in the form of brass-rubbing.

Subsequent emperors engrave other texts, until quite an extensive white-on-black library can be acquired. It is a natural next step to carve the letters in a raised form (and in mirror writing) and then to apply ink to the surface of the letters. When this ink is transferred to paper, the letters appear in black (or in a colour) against the white of the paper – much more pleasant to the eye than white on black.  This process is printing. But it is the Buddhists, rather than the Confucians, who make the breakthrough.

Western and Eastern Han: 206 BC – AD 221

For the first 200 years of the dynasty, the Han capital is in the Wei valley – at Xi’an (the same site as Ch’ang-An, the first capital of the Zhou dynasty). During a brief interlude the throne is seized by a usurper, who forms the Hsin or ‘new’ dynasty (AD 8-23). The imperial family then recovers the throne and moves the capital further east into the plains. The emperors re-establish themselves at Loyang – again the very place to which the Zhou dynasty moved from Xi’an, nearly eight centuries earlier.  At Loyang the Han survive for another 200 years, until eventually toppled in 221 after several decades of peasant uprisings – a pattern of events which has been common at the end of Chinese dynasties.

Period of Disunion: 3rd – 6th century AD

The centuries after the collapse of the Han dynasty are a time of chaos. The Chinese Standard Histories identify no fewer than ten dynasties and nineteen separate kingdoms during this period. It is often known now as the Six Dynasties (from six in succession which had their capital at Nanjing), or more accurately as the Period of Disunion. As in many chaotic times, much is achieved. One such achievement is the flourishing of Chinese Buddhism.  The first Buddhists have reached China, along the Silk Road, in the 1st century AD. They flourish partly because they are warmly welcomed by a well-established indigenous religion, Daoism.

The Daoists see the Buddhists as kindred souls, and with good reason. Both religions have priests, monasteries and some form of religious hierarchy. Both believe in a withdrawal from the everyday business of life. Both differ profoundly from the Chinese alternative to Daoism – the practical, commonsense, worldly philosophy of Confucianism.  Soon the two religions become so closely linked that a new Daoist theory evolves. The Buddha is actually Lao-Tzu, who was given this other name when he made a secret journey to bring the truth to India.

Centuries later, when Buddhism is favoured above Daoism by Chinese rulers and when the great wealth of Buddhist monasteries provokes jealousy, the Daoist legend becomes neatly reversed. If the Buddhists are Daoists under another name, why should they enjoy any special treatment and such spectacular success? Such arguments underlie the eventual persecution of Buddhists, in the 9th century.  Meanwhile their success is indeed astonishing. Buddhist carving in China stands as visible proof of their wealth and energy.

In sheer quantity, if in nothing else, Buddhist carving in China would be a phemonenon in the history of sculpture. One site near the ancient capital of Loyang, at the eastern end of the Silk Road, makes the point very effectively. Any visitor to Long-men will be struck by the profusion of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and Arhats and their guardians. But exactly how many statues are there?  In 1916 a local magistrate attempts to count them. He arrives at a total of 97,306 separate figures. A more recent study suggests that 142,289 may be nearer the mark.

The Sui dynasty: 589-618

The man who reunites China in 589, forming the Sui dynasty, is an enthusiastic patron of Buddhism. He takes as his title Wen Ti, meaning the Cultured Emperor, and devotes much effort to building Buddhist stupas throughout the land. The local version of a stupa develops into a specifically Chinese form, that of the pagoda.  His son, Yang Ti (the Emblazoned Emperor), undertakes an even more ambitious project, requiring so much forced labour that it contributes to the rapid end of this brief dynasty. But it has economic value and is a stupendous achievement. Yang Ti constructs the Grand Canal, linking the Yangtze to the Yellow River and thus to the twin capitals of Loyang and Xi’an.

The T’ang dynasty: 618-907

Rebellion breaks out against the second Sui emperor in 613, partly provoked by the burden of constructing his Grand Canal. In 616, fleeing from his capital at Xi’an, he and his court are towed down the canal to temporary safety in his specially designed barges. Two years later he is assassinated by his own troops.

Meanwhile one of the emperor’s high officials has seized power in Xi’an. By 618 he is in a position to declare himself the founder of a new dynasty, the T’ang. China enters its most dynamic era, a period rivalled only by the first two centuries of the Han dynasty. 

Chinese culture under the T’ang reaches new heights in ceramics and literature. The Chinese style influences Korea and Japan, and the two younger civilizations also give an increasingly warm welcome to Chinese Buddhism. Imperial control now extends once again from desert oases along the Silk Road in the northwest to parts of Manchuria in the northeast and to Vietnam in the south. 

Beyond China’s borders to the west, the might of the emperor reaches further than at any previous time. Princes as far away as Bukhara and Samarkand recognize his sovereignty.

Imperial science and a great map of China: 721-801

The extent of the imperial Chinese bureaucracy under the T’ang dynasty makes possible an unusually thorough scientific project (echoing, for a different purpose, the brave amateur experiment of Eratosthenes1000 years earlier). In 721 the emperor sets up nine research stations, across a span of more than 2000 miles, from Hue in the south to the Great Wall in the north. 

For four years each station measures the sun’s shadow at noon on the summer and winter solstice. It is an elegant experiment in that no difficult synchronization is required. The shortest and longest shadows at each place are the correct answers, providing invaluable information for cartographers.

A famous map of 801 – a landmark in cartography – no doubt makes use of the nine points of latitude scientifically established in the experiment of 721-5. It is a map of the Chinese world, produced for the T’ang emperor by Chia Tan. 

Chia Tan’s map is on an ambitious scale, measuring about 10 by 11 yards. It charts the entire T’ang empire and extends its range into the barbarian world beyond China’s borders, showing the seven main trade routes with other parts of Asia. 

T’ang pottery: 7th – 9th century

T’ang is the first dynasty from which sufficient pottery survives for a Chinese style to become widely known in modern times. The surviving pieces are almost exclusively ceramic figures found in tombs. They represent the animals (particularly horses, but also camels) and the servants and attendants needed by the dead man in the next life. 

The eclectic nature of Chinese religion is well suggested in the range of attendants considered helpful. A general by the name of Liu Tingxun, buried at Loyang in 728, is accompanied by two Confucian officials, two Buddhist guardians and two ferocious-looking earth spirits of a more Daoist disposition. 

Vigorously realistic in style, with bright and often dappled glazes, T’ang horses and tomb figures are among the most delightful and recognizable of styles of pottery. 

But the T’ang potters make another contribution of much greater significance in ceramic history. They discover the technique of the thin white translucent ware known as porcelain. There is much argument about the date of the first porcelain, for there is no precise agreement on how to define it (it is most commonly described as white china so thin that it is translucent and makes a ringing sound when struck). Other definitions involve the relative proportions of ingredients such as kaolin and porcelain stone. 

Wares produced in north China during the T’ang dynasty, from as early as the 7th century, have the characteristics of porcelain. From the start they are widely appreciated. In a summer palace of the 9th century, far away on the Tigris at Samarra, broken fragments of T’ang porcelain have been found. The earliest known example of a foreigner marvelling at this delicate Chinese ware derives from the same century and region. 

In 851 a merchant by the name of Suleiman is recorded in Basra, at the mouth of the Tigris, as saying that the Chinese have ‘pottery of excellent quality, of which bowls are made as fine as glass drinking cups; the sparkle of water can be seen through it, although it is pottery. 

