Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

Timeline of Japan (currently unfinished)

March 2006
Main Page

57 AD: first contact between Japan and China.

2nd-3rd Century AD: villages turn to fortified hill tops during small conflicts between chieftans.

3rd Century: “Wo” people, as China called the early Japanese, were divided into small states, united in confederations. Yamamoto family became increasingly powerful, owing huge labor forces.

4th-5th Centuries: Korea brought more Chinese values and items, including new iron techniques, writing, and Confucianism.

6th Century: Buddhism enters Japan.

536: Soga clan looses power as ruling clan. Soga Shotoku creates a number of minor reforms.

645: Soga transfers power to the Fujiwara clan. Taika Reforms: Redistributing rice-growing lands, tax on agricultural products, and dividing the land into provinces.

794-1185: Heian Period

1160: Minamoto joins the Fujiwara against the Taira in an uprising. The rebellion fails.

1180: Start of the Gempei civil war, led by a Minamoto leader named Minamoto Yoritomo against the Taira.

1185: Minamoto Yoritmo defeats Taira forces at the Battle of Dannoura near Shimonoseki.

1192: Yoritomo defeats a group of Fujiwara near Honshu. The title of Shogun is placed upon Yoritomo, who is now the supreme military commander. He shifted his power to Kamakura, and his vassals became as powerful as the provincial government. This became known as the Kamakura Shogunate.

1199: Yoritomo dies

1199-1333: Power shifts to the family of Yoritomo's wife, the Hojo family. For the next 134 years the Hojo clan rules Japan indirectly, by using the provincial leaders to select an emperor while the Hojo controlled the emperor, often a child, from "behind the curtains". Side note: The Hojo clan is still referred to as the Kamakura Shogunate.

1221: Rebellion led by former emperor Go-Toba fails.

1232: Kamakura shogunate created a new legal code called the Joei Code.

1274: 40,000 Mongol troops led by Khublai Khan invaded Japan at Kyushu. Defeated by kamikaze.

1282: 140,000 Mongol troops invaded Japan, again defeated by storms and strengthened defenses.

1330-1467: Central Authority falls, local wars break out

1467-1560's: No authority exists, provincial wars continue unchecked

1560's-1568: Nine warring clans take control of most of country. (Northern Honshu and up, as well as land between Kyoto and Osaka neutral or disputed territories.) Clans include Uesugi, Takeda, Hojo, Imagawa, Oda, Mori, Otomo, Sogabe, and Shimazu.

1568: Rise of Nobunaga, Leader of Oda Clan. Begins reconquest of Japan. Captures Kyoto, the Imperial Capital of Japan.

1568-1581: Lord Nobunaga forces the eight other lords to obey him.

1582: A jealous rival assassinates Lord Nobunaga while in Kyoto.

1582-1598: Lord Nobunaga's top general, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, took his master’s place and completed the reunification of Japan. Noteworthy among his accomplishments is: Reorganizing the tax system Redistributing land to provide greater funds for his nation Invasion of Korean peninsula in 1592, again in 1597-1598.

1598: Lord Hideyoshi dies

1598-1603: Another general under Lord Nobunaga, Tokugawa Ieyasu, takes control of unified Japan.

1603: Tokugawa dynasty of Shoguns is created, rules Japan until 19th century. Noteworthy among accomplishments: Pirates which have been raiding Chin and the Japanese islands from their bases in Japan since the 1550's are stopped by Tokugawa Ieyasu and wiped out.

1603-1868: Reign of Tokugawa Shoguns. Central power shifted to the shoguns in Edo (modern day Tokyo), where they ruled the 250+fiefs, legal codes were created, as was the organization of classes into a hierarchy system.

1612: Christian Missionaries were banned.

1612-1826: From this point on, all trade was closed except with the Dutch, (though only at the port of Nagasaki), the Chinese, and the Koreans. Also, Japanese were not allowed to travel. However: The population soared from 20 million to 30 million Literacy was almost unimaginably high Industry spread quickly, making Japan a great industrial nation.

1853: Trade opened with the major world powers, including America, France, Britain, and Russia.

1868: Japan is forced out of its isolation due to continued persistence among European Imperialists. Internal tensions and Western pressure forced a revolution. This revolution came to be called the Meiji Restoration. The Shoguns were replaced by a new modern government.

1868-1941: The Imperial and Industrial age begins Created a National Education System, providing teaching for 90% of the children in Japan Conscripted army and modernized navy 1872: First Railroads opened 1873: Land tax reform 1882: Legal codes based off of French/German standards

1894-1895: Japan wins Sino-Japanese war. Japan gains Taiwan.

1904-1905: Japan wins Russo-Japanese war.

1905: Treaty of Portsmouth, Japan gains lease of small territory in China, gains South Manchuria.

1905: Battle of Tsushima Strait, one of the greatest naval battles in history. A large Russian fleet is nearly obliterated by a smaller, but more modern, Japanese navy which has few casualties. This was the first time an Eastern nation has won a major victory against a Western nation.

1910: Japan gains Korea.

1914-1918: Japan aids winning powers in WWI.

1931: Japan controls all of Manchuria and small parts of Northern China.

1940: Japan occupies Northern French Indo-China (Now consisting of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos).

1941: Japan signs Franco-Japanese agreement. Gains all of French Indo-China. Japan has influence over the nation of Siam (Now Thailand). Japan attacks United States, officially enters WWII. Japan gains the Philippine Islands, begins landings on Malaysia and parts of Borneo (Dutch East Indies)

1942: