Europe, Japan, and China

         A long time ago, on March 1st, I wrote about two kings. One was Ferdinand, the former king's brother, and one was Philip the second, the king's son. The former king, Charles the fifth, split his empire between the two of them. Ferdinand got his German land, and Philip got Spain and the Netherlands. This blog post is partly about Ferdinand and the 30 years war.
         When Ferdinand died, he gave his lands to his son, who gave them to his son, who gave them to his cousin. This was when a war began. At this time, Germany was full of little territories ruled by their own princes. Although each prince had to pay homage to the king, they got to decide whether their territories were Catholic or Protestant. However, Ferdinand the second, the new king, was a very devout Catholic. He wanted to have all his empire be Catholic, so he started to pass laws against Protestantism. The Protestant princes were not happy about this, and as the king wasn't even in Germany, this was a perfect time to start a rebellion. The king had left two officials in charge of the kingdom, and the army of Protestant subjects and princes welled into the palace where they were hiding and pushed the two out a window. Since the Latin word for "window" is "fenestra", the word "defenestration" is just a fancy way of saying "to push someone out a window." The rebelling Protestants stated that they were no longer under Ferdinand's rule. But when the king came back and convinced his allies in France and Spain to help him, the rebellion was crushed. Ferdinand also forced the princes to make him the Holy Roman Emperor. He took away the rebellious Protestant princes' land, and thought that would be the end of it. It wasn't.
         There were a few other Protestant princes that had not been part of the rebellion, but when they saw what had happened to the other territories, they got a little anxious. Would their land be next? England and Denmark, two other Protestant countries, were also worried. Germany had formed an alliance with Spain and France. Would the three Catholic countries also try to take control of their land?
          The king of Denmark gathered his forces and marched into Germany. Not only was he planning to help save the Protestants, it might be nice to have a little land in the bargain. But his plan failed. Ferdinand's forces crushed Denmark's, and then even took over the country itself.
          Denmark was right next to Sweden, and King Gustavus the second was getting worried, too. Would Ferdinand's forces try to attack Sweden? The king and his advisers all agreed it would be better to attack Ferdinand, then to have him attack them. The army joined forces with the other German Protestants. For awhile it looked like they would win the war, but then Gustavus was killed in battle and the army began to fall apart. Soon, the Protestants began to discuss peace. Slowly, a peace treaty was formed. But the war wasn't over yet. The Prime Minister of France declared war on Germany, seeking its land, and the war continued until finally, the heads of both sides died. A peace treaty, called the Peace of Westphalia, was cautiously declared. Even after that, Spain and France kept fighting for eleven more years. The 30 Years War was really the 41 Years War.

             Before the 30 Years War had even started, Europe was sending Catholic missionaries over to Japan. Some of the Japanese became Christians. Others hated the religion. They did not want to give up their Buddhist traditions. The emperor, Ieyasu, was puzzled by the new way of life. He did not know what to do. So he asked his Western advisor, who had come to Japan on a Dutch ship. William Adams was a Protestant, and he hated Catholicism. He told the emperor that he should watch out for the missionaries. When a Spanish ship docked in Japan, intending to make maps of the ports, he told Ieyasu that Spain was really trying to capture Japan. So Ieyasu made laws against Christian missionaries coming to Japan.
           When his son, Hidetada, came to the throne, he killed Christians and made more laws against them. His son, Ieymitsu  decreed that no Japanese person was allowed to travel farther than Korea, so as not to bring any foreign ideas back into Japan. Then, he closed Japan. No one could go out. No one could come in. No one could make ships big enough to sail across the ocean. Only the Protestant Dutch could trade with Japan. They could only send one ship each year. These laws caused a revolt, but it was soon crushed. A new kind of religion, Zen Buddhism, flourished. This religion believed that wisdom came from the inside.

In China, the Ming Dynasty was ruling, and failing. This dynasty came from southern China, where people called the Han Chinese lived. But not everybody was happy with this. A group of rowdy warriors, called the Manchu, set out to attack the Ming Empire. There was also another threat that was making China weak. There were over 160 million people in China, and there simply was not enough food to feed them all. One man, a post man, decided to set up his own government instead of the Ming government. He gathered an army of the discontented Chinese and marched up to the castle. However; he didn't need to fight. All the soldiers had either deserted or die of a plague. The Ming emperor killed himself, and the Ming Dynasty was over. But not all the Ming realized that. One Ming general sent a message to the Manchu, asking to form an alliance against " this rebel peasant and his army." The Manchu were happy to form an army against the peasants, but for a different reason. When they had defeated the mailman and his army, they set their own leader on the throne. The Manchu thought of themselves as better than the Han Chinese. They separated themselves from the Hans, and made them shave their heads as a sign of the authority of the Manchu. Finally, one Manchu emperor, K'ang-hsi, realized, right from the start, that there were more Han Chinese than Manchu Chinese, and so he made friends with them. He lowered their taxes, and even put some of them into his government. China became stronger and prospered under his rule.