T’ang poetry: 7th – 9th century

Chinese poetry achieves its golden age during the T’ang dynasty. The ability to turn an elegant verse is so much part of civilized life that almost 50,000 poems (by some 2300 poets) survive from the period. 

Poetry is a social activity. Friends write stanzas for each other to commemorate an occasion, and competitive improvization is a favourite game at a party or on a picnic. Early in the dynasty news of a child prodigy, a girl of seven, reaches the court. She is brought before the empress and is asked to improvize on the theme of bidding farewell to her brothers. The Resulting poem, delivered in this alarming context, is brilliant – though no doubt polished in the telling. 

Chinese scholar officials, pleasantly torn between Confucianismand Daoism, write poetry when they are in their Daoist vein. Verses are composed when the official is on a journey with friends, or on holiday, or in temporary retirement in a thatched cottage in some delighful landscape. 

Most of the leading poets, though their inspiration lies among friends in the countryside, are also on the fringes of imperial court life. In this balance they echo to some extent the experience of Horace in imperial Rome. Like his short odes, the favourite T’ang form known as lü-shih (‘regulated verse’) is distinguished by its finely honed elegance. 

Wang Wei, Li Po and Tu Fu: 8th century

The three greatest T’ang poets are exact contemporaries in the early 8th century. One of them, Wang Wei, begins his career with a brilliant success in the official examinations but he rarely holds the high positions which this would normally imply (ssee Chinese examinations). More important to him is his villa in the mountains south of the capital city, at Wang-ch’uan. 

The beauty of the landscape inspires Wang Wei both as painter and poet. None of his paintings survive, but later Chinese landscapes reveal the closely related influence of the countryside in both art forms. A poet of the next dynasty writes of Wang Wei that there are pictures in his poems and poems in his pictures. 

The other two leading T’ang poets, Li Po and Tu Fu, are unsuccessful in the examinations (see Chinese examinations). Instead they regularly present poems to the imperial court in the hope of finding preferment. Occasionally they are successful. But both men, for much of their lives, lead a nomadic existence – supporting themselves on small farms, or lodging in Daoist monasteries. 

Nevertheless they are able to acquire great fame in their lifetime as poets, thanks to the extensive network of educated Chinese officialdom. In 744 (when Li is 43 and Tu 32) their paths cross for the first time, and the two poets become firm friends. Friendship and Chinese poetry are closely linked. 

The first printed book: 868

The earliest known printed book is Chinese, from the end of the T’ang dynasty. Discovered in a cave at Dunhuang in 1899, it is a precisely dated document which brings the circumstances of its creation vividly to life. 

It is a scroll, 16 feet long and a foot high, formed of sheets of paper glued together at their edges. The text is that of the Diamond Sutra, and the first sheet in the scroll has an added distinction. It is the world’s first printed illustration, depicting an enthroned Buddha surrounded by holy attendants. In a tradition later familiar in religious art of the west, a small figure kneels and prays in the foreground. He is presumably the donor who has paid for this holy book. 

The name of the donor, Wang Chieh, is revealed in another device which later becomes traditional in early printed books in the west. The details of publication are given in a colophon (Greek for ‘finishing stroke’) at the end of the text. This reveals that the scroll is a work of Buddhist piety, combined with the filial obligations of good Confucian ideals: ‘Printed on 11 May 868 by Wang Chieh, for free general distribution, in order in deep reverence to perpetuate the memory of his parents.’ 

The printing of Wang Chieh’s scroll is of a high standard, so it must have had many predecessors. But the lucky accident of the cave at Dunhuang has given his parents a memorial more lasting than he could have imagined possible. 

The T’ang in decline: 751-906

With the exception of printing, the great T’ang achievements take place in the first half of the dynasty. This is a repetitive pattern of Chinese history, for the vigour of the founding emperor of a dynasty – a self-made man – can rarely be matched by descendants who grow up in a palace environment, pampered by eunuchs and shielded from practical experience. 

The T’ang are also unfortunate in their neighbours. For the first time since communication with the west is established, during the Han dynasty, there is an expansionist new power beyond the Himalayas. The Arabs, with their Muslim faith, have the vitality traditionally considered in China to be characteristic of a new dynasty. 

The Arabs and the Chinese: 751-758

By the mid-8th century, with the Arabs firmly in control of central Asia and the Chinese pressing further west than ever before, a clash is sooner or later inevitable. It comes, in 751, at the Talas river. The result is a shattering defeat for the Chinese. For the Arabs an interesting fringe benefit of victory is the valuable secret of how to make paper. 

Seven years later the Arabs again demonstrate their strength with an impertinent gesture at the opposite extreme of the Chinese empire. Arriving in 758 along the trade route of the south China coast, they loot and burn Canton. 

The rebellion of An Lu-shan: 755

Between the two Arab incursions, the T’ang administration is gravely weakened by the rebellion of an army commander serving on the northwest frontier. In 755 An Lu-shan marches east and captures both the western and eastern capitals, at Xi’an and Loyang. The emperor flees ignominiously. 

Two years later An Lu-shan is murdered by his own son. But the weakened condition of the empire is soon demonstrated again. In 763 the emperor is unable to prevent an invading Tibetan force from briefly capturing Xi’an. 

Eunuchs and warlords, Daoists and Buddhists

The T’ang dynasty never again recovers its former strength. The next century and a half is characterized by violent struggles between powerful groups. One such clash is between the eunuchs who run the imperial palace, and who are now increasingly given command over the palace armies, and the regional governors controlling troops in the provinces. 

Another clash is between Daoists and Buddhists. In recent centuries the Buddhists have been the more favoured of the Daoists, an older indigenous sect by now jealous of the foreign upstarts, seek to influence the emperors against their rivals. 

In 845 the Daoist campaign is finally and decisively successful. The emperor initiates a purge in which 4000 Buddhist monasteries are destroyed, together with many more shrines and temples. A quarter of a million monks and nuns are forced back into secular life. 

Soon lawless provincial armies and popular unrest combine to make the country ungovernable. Rebellious peasants occupy Xi’an in 881. In 903 a surviving leader of that peasant uprising captures the emperor and kills him with all his eunuchs. Three years later he sets up a dynasty of his own with his capital at Kaifeng. A succession of similar warlords follow his example in a chaotic 50-year span known as the Five Dynasties.

The Song empire: 960-1279

The rapid succession of the Five Dynasties is brought to an end by a warlord who wins power in960. He establishes the sixth in the sequence on a more firm footing, as the Song dynasty. He does so by reducing the power of regional commanders (keeping the best regiments under his own command at the centre) and by giving greater authority to the civilian administration. 

As a result this is the heyday of the Confucians. Ever since the Han dynasty, scholar officials have supposedly been selected by merit in the civil-service exams (see Chinese examinations). But heredity and corruption have often frustrated this intention, reserving the jade insignia of office for the families of the powerful rather than the talented. 

Now, under the Song emperors, the search for talent becomes rigorous. As an early Song ruler puts it, ‘bosoms clothed in coarse fabrics may carry qualities of jade’, and he is determined that such bosoms shall not ‘remain unknown’. 

The result is a China weaker in military terms than its predecessors but of greater sophistication. The territory controlled by the Song emperors is gradually reduced under pressure from less civilized intruders, particularly from the north. But enough remains to be the basis of a strong economy and a rich urban culture.

