Japan: Difference between revisions
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→Reunification of Japan under the Shogunate: Added more lore about the Saki Shogunate & the annexation of Ezo by Russia.
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Over the next 60 years Japan became a battle ground between foreign and regional powers with Russian backed, Dutch backed, Portuguese backed and independent Daimyos along with Tokugawa remnant isolationists fighting each other over control of the Japanese islands. During this period the Dutch annexed the Ryukyu islands and the Russians annexed the ports of Maizuru & Idzu. Additionally this period saw a widespread series of social changes including the explosion of Rangaku knowledge (especially in relations to war and weapons), a lucrative and exploitive trade in Japanese slaves and servants to the European colonies in Asia & elsewhere and an expansion of the homegrown Japanese merchant class who acted as the middlemen and translators between foreign traders and local Daimyos.
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==== Reunification of Japan ====
In 1795, revolutionary France invaded the Republic of the Netherlands and installed a puppet government which had numerous implications across the Dutch empire and it's allies. In Japan the southern alliance of pro-Dutch clans, merchants and Daimyos started to fall to infighting and having lost their primary European benefactor started to run low on western weaponry. This led to the numerous effects on the ongoing unstable political crisis of Japan, with the pro-russian Sakai clan, who've had success in their northern expedition against the Tokugawa remnants and the anti-foreigner '''Shiragiku'' society' movement expanding wildly in de facto controlled territory.
In 1807, the southern alliance officially disbanded with the merchant class wing of the alliance (along with several key coastal Daimyos) seeing the way the wind was blowing and switching allegiances to the Sakai. This allowed the Sakai to sweep in from the north and swiftly conquer the majority of former southern alliance territory. By the winter of 1808 the only territory left under Sakai rule was Hokkaido, in which the Tokugawa remnants fled to in 1803 and a collection of numerous independent catholic Daimyos in Kyushu & Shikoku. In 1809 the Sakai negotiated with the collection of Catholic Daimyos & the archdioceses of Kyushu to accept Sakai rule in exchange for policy of religious toleration of Christians by the Sakai government. By 1815, the Sakai Shogunate was recognized as the official government of Japan by most European and Asian powers besides the newly formed Kingdom of the Dutch who resented that their port on Dejima was captured during the Sakai's Sothern excursion. In 1816 the Sakai Shogunate returned Dejima to the Dutch in exchange for a annual fee and a major restriction on rights for the Dutch to bring military vessels to the island.
==== The Ezo Question ====
Besides Ryukyu islands and the three treaty ports in Japan, the only remaining formerly Japanese territory not under control of the Sakai was the Tokugawa remnants in Hokkaido who repelled three subsequent invasions by the Sakai in 1810, 1812 and 1816. Throughout the 1810's and early 1820's the Sakai eventually gave up on trying to actively conquer the island and instead attempted to starve the Tokugawa of political capital by issuing an ultimatum to all European & Asian powers trading with Japan to avoid trading or interacting with remnants in fear of losing access to mainland Japanese markets. By 1824 the Sakai seemed to have abandoned the idea of reconquering Hokkaido and instead spent their focus on solidifying their rule internally and building foreign relationships.
The Russian Empire in contrast, resented Tokugawa control of Hokkaido due to the fact that their influence on the island, which they had built up over the previous 80 years was almost entirely purged and allow with it trade with the native Ainu of the island. Additionally the Russian empire was looking to expand it's influence in North America and the north Pacific and as such decided to try to push claims on Sakhalin & the Kuril islands which started to put it in competition with the Tokugawa remnants who actively fished, hunted and settled in those regions. In 1837, the Ainu revolted against the Tokugawa after decades of forced 'Yamato-ization' and economic subservience to the Japanese minority of the island. The 'Russian-Japanese company' and their allies in the 'Kuril-island colonization company' realized that this was an opportunity to regain influence on Hokkaido and so sent in several waves of mercenaries to support the Ainu. This led to eventually the fall of the Tokugawa remnant regime and the establishment of the 'Ezo confederation' which while nominally an independent Ainu state was subject to strong economic and political influence by the Russian Empire.
The Ezo Confederation period led to many cultural changes on the island with the Ainu language experiencing a renascence of usage, with Orthodox missionaries adapting the Ainu language into a written form (through the Cyrillic alphabet) and printing the first Ainu language bible in 1841. Over the next several decades the Ainu gradually converted to Orthodox Christianity (though many aspects of the traditional Ainu religion persisted syncretically with Christian beliefs) and adopted Russian farming practices and numerous tools of western technology (which led to relatively large population increase amongst the Ainu). IN 1868 after the Russian Succession Crisis, the new Czar & Czarina of Russia started to see the pacific as the next pimary route of expansion of Russian power and as such wanted to expand and consolidate their holdings in the region further. In 1870 a political dispute between clans in the Ainu confederacy led to multiple assassinations of Ainu clan leaders which was used as a pretense for the Russian navy to land on the island, disband the Ainu confederation and annex the island of Hokkaido (with the promise to local leaders of semi-autonomy for internal Ainu affairs).
==== Changes within late 19th century Japan ====
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