Japan In the Xvi Century

The greatest independence was acquired by Sakai, who did not pay anyone and had his own armed forces. But Japan has not achieved such a high degree of self-government as European free cities.

In the XVI century. Further growth of the country's economy took place, the mining industry-mining of gold, silver and copper, as well as the production of weapons, which were mainly in the hands of feudal lords, developed most. But the merchants also organized the production of weapons, fabrics, etc. The expansion of the overseas trade of Japanese merchants: they exported goods to Taiwan, the Philippines, to China, to the Indonesian islands.

The importation of firearms and its production in the country have revolutionized military tactics. In the battles, the main striking force was represented not by the samurai cavalry, but by infantrymen, who were recruited from the peasants. The use of guns caused the construction of large stone castles with wide walls, earthen embankments and moats that replaced the former wooden locks.

By the middle of the XVI century. Japan was a sample of a fragmented feudal country, in which there were two dozen large and about two hundred medium and small feudal estates. An urgent task was the unification of the country. This was dictated by the need for further economic development. The class was interested in the feudal class, which generally feared the growing struggle of the peasants, the small feudal lords, who were threatened with the deprivation of their possessions in the internecine struggle, merchants and artisans who unconsciously strove to create a single national market. Japan in the XVI century ....

The cause of unification began in the 1560s, the average feudal Oda Nobunaga from the prov. Ovari, strategically located in the center of the country.

Before his death in 1582, he managed to defeat a number of powerful feudal lords, in 1568 to occupy Kyoto and in five years to overthrow the last Shogun Ashikaga, to crush the powerful Buddhist monasteries. In the occupied territories he pursued a policy of strengthening the central authority, stopping civil strife and developing trade. He destroyed the outposts and liquidated requisitions from the goods being transported, fought for free trade by eliminating trade guilds and establishing free markets. And at the same time a number of measures put merchant capital under the control of feudal lords. This is evidenced by the liquidation of the status of the free city of Sakai.

Japan in the XVI century.