Kublai Khan and the Yüan dynasty of China: 1252-79

From 1252 Kublai presses south through the mountainous western regions of China, into Szechwan and Yünnan. His attention is distracted by the death of his brother, the great khan Mangu, in 1259. Kublai is elected khan in his place by the Mongol nobles campaigning with him in China. But the same position is claimed by a younger brother, Ariq Böge, at Karakorum. 

Kublai defeats his brother in 1264. As Kublai Khan, ruler of the Mongol empire, he is now free to give his full attention to China. In 1267 he reveals the seriousness of his ambitions when he moves the imperial capital south from Karakorum to Beijing – a town severely damaged by his grandfather, Genghis Khan, in 1215. 

Kublai Khan builds himself a magnificent city at Beijing. Its walls are 24 miles in circumference and some 50 feet high. The Mongols call it Khanbaliq, the ‘city of the Khan’; and under a version of this name, as Cambaluc, it becomes famous even in Europe.

The Ming dynasty: 1368-1644

Kublai Khan‘s grandson and successor, Timur, contrives to keep order in the empire for a few years after the great khan’s death in 1294. But a series of disasters in the early 14th century unsettles the dynasty. A civil war between rival Mongol princes breaks out in 1328. There is widespread famine. Disastrous floods cause armies of peasants to be press-ganged into heavy work on the river defences. Rebel bands begin to wreak havoc, demanding the ejection of the foreigners and the restoration of a Chinese dynasty. 

The leader of one such band is a Buddhist monk, of peasant origin, by the name of Zhu Yuanzhang. In 1356 Zhu succeeds in capturing a town which he renames Nanjing, ‘southern capital’. 

In 1368 Zhu marches to seize the northern capital, Beijing. The Mongols flee north to the steppes, and Zhu announces the start of a new dynasty with himself as emperor. Like the Mongols, with their choice of Ta Yüan, he gives his dynasty a glorious name – Ming, meaning ‘brilliant’. 

Zhu inaugurates a custom of a similar kind which survives to the end of the Chinese empire. He chooses a congenial name for his reign – in this case Hung Wu, ‘vast military power’. Chinese emperors from this time onwards are known by the title of their reign. Zhu, the founder of the new dynasty, becomes the Hung Wu emperor – though the phrase is often now used as though Hung Wu were his own name. 

The new emperor turns out to be a strict disciplinarian. His officials must invariably run when in his presence, and misdemeanors are punished with public canings. Officials in Ming China are treated like prefects at an old-fashioned boarding school; the button on a mandarin‘s cap changes through nine different colours as he rises in the strict hierarchy of the civil service. It makes for a well-behaved but unenterprising society. 

One exception to the otherwise undynamic nature of the Ming dynasty is an expansion of China’s maritime trade.

The Qing dynasty: 1644-1912

Manchuria, the region north of Korea, has never been included within China. Its inhabitants, barbarians to the Chinese, are racially closer to their western neighbours, the Mongols. Nevertheless the Manchus themselves imitate and adopt many of the more sophisticated Chinese ways. So their eventual intervention in China brings no very abrupt change.

By the mid-17th century the Ming empire, nearly three centuries old, is enfeebled and decadent. Pampered emperors, rarely seen in public, leave practical matters in the hands of much-hated palace eunuchs. Peasant uprisings, characteristic of the end of Chinese dynasties, become frequent. 

In 1644 a rebel band captures Beijing. The Ming emperor hangs himself in a pavilion on a private hill overlooking his great palace, the Forbidden City. The Ming commander in the north invites the neighbouring barbarians, the Manchus, to help him in recovering the imperial city. They do so, and then keep it for themselves.

The Manchu hereditary chieftain is a boy of six. His people now establish him as the Son of Heaven (the official title of a Chinese emperor). But it is evident that this is a development planned during his father’s reign. The Manchus, already the conquerors of Korea, have declared the start of a new Chinese-style dynasty in 1636. They have chosen the name Qing, meaning ‘pure’.

The Qing conquest of the whole of China is complete by 1683. The conquerors insist on one change emphasizing the dominance of a new group. All Chinese men are now required to shave part of the head, leaving a long pigtail (known as a queue) hanging down behind.

The first century of the Qing dynasty is a time of prosperity and expansion. Chinese rule extends north of the Great Wall from Turkestan in the west to Manchuria in the east. Tibet is brought under Chinese protection. Taiwan is colonized. This great empire, in its wealth and sophistication, is now of great interest to Europe. But it is the west which eventually causes the downfall of the Qing, China’s last imperial dynasty.

Ancient Korea

By 4000 BC there were stone age farmers living in Korea. By 1000 BC they had learned to use bronze. By about 300 BC they had learned to use iron to make tools and weapons. At first Korea was divided into tribes but eventually organised kingdoms emerged. There were 3 of them, Goguryeo in the north and Silla and Baekje in the south. According to legend Silla was founded in 57 BC by Bak Hyeokgeose, Jumong founded Goguryeo in 37 BC and Onjo founded Baekje in 18 BC. In reality the 3 kingdoms emerged later between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD. These 3 kingdoms were heavily influenced by Chinese civilization. By the 4th century they were highly civilized.

The three kingdoms of Korea fought for supremacy. China tried to defeat the northern kingdom of Goguryeo twice. Both times they were defeated by General Eulji Mundeok. However the Chinese then made an alliance with the Silla kingdom against the other two. The Baekje kingdom was defeated by 660 AD and became part of Silla. Goguryeo followed in 668. Korea was then united under the Silla.

The Silla in Korea (668-935)

Although Korea was united under one monarch it was still largely a tribal society. This was underlined by the existence of the hwabaek. Originally they were a council of tribal leaders. Later they were a council of nobles and they had the power to decide who succeeded to the throne.

Korean society was strictly hierarchical. Most of the population were serfs and even the nobility were divided into ranks. Following the Chinese example a university was formed where Confucian classics were taught. (You had to be of noble birth to study there). There were also civil service exams following the Chinese model. (Again only those of noble birth could take them).

Buddhism was introduced into Korea in the 4th century AD and soon many Buddhist temples were built.

In the late 8th century AD the Silla kingdom began to break down. There were fights over the succession to the throne. Moreover local warlords began to break away from the government in the capital, Gyeongju, and formed their own states. One warlord called Wang Geon formed a state called Goryeo in 918. He defeated his rivals and in 935 became ruler of Silla.

The Goryeo in Korea (918-1392)

The Goryeo kingdom was faced with aggressive neighbors. A people called the Jurchens conquered north China and frequently fought the Koreans. Then China fell to the Mongols. They soon turned their attention to Korea and they invaded in 1231. The Korean royal family fled to the island of Ganghwa. The Mongols were unable to take the island but they were able to rampage throughout mainland Korea.

However the Koreans fought back and the Mongols were never able to completely subdue Korea. Finally in 1258 the Korean royal family surrendered. They were allowed to remain as puppet rulers.

In the 13th century the Chinese philosophy called Neo-Confucianism arrived in Korea. This was also an age when exquisite celadon pottery was made. A man named Kim Bu-sik wrote a history of Korea called Samguk Sagi, The History of the Three Kingdoms. However the Goryeo dynasty was in decline. In 1392 a General named Yi Seong-gye was ordered to lead an army against the Ming rulers of China. Instead he turned against his own ruler. The general became the new king of Korea.

The Joseon in Korea (1392-1910)

The king moved the capital to Hanseong (Seoul) in 1394. Under the Yi rulers Confucianism was made the official religion of Korea. Buddhism lost its influence. In 1443 king Sejong created a native Korean alphabet.

