Major Decline Of Feudalism In Japan example essay topic

In the late 1700's, feudalism in Japan was declining. Tokugawa was breaking down and many people in Japan were having problems especially with the shogun. Japan's economy was declining. Many merchants detested the fact that they are at the bottom of the social class.

There was a declination of the samurais and economic problems with daimyos. The population in Japan was increasing to a great extent and many merchants were becoming richer. They were involved with trades and making a lot of money from it because the ruling classes did not want to deal with it. The higher classes such as the daimyo and the samurai classes were declining economically. The daimyos had to pay for their families' expenses because the shogun kept them and fed them.

Taxes were very little from agricultural taxes. Also, the daimyos and the samurais were enjoying luxurious lives in the cities that it made them poor. Daimyos had to cut samurais's al aries. Therefore, they borrowed money from the merchants. The merchants charged them interest every time they borrow money. This lowered the statuses of the daimyos and samurais, having to borrow money from the lowest social class.

Controlling the daimyos and the samurais, the merchants felt hatred towards the shogun for putting them on the bottom of the social system. They want to get rid of the Tokugawa and will rebel with whoever is against the Tokugawa. There were many crop failures and taxes were increasing with the peasants in Japan. The price of lots of crops went up such as rice. The price of land was going up.

The peasants were forced to work harder because Tokugawa demands more money from the daimyos and therefore, the daimyos demand more money from the peasants. There were many improvements in agriculture such as producing better seeds and tools. This leaded to more enhanced crops such as cotton and tobacco. Many farmers found that the new crops make more money, so many farmers quit growing food. "The root cause of this situation seems to have been a growing imbalance in the distribution of rural wealth" (East Asia by Fairbank). Some farmers were becoming richer while other farmers were becoming poorer.

In the end, there was not enough food to serve the big population of Japan. Many people in Japan were discontent with Tokugawa. The Tokugawa were so involved with spending money on themselves that they made most of the population suffer. While they realized that the samurais were rebelling, they brought in Confucianism. This resulted a major decline of feudalism in Japan.

Many people believed that they should be loyal to the emperor and the not the shogun. "All land was to come under the direct rule of the emperor" (East Meets West by Alberto Morales). Also, many people in Japan wanted the feudal classes to be abolished. For a long time, Japan was very peaceful with no wars or rebellions. In the late 1700's, many problems were approaching Japan.

Feudalism was declining especially with the feudal classes and feudal land. "The abolition of... autocratic feudal provinces were a necessary step to the unification of the country under a strong central government, without which we would not have been able to offer a united front to the outside forces. ". (Memories of a Meiji leader, East Meets West by Alberto Morales).

I agree with this, abolishing feudalism in Japan is a very wise idea. In some ways, this is one of the reasons why Japan was very successful in revolution compared to China.