Step 12 of 54
Tokugawa Japan
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- Period: Tokugawa Shogunate, 1603-1868
- Capital: Edo (modern Tokyo)
- Government: Feudal. The emperor was a ceremonial figure; real power was held by the shogun. Below the shogun, daimyo (regional lords) controlled domains using samurai retainers.
- Social hierarchy: Rigid four-tier class system: samurai, peasants, artisans, merchants. Mobility between classes was forbidden.
- Policy: Sakoku (the "closed country" policy). After 1635, almost all foreign contact was forbidden. Trade was restricted to a small Dutch outpost at Dejima in Nagasaki harbor and limited Chinese and Korean exchange.
- Significance: Two and a half centuries of internal peace and economic development. This created the conditions that allowed Japan to industrialize rapidly after being forced open in 1853-54 by Commodore Perry.
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