In Korea there was a class of scholars-officials called the yangban. In order to join the civil service or to become an army officer you had to pass certain exams in Confucian thought. In order to take the exams you had to be the son of a yangban. So the scholar-official class were hereditary. Below the yangban were a class of clerks and specialists like doctors and accountants. They were called the jungin (middle-men). Below them Was the great mass of Korean society called the yangmin. They were peasants, craftsmen and merchants. Certain trades such as butchers, tanners and entertainers were outcasts. At the bottom of the pile were slaves.

Japan invaded Korea in 1592. They prevailed on land but at sea they were defeated by Admiral Yi Sun-sin. The Japanese were forced to withdraw. They invaded again in 1597 but they withdrew in 1598.

In the 17th century Korea suffered from factionalism among its ruling class. Silhak (practical learning). Scholars discussed the practical ways of solving Korea’s problems rather than purely abstract ideas.

In the 18th century the kings clamped down on factionalism. In Korea trade and commerce flourished. Merchants had low status in Korean society. Confucianism regarded them with suspicion since they did not actually produce anything, unlike peasants and craftsmen.

The first contact with Europeans came in 1656 when a Dutch ship was shipwrecked off the coast of Korea. Then in the 18th century Jesuit priests traveled to China. Koreans visiting China met them and by the end of the 18th century some Koreans had been converted to Catholicism. The new religion slowly spread in Korea despite waves of persecution in 1801, 1839 and 1866.

In the 1850s a new religion spread among the peasants. It was called Donghak (Eastern learning) and it was led by Choe Je-u. The peasants were discontented in the 19th century and in 1864 there was a rebellion. The rebellion was crushed and Choe Je-u was executed.

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Europeans Arrive In Korea

During the 19th century Korea adopted an isolationist policy. The Koreans refused to trade with Westerners. At first this policy was successful. Some French priests were killed in Korea in 1866. The French sent a gunboat to avenge them but they were driven off by Korean shore defenses. In 1871 Koreans burned a US ship called the General Sherman which came to plunder the coast. The USA sent ships to Korea but they too were fought off.

However Korea’s policy of isolation meant she fell behind other countries in technology and industry. After 1880 king Gojong attempted reform. In 1882 he introduced the slogan ‘eastern ethics, western technology’ but his measures were unpopular and were resisted by conservative officials and by the ordinary people. Confucianism was a very conservative religion or philosophy and made radical change difficult.

Until 1876 Japanese merchants were only allowed to trade in Busan. In that year they forced the Koreans to sign a treaty of trade and friendship. (King Gojong realized that Korea was too weak to fight them). Other ports were opened to the Japanese. There were to be no tariffs on Japanese goods. The treaty stated that Japan and Korea were independent nations. However Japan had increasing power and influence over the Koreans.

Korea signed a similar trade treaty with the USA 1882. This was followed by treaties with Britain and Germany the same year. In 1884 she signed a trade treaty with Russia and in 1886 with France.

In 1882 some soldiers in Imo rebelled. They burned the Japanese legation and killed the Japanese military adviser. Korea was forced to pay compensation to the Japanese and signed a new treaty, the Treaty of Jemulpo, which increased Japanese influence. Furthermore the Chinese used the uprising as an excuse to station their troops on Korean territory.

In 1894 members of the Donghak religion and discontented peasants rose in rebellion. They insisted they were loyal to the king but they demanded certain reforms. The king appealed to the Chinese for help and they sent troops. Japan also sent troops. The king then made a truce with the rebels but the Japanese refused to leave. China and Japan then fought a war, which Japan won easily. For centuries Korea was a ‘tributary’ state of China. Chinese influence was now ended and Japan began to dominate Korea.

The Japanese installed a regent to rule and under Japanese pressure a Deliberative Council was formed to introduce reforms. From July 1894 to December 1895 the Council swept away much of Korean tradition. There were many Koreans who wanted some reform but the Japanese forced them to introduce these reforms anyway. The regent resigned in October 1894 but the king made no attempt to stop the reforms.

The old rigid division of Korean society into classes was abolished. In the past the Yangban, the scholar-official class, were not allowed to be involved in trade. Now they were free to engage in business. The old civil service exams based on Confucian thought was abolished. New exams were introduced based on modern subjects. A new curriculum was introduced for schools with modern subjects. Slavery was abolished. Widows were now allowed to remarry and child marriage was abolished.

While all this was being done the Donghak started a second rebellion. They were crushed by the Japanese and the movement was destroyed. Their leader was captured and executed in 1895. Some further reforms were undertaken in the years 1895-1910. The first modern textile mill in Korea was built in 1897 and the first railway, from Seoul to Incheon, was built in 1901. However Korea remained an overwhelmingly agricultural nation.

By 1900 there were many Protestant missionaries in Korea. By 1910 there was a small but rapidly growing number of converts.

Increasingly Korea fell under Japanese domination. In Korea was made a Japanese ‘protectorate’ which meant that Japan now controlled Korean foreign policy and its relations with other countries. Then in 1907 Korea was forced to accept limited Japanese control of its internal affairs and the Korean army were disbanded. A Japanese official was sent to run things. He was assassinated in 1909. That gave the Japanese an excuse to annex Korea which they did in 1910.

The Colonial Period in Korea (1910-1945)

The Japanese turned Korea into a colony to supply Japan with food. However they also built bridges, railways and roads. The Japanese also built many factories in Korea. The urban population grew rapidly although Korea remained predominantly agricultural. Nevertheless Japanese rule was repressive. In 1919 many Koreans took part in peaceful demonstrations for independence. The Japanese responded by arresting and executing thousands of people.

Afterwards they made some small reforms. The Koreans were allowed to print newspapers and hold meetings. They were also granted religious freedom and more respect was shown to Korean customs.

However all these reforms were superficial and in the 1930s the Japanese tried to assimilate the Koreans by persuading them to adopt Japanese names. From 1938 education was only in Japanese. Schoolchildren were forbidden to speak Korean. The Japanese also tried to persuade the Koreans to adopt Shinto (the Japanese national religion) without much success. During World War II many Koreans either volunteered or were forced to work in Japan. However Japanese attempts to turn Korea into part of Japan were ended in 1945 when they surrendered to the allies.

The Korean War

Even before the war ended Russia and the USA had agreed that after the war Korea would be divided into two zones, Russian and American. In August 1945 Russian troops entered the north. In September, after the Japanese surrender, American troops landed in the south. Korea was divided in two along an imaginary line, the 38th parallel. It was originally intended that the two zones would eventually be united into one. Of course that did not happen. With the onset of the cold war the divide between them hardened. The Russians installed a communist government in the north and in the south a government was elected in 1948. Korea became two countries, one Communist, and one Democratic.

The North Korean army invaded the south on 25 June 1950. They quickly drove south and captured Seoul. The UN Security Council invited members to help the south. US troops arrived on 30 June but they were forced to withdraw into the area around Busan. The first British troops arrived in Korea on 29 August 1950. On 15 September other US troops landed at Incheon 150 miles north of Busan. The soldiers in the Busan area broke out and pushed north and linked up with the troops in Incheon on 26 September. On the same day allied troops liberated Seoul. United Nations troops then pushed the communists back over the 38th parallel and by 24 November they controlled about 2/3 of North Korea.

However the Chinese then intervened. Strengthened by Chinese 180,000 troops the communists then counter-attacked and drove the allies south. By the end of 1950 the allies were back at the 38th parallel. The communists attacked again on 1 January 1951. The allies counter-attacked on 25 January and on 14 March they again liberated Seoul. Several communist offensives followed but all of them were repulsed. The war ended in a stalemate and on 27 July 1953 a cease-fire was signed. The 38th parallel was once again the border between the two countries.

South Korea In The Late 20th Century

Democracy did not flourish in South Korea in the 1950s. The president, Syngman Rhee used a national security law of 1949 to close newspapers and imprison critics. However his administration was corrupt and by 1960 it was facing growing economic problems. In 1960 riots by students forced Rhee to resign. Faced with inflation, unemployment and continuing riots the army staged a coup in 1961. General Park Chung-hee became ruler.

The South Korean Economic Miracle

At first the general declared martial law but in 1963 he held presidential elections and won. Nevertheless his rule was repressive. He won a second election in 1967. The General won a third election in 1971 by only by a small margin. Afterwards he drew up a new constitution which gave him more power. He was assassinated in October 1979.

Despite repressive rule South Korea’s economy began to grow rapidly from the mid 1960s and by the 1990s the country had undergone an economic miracle. It was transformed from a poor, relatively undeveloped country into a thriving and rich economy. The state played a large part in the transformation. In the 1960s General Park built roads and bridges and expanded education. A series of 5 year plans were drawn up and the government took a central role in running the economy. Industry became dominated by large corporations called Chaebol.

After the assassination of General Park in 1979 the army again stepped in to restore order. General Chun Doo-hwan took power in May 1980. He declared martial law and arrested his opponents. Demonstrations against him were held in the city of Gwangju. They were led by students. The army crushed the protests by force, killing hundreds of people.

In the 1980s the Korean economy continued to grow and the country climbed out of poverty. South Korea became an affluent society. In 1988 the Olympics were held in Seoul which brought South Korea into the international limelight. However from the mid 1980s there was increasing unrest in South Korea led by students unhappy with the regime. In 1987 Christian leaders spoke out against the regime and many people held mass demonstrations. General Chun agreed to step down and democratic elections were held. In 1988 General Roh Tae-woo was elected president.

By the 1990s South Korea had become a fairly rich nation and its people had quite a high standard of living. It was also a democratic country. In the 1990s the government began to deregulate industry.

North Korea In The Late 20th Century

In stark contrast is North Korea. After Russian troops occupied the north a communist government was installed. Kim Il Sung was made ruler. Like many dictators he created a ‘cult of personality’ by erecting statues of himself everywhere. Schoolchildren were taught to see him as the fount of all wisdom. In fact he created a very repressive regime. Religious belief was outlawed and the people strictly controlled. Today North Korea is the last Stalinist regime in the world. With a great deal of Russian aid North Korea was transformed from a poor agricultural country into an industrial one.

However in the mid 1970s the economy began to stagnate and North Korea was overtaken by the south. Furthermore North Korea was harmed by the collapse of the Soviet Union. Kim Il Sung died in 1994 but was succeeded by his son. In effect the Communists have created a new dynasty. Kim Jong-Il. He died in 2011 and he was followed by his son Kim Jong Un.

In the late 1990s a severe famine occurred in North Korea. There were unusually heavy rain and floods in 1995-96, followed by a drought in 1997 and typhoon damage in 1997. Malnutrition became common especially among children. How many people died in the famine is not known.

Korea In The 21st Century

In 2008 a woman named Yi So Yeon became the first Korean to travel in space. Then in 2013 Park Geun Hye became the first woman president of South Korea. In 2018 there was a thaw in relations between North and South Korea. Today the population of North Korea is 25 million while the population of South Korea is 51 million.

early japan (until 710)

During the Jomon Period (13000 BC to 300 BC), the inhabitants of the Japanese islands were gatherers, fishers and hunters. Jomon is the name of the era’s pottery.

During the Yayoi Period (300 BC to 250 AD), the rice culture was imported into Japan around 100 BC. With the introduction of agriculture, social classes started to evolve, and parts of the country began to unite under powerful land owners. Chinese travellers during the Han and Wei dynasties reported that a queen called Himiko (or Pimiku) reigned over Japan at that time. The Yayoi period brought also the introduction of iron and other modern ideas from Korea into Japan. Again, its pottery gave the period its name.

By the beginning of the Kofun Period (250 – 538), a center of power had developed in the fertile Kinai plain, and by about 400 AD the country was united as Yamato Japan with its political center in and around the province of Yamato (about today’s Nara Prefecture). The period’s name comes from the large tombs (kofun) that were built for the political leaders of that era. Yamato Japan extended from Kyushu to the Kinai plain, but did not yet include the Kanto, Tohoku and Hokkaido.

The emperor was ruler of Yamato Japan and resided in a capital that was moved frequently from one city to another. However, the Soga clan soon took over the actual political power, resulting in a system in which most of the emperors only acted as the symbol of the state and performed Shinto rituals.

During the Asuka Period (538-710), the influence from the mainland increased strongly thanks to friendly relations to the kingdom of Kudara (or Paikche) on the Korean peninsula. Buddhism was introduced to Japan in the year 538 or 552 and was promoted by the ruling class. Prince Shotoku is said to have played an especially important role in promoting Chinese ideas. He also wrote the Constitution of Seventeen Articles about moral and political principles. The theories of Confucianism and Taoism, as well as the Chinese writing system had also been introduced to Japan by then.

In 645, Nakatomi no Kamatari started the era of the Fujiwara clan that was to last until the rise of the military class (samurai) in the 11th century. In the same year, the Taika reforms were realized: A new government and administrative system was established after the Chinese model. All land was bought by the state and redistributed equally among the farmers in a large land reform in order to introduce the new tax system that was also adopted from China.

Nara and Heian Periods (710 – 1185)

In the year 710, the first permanent Japanese capital was established in Nara, a city modelled after the Chinese capital. Large Buddhist monasteries were built in the new capital. The monasteries quickly gained such strong political influence that, in order to protect the position of the emperor and central government, the capital was moved to Nagaoka in 784, and finally to Heian (Kyoto) in 794 where it would remain for over one thousand years.

One characteristic of the Nara and Heian periods is a gradual decline of Chinese influence which, nevertheless, remained strong. Many of the imported ideas were gradually “Japanized”. In order to meet particular Japanese needs, several governmental offices were established in addition to the government system which was copied after the Chinese model, for example. In the arts too, native Japanese movements became increasingly popular. The development of the Kana syllablesmade the creation of actual Japanese literature possible. Several new Buddhist sects that were imported from China during the Heian period, were also “Japanized”.

Among the worst failures of the Taika reforms were the land and taxation reforms: High taxes resulted in the impoverishment of many farmers who then had to sell their properties and became tenants of larger land owners. Furthermore, many aristocrats and the Buddhist monasteries succeeded in achieving tax immunity. As a result, the state income decreased, and over the centuries, the political power steadily shifted from the central government to the large independent land owners.

The Fujiwara family controlled the political scene of the Heian period over several centuries through strategic intermarriages with the imperial family and by occupying all the important political offices in Kyoto and the major provinces. The power of the clan reached its peak with Fujiwara Michinaga in the year 1016. After Michinaga, however, the ability of the Fujiwara leaders began to decline, and public order could not be maintained. Many land owners hired samurai for the protection of their properties. That is how the military class became more and more influential, especially in Eastern Japan.

