-
In 646 A.D., skilled warriors called the Samurai started to develop in Japan. The inprove supported an elaborate Chinese-style empire and resulted to small farmers selling their lands and work as tenant farmers.
-
The weak emperors of the Heian Dynasty (794-1185), in the 900’s, lost control of Japan. The country was driven by revolt. The emperor soon only had power in the capital. The warriors then moved in to fill in the power. The Samurai gained both military and political power over most of Japan.
-
When Emperor Toba died there was no successor, so the imperial line received a hard blow in its power in 1156. The Hogen Rebellion begins which is the Emperor’s sons, Sutoku and Go-Shirakawa, fought in a civil war for of Emperor. It didn't matter because they lost office soon after.
-
Kublai Khan, the ruler of Yuan China, wanted tribute from Japan. Kyoto refused and the Mongols attacked in 1274 with 600 ships but were destroyed by a typhoon. In the second invasion in 1281 they had the same problem.
-
The Ashikaga Shogunate under Ashikaga Takauji in 1336, brought back the rules of the samurai but it ended up weaker than the Kamakura period . Daimyo obtained a massive amount of power, messing with the shogunate's succession.
-
In 1467, the Onin War began. The war burned Kyoto to the ground. The war led directly to Japan's Warring States Period. Daimyo led their clans in a fight for national dominance.
-
The Sengoku came to end in 1568, when Oda Nobunaga(the warlord) defeated three other daimyo, marched into Kyoto, and made Yoshiaki into a shogun. Nobunaga spent the next 14 years try to defeat the other rivals.
-
Nobunaga was executed by his general named Akechi Mitsuhide in 1582. His other general Hideyoshi ruled as regent. In 1592 and 1597, Hideyoshi invaded Korea.
-
Hideyoshi had banished the Tokugawa clan from Kyoto to the Kanto region in western Japan. In 1598 the Taiko died, and Tokugawa Ieyasu had crushed the other western daimyo from his castle at Edo by 1600.
-
Meiji Restoration in, 1868, signaled the beginning of the end for the samurai. The Meiji Emperor did away with the samurai thanks to public support, and moved the capital from Kyoto to Tokyo.
-
The new government created a drafted army in 1873. Most of the officers were drawn from the ranks of former samurai. Angry ex-samurai revolted against the Meiji in the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877. They lost in the Battle of Shiroyama, and the samurai era came to an end.