Ming The Ming dynasty in china lasted from 1368- 1644 CE Zhu Yanzhang, who was a Buddhist monk,

st monk, led a rebellion to overthrow Mongol rule and to establish the dynasty The scholar gentry and civil service exam were restored Ming leaders also created a board to prevent corruption In government Officials who didnt do their job were beaten in public Emperor Yuang Le sent Zheng He on expeditions sponsored by the state They return to a middle kingdom mentality The government ruled the largest population and used its resources and technology to do so along with an organized bureaucracy and strong military

Qing The Qing dynasty in China lasted from 1644-1911 The Manchus had taken over the Ming and became the last dynasty of China; for each Manchu top official there was a Chinese official; very effective bureaucracy The most important administrative ruling body was the grand council which consisted of the emperor and high ruling officials. The government was centralized. Had an absolute bureaucracy. To gain position in government you had to take a government test (civil service exams) which was a tradition in China. Taiping Rebellion 1850-1864

Tokugawa Shogunate Japan has been feudal/decentralized since the 1100s 1500s Japan was so entrenched in recurring civil war; it took THREE successive military commanders to restore unity and internal peace Nobunaga was 1st leader; got rid of the last of the Ashikaga shoguns who had ruled in name only; he helped to unify part of the Japanese island of Honshu; took in gunpowder and Christianity he was killed Hideyoshi was the 2nd leader; punished those who betrayed Nobunaga, using his military prowess and diplomacy, he made alliances with the last remaining daimyos and became military master of Japan by 1590; he would go on to attack Korea but died in the process Tokugawa Leyasu the 3rd leader was a vassal of Hideyoshi and gained control; he chose not to continue campaign of oversea expansion and concentrated on consolidating his power at home. In 1603 he was granted the title of Shogun by the emperor and thus began the rule of the Tokugawa familybanned gunpowder and Christianity. This will last until 1868. The capital was centered at Edo, now known as Tokyo

The Tokugawa Shogunate had put an end to the civil wars that had raged in Japan since the 1100s and brought a semblance of political unity ~ centralized feudalism (still feudal because of class structure) To control the daimyos, the Tokugawa used the hostage system ~ forcing them to live in Edo every other year; a daimyos wife and children had to remain in Edo full time while the daimyo would go and serve in the off years, this allowed a check on their power; rarely would a daimyo ever serve in their home territory By 1616, Japan became isolated by limiting foreign traders to a handful of cities By 1630, all Japanese ships were forbidden to trade or even sail overseas and different European countries were either officially excluded like the Spanish or no longer worth the risk like the British By 1640s only a limited number of Dutch and Chinese ships were allowed to carry out commerce on the small island of Deshima in Nagasaki Bay; isolation lasted 200yrs till 1853