The Fujiwara supremacy came to an end in 1068 when the new emperor Go-Sanjo was determined to rule the country by himself, and the Fujiwara failed to control him. In the year 1086 Go-Sanjo abdicated but continued to rule from behind the political stage. This new form of government was called Insei government. Insei emperors exerted political power from 1086 until 1156 when Taira Kiyomori became the new leader of Japan.

In the 12th century, two military families with aristocratic backgrounds gained much power: the Minamoto (or Genji) and Taira (or Heike) families. The Taira replaced many Fujiwara nobles in important offices while the Minamoto gained military experience by bringing parts of Northern Honshu under Japanese control in the Early Nine Years War (1050 – 1059) and the Later Three Years war (1083 – 1087).

After the Heiji Rising (1159), a struggle for power between the two families, Taira Kiyomori evolved as the leader of Japan and ruled the country from 1168 to 1178 through the emperor. The major threats with which he was confronted were not only the rivalling Minamoto but also the increasingly militant Buddhist monasteries which frequently led wars between each other and disturbed public order.

After Kiyomori’s death, the Taira and Minamoto clans fought a deciding war for supremacy, the Gempei War, which lasted from 1180 to 1185. By the end of the war, the Minamoto were able to put an end to Taira supremacy, and Minamoto Yoritomosucceeded as the leader of Japan. After eliminating all of his potential and acute enemies, including close family members, he was appointed Shogun (highest military officer) and established a new government in his home city Kamakura.

Kamakura Period (1192 – 1333)

In 1185, the Minamoto family took over the control over Japan after defeating the Taira clan in the Gempei war. Minamoto Yoritomo established a new military government, the Kamakura Bakufu, in Kamakura and was appointed shogun in the year 1192.

After Yoritomo’s death in 1199, quarrels for supremacy started between the Kamakura Bakufu and the Imperial court in Kyoto. Those quarrels for supremacy found an end in the Jokyu disturbance in 1221 when Kamakura defeated the Imperial army in Kyoto, and the Hojo regents in Kamakura achieved complete control over Japan. By redistributing the land gained during the Jokyu disturbance, they were able to achieve loyalty among all the powerful people throughout the country. The emperor and the remaining governmental offices in Kyoto lost practically all effective power.

Chinese influence continued to be relatively strong during the Kamakura period. New Buddhist sects were introduced: the Zen sect (introduced 1191) found large numbers of followers among the samurai, which were now the leading social class. Another new Buddhist sect, the radical and intolerant Lotus Sutra sect was founded in 1253 by Nichiren.

In 1232 a legal code, the Joei Shikimoku was promulgated. It stressed Confucianvalues such as the importance of loyalty to the master, and generally attempted to suppress a decline of morals and discipline. Tight control was maintained by the Hojo clan, and any signs of rebellions were destroyed immediately.

The shogun stayed in Kamakura without much power while deputies of him were located in Kyoto and Western Japan. Stewards and constables controlled the provinces tightly and loyally. Indeed, the Hojo regents were able to bring several decades of peace and economic expansion to the country until an external power began to threaten Japan.

By 1259, the Mongols had conquered China and became also interested in Japan. Several threatening messages of the powerful Mongols were ignored by Kamakura. This resulted in the first Mongol invasion attempt in 1274 on the island of Kyushu. After only a few hours of fighting, however, the large naval invasion fleet, was forced to pull back because of bad weather conditions. This was very fortunate for the Japanese since their odds against the large and modern Mongol force were not favourable at all.

Due to good preparations, the Japanese were able to maintain a strong defence for several weeks during a second invasion attempt which occurred in 1281. But again, the Mongols were finally forced to withdraw mainly because of bad weather. Kyushu remained in alert for a possible third invasion attempt, but the Mongols soon had too many problems on the mainland in order to care about Japan.

The consequences of the many years of war preparations against the Mongols were fatal to the Kamakura government since they resulted only in expenditures and no profits. Many of the loyal men who were fighting for Kamakura, were now waiting for rewards that the government could not pay. Hence, financial problems and decreasing loyalty among the powerful lords were some of the reasons for the fall of the Kamakura government.

By 1333 the power of the Hojo regents had declined to such a degree that the emperor Go-Daigo was able to restore imperial power and overthrow the Kamakura Bakufu.

Muromachi Period (1333 – 1573)

The emperor Go-Daigo was able to restore imperial power in Kyoto and to overthrow the Kamakura Bakufu in 1333. However, the revival of the old imperial offices under the Kemmu restoration (1334) did not last for long because the old administration system was out of date and practice, and incompetent officials failed gaining the support of the powerful landowners.

Ashikaga Takauji, once fighting for the emperor, now challenged the imperial court and succeeded in capturing Kyoto in 1336. Go-Daigo, consequently, fled to Yoshino in the South of Kyoto where he founded the Southern court. At the same time, another emperor was appointed in Kyoto. This was possible because of a succession dispute that had been going on between two lines of the imperial family since the death of emperor Go-Saga in 1272.

In 1338 Takauji appointed himself shogun and established his government in Kyoto. The Muromachi district where the government buildings were located from 1378 gave the government and the historical period their names.

Two imperial courts existed in Japan for over 50 years: the Southern and Northern courts. They fought many battles against each other. The Northern court usually was in a more advantageous position; nevertheless, the South succeeded in capturing Kyoto several times for short time periods resulting in the destruction of the capital on a regular basis. The Southern court finally gave in in 1392, and the country became emperor-wise reunited again.

During the era of Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1368 – 1408), the Muromachi Bakufu was able to control the central provinces, but gradually lost its influence over outer regions. Yoshimitsu established good trade relations with Ming China. Domestic production also increased through improvements in agriculture and the consequences of a new inheritance system. These economic changes resulted in the development of markets, several kinds of towns and new social classes.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, the influence of the Ashikaga shoguns and the government in Kyoto declined to practically nothing. The political newcomers of the Muromachi period were members of land owning, military families (ji-samurai). By first cooperating and then surpassing provincial constables, a few of them achieved influence over whole provinces. Those new feudal lords were to be called daimyo. They exerted the actual control over the different parts of Japan, and continuously fought against each other for several decades during the complicated age of civil wars (Sengoku jidai). Some of the most powerful lords were the Takeda, Uesugi and Hojo in the East, and Ouchi, Mori, and Hosokawa in the West.

In 1542 the first Portuguese traders and Jesuit missionaries arrived in Kyushu, and introduced firearms and christianity to Japan. The Jesuit Francis Xavier undertook a mission to Kyoto in 1549-50. Despite Buddhist opposition, most of the Western warlords welcomed Christianity because they were keen in trade with overseas nations mainly for military reasons.

By the middle of the 16th century, several of the most powerful warlords were competing for control over the whole country. One of them was Oda Nobunaga. He made the first big steps towards unification of Japan by capturing Kyoto in 1568 and overthrowing the Muromachi bakufu in 1573.

Please read more about the rise of Nobunaga and the developments in the Azuchi-Momoyama period here.

Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1573 – 1603)

Oda Nobunaga achieved control over the province of Owari (around the modern city of Nagoya) in 1559. As many other daimyo, he was keen in uniting Japan. Strategically favorably located, he succeeded in capturing the capital in 1568.