Japan and Thanksgiving

              Today we know that there was really no "Northwest Passage" through America to China and Japan. But what if there was? You could sail straight through North America and come to the "Land of the Rising Sun." You would have reached Japan.
             While explorers were still searching for the "Northwest Passage" and setting up colonies in the new world, Japan was having a civil war. The emperor no longer had power over the land. Instead, noblemen called "Daimyo" ruled over different parts of Japan. Groups of Japanese soldiers called "Samurai" roamed around the countryside, fighting for whoever would pay them the most. The empire of Japan was divided. Then, a man named Toyotomi Hideyoshi united the country once again.
               Hideyoshi was no one important. He was a peddler with little money or possessions. He wasn't even handsome, and his wife called him "The Bald Rat." But then, Hideyoshi became a soldier in the army of an important nobleman, Nobunaga, who wanted to put all the pieces of Japan together under his rule. Hideyoshi was a loyal soldier, and he became Nobunaga's sandalbearer. Eventually, Hideyoshi was granted the title of "General", and he soon became the nobleman's favorite. But Nobunaga was killed in battle, and four different samurai stated that they would help his young grandson to rule. Each of them really only wanted the throne for himself. Hideyoshi gathered an army of 200,000 soldiers and smashed the rebellious samurais' armies to bits. He then went on to reunite all of Japan, but when he tried to take control of China, he failed, and died not long afterwards.
                While Hideyoshi was still alive, a man named Tokugawa Ieyasu was one of his most trusted helpers. However, he was trying to accumulate loyalty for himself, and when Hideyoshi died, he fought against Hideyori, the five year old heir to the throne. He won the fight, and established himself as "shogun." His capital city was named Edo, and now it is called Tokyo. He encouraged art, literature, and sumo wrestling. He took great measures to make sure the people in his kingdom were loyal to him. Eventually, Ieyasu captured and destroyed the fortress where Hideyori was hiding. Now the whole of Japan was under the rule of the "Tokugawa Shogunate," the family of Ieyasu.

                Imagine that you are a separatist in England, during the early1600's. You believe that the church of England should be purified from all that is Catholic - the candles, the priests, and the prayerbooks,- but it is not happening. You now have given up all hope that the church of England will ever be fully purified. So you separate yourself from the English Church and go to your own services. But King James makes you pay high taxes, and he doesn't let you use real church buildings. You have to meet in barns or stables. One man you know, named William Bradford, is so angry about this, that he and the other separatists have decided to go and live in Holland, where the Dutch welcomed the Protestants. However; when you get to Holland the children are starting to become Dutch! They forget their beliefs, and some go off to war while others go off to sea. The parents want their children to grow up to be good little English boys and girls, but here in Holland, that is near impossible.



William Bradford



                    So everyone gathers onto a ship named the Mayflower and you sail off to find a new life in the New World. The journey is long and hard, but the land is well worth the trip. All the colonists sign a contract called the Mayflower Contract, and then the men go off to explore. They find the perfect place, near cornfields, and next to a stream. All the colonists, including you, work hard, building log houses, but still the food is running low. Sometimes several colonists die in one day. But, soon, the Indians take pity on your starving colony. You make a treaty with the Indians that neither party will hurt the other. Squanto, a friendly native, who can speak English, teaches you how to plant corn. Thanksgiving is celebrated, with lots of food, contests, and peace. Life in America looks like it is off to a good start.

The English, Spanish, and the French were in the New World, but the Dutch were not. Instead, their country was prospering in Europe, with many schools, artists, and traders. One big Dutch company, The Dutch East India Company, sent ships to Asia, which came back with spices, silks, and many other rare items. Soon the Dutch became the most important sea traders in the world. But when they heard of the pelts and furs that could be found in the New World of America, they set up another big company, The Dutch West India Company. This company sent 30 families to live on the banks of the Hudson River and start a colony. The colonists traded beads, cloth, and knives in exchange for Manhattan Island. The Indians thought that the colonists would live on the island for a few years and then move somewhere else. They were wrong. The Dutch had no intention of moving now that they were setting up "New Amsterdam." The town flourished. People from everywhere on the globe came to trade with the Dutch. Imports from India and Africa helped the town grow into a big trading port. But the town was not in the best condition. It was falling apart. The Dutch West India Company tried sending other governors to try and control the town, but it was not use. Finally, they made one last effort. A man named Peter Suyvesant made new laws and enforced them. He repaired the town and ordered ministers to preach more on Sundays. Despite his wooden leg, Stuyvesant was a model governor. But the English colonies were pressing in on New Amsterdam, and eventually he had to surrender to the English soldiers that had surrounded his colony. Now all of the North American colonies were English. The English renamed the colony "New York", a name that has stuck to this day.