After establishing himself in Kyoto, Nobunaga continued to eliminate his enemies. Among them were some militant Buddhist sects, especially the Ikko sect (Pure Land Sect) which had become very powerful in several provinces. Nobunaga destroyed the Enryakuji monastery near Kyoto completely in 1571. His fight against the Ikko sect continued until 1580.

Rather fortunate was Nobunaga concerning two of his most dangerous rivals in the East: Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin. Both of them died before they were able to confront Nobunaga. After Shingen’s death, Nobunaga defeated the Takeda clan in the battle of Nagashino (1575), making use of modern warfare.

In 1582, general Akechi murdered Nobunaga and captured his Azuchi castle. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a general fighting for Nobunaga, reacted very quickly, defeated Akechi, and took over control. Hideyoshi continued to eliminate remaining rivals. He subdued the Northern provinces and Shikoku in 1583 and Kyushu in 1587. After defeating the Hojo family in Odawara in 1590, Japan was finally reunited.

In order to bring the country under absolute control, Hideyoshi destroyed many castles that were built throughout the country during the era of civil wars. In 1588 he confiscated the weapons of all the farmers and religious institutions in the “Sword Hunt”. He forbade the samurai to be active as farmers and forced them to move into the castle towns. A clear distinction between the social classes should increase the government’s control over the people. In addition, a land survey was started in 1583, and a census carried out in 1590. In the same year, Hideyoshi’s large castle, the Osaka Castle, was completed.

In 1587, Hideyoshi issued an edict expelling Christian missionaries. Nevertheless, Franciscans were able to enter the country in 1593, and the Jesuits remained active in Western Japan. In 1597 Hideyoshi intensified the persecution of Christian missionaries, forbade further conversions, and executed 26 Franciscans as a warning. Foreign traders and missionaries had acted aggressively and intolerant towards native Japanese institutions in an era when their fellow countrymen were conquering and colonizing other parts of the world in the name of Christianity.

After uniting the country, Hideyoshi attempted to realize his rather megalomaniac dream of conquering China. In 1592, his armies invaded Korea and captured Seoul within a few weeks; however, they were pushed back again by Chinese and Korean forces in the following year. Hideyoshi stubbornly didn’t give in until the final evacuation from Korea in 1598, the same year in which he died.

Tokugawa Ieyasu, who had been an intelligent partner of Hideyoshi and Nobunaga, succeeded Hideyoshi as the most powerful man of Japan.

Edo Period (1603 – 1868)

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the most powerful man in Japan after Hideyoshi had died in 1598. Against his promises he did not respect Hideyoshi’s successor Hideyori because he wanted to become the absolute ruler of Japan.

In the battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Ieyasu defeated the Hideyori loyalists and other Western rivals. Hence, he achieved almost unlimited power and wealth. In 1603, Ieyasu was appointed Shogun by the emperor and established his government in Edo (Tokyo). The Tokugawa shoguns continued to rule Japan for a remarkable 250 years.

Ieyasu brought the whole country under tight control. He cleverly redistributed the gained land among the daimyo: more loyal vassals (the ones who supported him already before Sekigahara) received strategically more important domains accordingly. The daimyo were also required to spend every second year in Edo. This meant a huge financial burden for the daimyo and moderated his power at home.

Ieyasu continued to promote foreign trade. He established relations with the English and the Dutch. On the other hand, he enforced the suppression and persecution of Christianity from 1614 on.

After the destruction of the Toyotomi clan in 1615 when Ieyasu captured Osaka Castle, he and his successors had practically no rivals anymore, and peace prevailed throughout the Edo period. Therefore, the warriors (samurai) were educating themselves not only in the martial arts but also in literature, philosophy and the arts, e.g. the tea ceremony.

In 1633, shogun Iemitsu forbade travelling abroad and almost completely isolated Japan in 1639 by reducing the contacts to the outside world to strongly regulated trade relations with China and the Netherlands in the port of Nagasaki. In addition, all foreign books were banned. Selected daimyo were also allowed to trade with Korea, the Ryukyu Kingdom and the Ainu in Hokkaido.

Despite the isolation, domestic trade and agricultural production continued to improve. During the Edo period and especially during the Genroku era (1688 – 1703), popular culture flourished. New art forms like kabuki and ukiyo-e became very popular especially among the townspeople.

The most important philosophy of Tokugawa Japan was Neo-Confucianism, stressing the importance of morals, education and hierarchical order in the government and society: A strict four class system existed during the Edo period: at the top of the social hierarchy stood the samurai, followed by the peasants, artisans and merchants. The members of the four classes were not allowed to change their social status. Outcasts, people with professions that were considered impure, formed a fifth class.

In 1720, the ban of Western literature was cancelled, and several new teachings entered Japan from China and Europe (Dutch Learning). New nationalist schools that combined Shinto and Confucianist elements also developed.

Even though the Tokugawa government remained quite stable over several centuries, its position was steadily declining for several reasons: A steady worsening of the financial situation of the government led to higher taxes and riots among the farm population. In addition, Japan regularly experienced natural disasters and years of famine that caused riots and further financial problems for the central government and the daimyo. The social hierarchy began to break down as the merchant class grew increasingly powerful while some samurai became financially dependent of them. In the second half of the era, corruption, incompetence and a decline of morals within the government caused further problems.

In the end of the 18th century, external pressure started to be an increasingly important issue, when the Russians first tried to establish trade contacts with Japan without success. They were followed by other European nations and the Americans in the 19th century. It was eventually Commodore Perry in 1853 and again in 1854 who forced the Tokugawa government to open a limited number of ports for international trade. However, the trade remained very limited until the Meiji restoration in 1868.

All factors combined, the anti-government feelings were growing and caused other movements such as the demand for the restoration of imperial power and anti western feelings, especially among ultra-conservative samurai in increasingly independently acting domains such as Choshu and Satsuma. Many people, however, soon recognized the big advantages of the Western nations in science and military, and favoured a complete opening to the world. Finally, also the conservatives recognized this fact after being confronted with Western warships in several incidents.

In 1867-68, the Tokugawa government fell because of heavy political pressure, and the power of Emperor Meiji was restored.

Meiji Period (1868 – 1912)

In 1867/68, the Tokugawa era found an end in the Meiji Restoration. The emperorMeiji was moved from Kyoto to Tokyo which became the new capital; his imperial power was restored. The actual political power was transferred from the Tokugawa Bakufu into the hands of a small group of nobles and former samurai.

Like other subjugated Asian nations, the Japanese were forced to sign unequal treaties with Western powers. These treaties granted the Westerners one-sided economical and legal advantages in Japan. In order to regain independence from the Europeans and Americans and establish herself as a respected nation in the world, Meiji Japan was determined to close the gap to the Western powers economically and militarily. Drastic reforms were carried out in practically all areas.

The new government aimed to make Japan a democratic state with equality among all its people. The boundaries between the social classes of Tokugawa Japan were gradually broken down. Consequently, the samurai were the big losers of those social reforms since they lost all their privileges. The reforms also included the establishment of human rights such as religious freedom in 1873.

In order to stabilize the new government, the former feudal lords (daimyo) had to return all their lands to the emperor. This was achieved already in 1870 and followed by the restructuring of the country in prefectures.

The education system was reformed after the French and later after the German system. Among those reforms was the introduction of compulsory education.

After about one to two decades of intensive westernization, a revival of conservative and nationalistic feelings took place: principles of Confucianism and Shinto including the worship of the emperor were increasingly emphasized and taught at educational institutions.

Catching up on the military sector was, of course, a high priority for Japan in an era of European and American imperialism. Universal conscription was introduced, and a new army modelled after the Prussian force, and a navy after the British one were established.

In order to transform the agrarian economy of Tokugawa Japan into a developed industrial one, many Japanese scholars were sent abroad to study Western science and languages, while foreign experts taught in Japan. The transportation and communication networks were improved by means of large governmental investments. The government also directly supported the prospering of businesses and industries, especially the large and powerful family businesses called zaibatsu.

The large expenditures led to a financial crisis in the middle of the 1880’s which was followed by a reform of the currency system and the establishment of the Bank of Japan. The textile industry grew fastest and remained the largest Japanese industry until WW2. Work conditions in the early factories were very bad, but developing socialist and liberal movements were soon suppressed by the ruling clique.

On the political sector, Japan received its first European style constitution in 1889. A parliament, the Diet was established while the emperor kept sovereignty: he stood at the top of the army, navy, executive and legislative power. The ruling clique, however, kept on holding the actual power, and the able and intelligent emperor Meiji agreed with most of their actions. Political parties did not yet gain real power due to the lack of unity among their members.

Conflicts of interests in Korea between China and Japan led to the Sino-Japanese War in 1894-95. Japan defeated China, received Taiwan, but was forced by Russia, France and Germany to return other territories. The so called Triple Intervention caused the Japanese army and navy to intensify their rearmament.

New conflicts of interests in Korea and Manchuria, this time between Russia and Japan, led to the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-05. The Japanese army also won this war gaining territory and finally some international respect. Japan further increased her influence on Korea and annexed her completely in 1910. In Japan, the war successes caused nationalism to increase even more, and other Asian nations also started to develop national self confidence.

In 1912 emperor Meiji died, and the era of the ruling clique of elder statesmen (genro) was about to end.

Taisho and early Showa Period (1912 – 1945)

During the era of the weak Emperor Taisho (1912-26), the political power shifted from the oligarchic clique (genro) to the parliament and the democratic parties.

In the First World War, Japan joined the Allied powers, but played only a minor role in fighting German colonial forces in East Asia. At the following Paris Peace Conference of 1919, Japan’s proposal of amending a “racial equality clause” to the covenant of the League of Nations was rejected by the United States, Britain and Australia. Arrogance and racial discrimination towards the Japanese had plagued Japanese-Western relations since the forced opening of the country in the 1800s, and were again a major factor for the deterioration of relations in the decades preceeding World War 2. In 1924, for example, the US Congress passed the Exclusion Act that prohibited further immigration from Japan.

After WW1, Japan’s economical situation worsened. The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and the world wide depression of 1929 intensified the crisis.

During the 1930s, the military established almost complete control over the government. Many political enemies were assassinated, and communists persecuted. Indoctrination and censorship in education and media were further intensified. Navy and army officers soon occupied most of the important offices, including the one of the prime minister.

Already earlier, Japan followed the example of Western nations and forced China into unequal economical and political treaties. Furthermore, Japan’s influence over Manchuria had been steadily growing since the end of the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05. When the Chinese Nationalists began to seriously challenge Japan’s position in Manchuria in 1931, the Kwantung Army (Japanese armed forces in Manchuria) occupied Manchuria. In the following year, “Manchukuo” was declared an independent state, controlled by the Kwantung Army through a puppet government. In the same year, the Japanese air force bombarded Shanghai in order to protect Japanese residents from anti Japanese movements.

In 1933, Japan withdrew from the League of Nations since she was heavily criticized for her actions in China.

In July 1937, the second Sino-Japanese War broke out. A small incident was soon made into a full scale war by the Kwantung army which acted rather independently from a more moderate government. The Japanese forces succeeded in occupying almost the whole coast of China and committed severe war atrocities on the Chinese population, especially during the fall of the capital Nanking. However, the Chinese government never surrendered completely, and the war continued on a lower scale until 1945.

In 1940, Japan occupied French Indochina (Vietnam) upon agreement with the French Vichy government, and joined the Axis powers Germany and Italy. These actions intensified Japan’s conflict with the United States and Great Britain which reacted with an oil boycott. The resulting oil shortage and failures to solve the conflict diplomatically made Japan decide to capture the oil rich Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) and to start a war with the US and Great Britain.

In December 1941, Japan attacked the Allied powers at Pearl Harbor and several other points throughout the Pacific. Japan was able to expand her control over a large territory that expanded to the border of India in the West and New Guinea in the South within the following six months.

The turning point in the Pacific War was the battle of Midway in June 1942. From then on, the Allied forces slowly won back the territories occupied by Japan. In 1944, intensive air raids started over Japan. In spring 1945, US forces invaded Okinawa in one of the war’s bloodiest battles.

On July 27, 1945, the Allied powers requested Japan in the Potsdam Declaration to surrender unconditionally, or destruction would continue. However, the military did not consider surrendering under such terms, partially even after US military forces dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, and the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan on August 8.

On August 14, however, Emperor Showa finally decided to surrender unconditionally.

Post War History (since 1945)

After World War II had ended, Japan was devastated. All the large cities (with the exception of Kyoto), the industries and the transportation networks were severely damaged. A severe shortage of food continued for several years.

The occupation of Japan by the Allied Powers started in August 1945 and ended in April 1952. General MacArthur was its first Supreme Commander. The whole operation was mainly carried out by the United States.

Japan basically lost all the territory acquired after 1894. In addition, the Kurile islands were occupied by the Soviet Union, and the Ryukyu Islands, including Okinawa, were controlled by the USA. Okinawa was returned to Japan in 1972, however a territorial dispute with Russia concerning the Kurile Islands has not been resolved yet.

The remains of Japan’s war machine were destroyed, and war crime trials were held. Over 500 military officers committed suicide right after Japan surrendered, and many hundreds more were executed for committing war crimes. Emperor Showa was not declared a war criminal.

A new constitution went into effect in 1947: The emperor lost all political and military power, and was solely made the symbol of the state. Universal suffrage was introduced and human rights were guaranteed. Japan was also forbidden to ever lead a war again or to maintain an army. Furthermore, Shinto and the state were clearly separated.

MacArthur also intended to break up power concentrations by dissolving the zaibatsu and other large companies, and by decentralizing the education system and the police. In a land reform, concentrations in land ownership were removed.

Especially during the first half of the occupation, Japan’s media was subject to a rigid censorship of any anti-American statements and controversial topics such as the race issue.

The co-operation between the Japanese and the Allied powers worked relatively smooth. Critics started to grow when the United States acted increasingly according to her self interests in the Cold War, reintroduced the persecution of communists, stationed more troops in Japan, and wanted Japan to establish an own self defence force despite the anti-war article in the constitution. Many aspects of the occupation’s so called “reverse course” were welcomed by conservative Japanese politicians.

With the peace treaty that went into effect in 1952, the occupation ended. Japan’s Self Defence Force was established in 1954, accompanied by large public demonstrations. Great public unrest was also caused by the renewal of the US-Japan Security Treaty of 1960.

After the Korean War, and accelerated by it, the recovery of Japan’s economyflourished. The economic growth resulted in a quick rise of the living standards, changes in society and the stabilization of the ruling position of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), but also in severe pollution.

Japan’s relations to the Soviet Union were normalized in 1956, the ones to China in 1972.

The 1973 oil crisis shocked the Japanese economy which was heavily depended on oil. The reaction was a shift to high technology industries.