![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
larryhammerLet me see if I have this straight:
In the 16th century, the Kingdom of Okinawa conquered the rest of the Ryukyu Islands, the archipeligo stretching from eastern Taiwan to southern Japan. This kingdom was a dependent state of China, paying tribute to the Ming emperor. Early in the 17th century, shortly after the Tokugawa Shogunate unified Japan, the daimyo (lord) of Satsuma Province (the part of Japan the Ryukyus point at) conquered the Kingdom of Okinawa. Because the Shogunate didn't allow anyone other than itself to add to Japan's terroritory, the Kingdom of Okinawa could not become a part of Satsuma Province;* instead, it became a personal fief of the daimyo of Satsuma, with the king as his vassel -- while still remaining a tributary of China.
China banned trade with Japan, but not with Okinawa, which was after all nominally still a client. Japan banned trade with anyone outside its borders (except for the Dutch in the treaty port of Nagasaki). However, comma, the Satsuma daimyo could move goods within his domain -- after all, he's receiving taxes and fees from his vassals. So Okinawan merchants could trade in China, and could trade in Kagoshima, the capital of Satsuma. And make a tidy profit in the exchange -- after all, if you have to deal with the complications of dual subordination, you might as well get something out of it.
Which is how Satsuma, at the ass-end of southern Kyushu, pretty much as far from the capital you could get, became one of the richest provinces of Japan -- one of the handful to lead the Meiji Restoration that overthrew of the Tokugawa Shogunate, some two-and-a-half centuries later.
Did I get that right?
Has anyone based a fantasy setting on this scenario? And if not, WHY NOT?
* The Okinawans were considered so Not Japanese that their languages were officially deemed incomprehensible. After the Meiji Restoration, as part of furthering international ambitions, the Okinawan languages were officially declared dialects of Japanese, and the islands a natural part of Japan all along. "A language is a dialect with an army," indeed.
---L.
In the 16th century, the Kingdom of Okinawa conquered the rest of the Ryukyu Islands, the archipeligo stretching from eastern Taiwan to southern Japan. This kingdom was a dependent state of China, paying tribute to the Ming emperor. Early in the 17th century, shortly after the Tokugawa Shogunate unified Japan, the daimyo (lord) of Satsuma Province (the part of Japan the Ryukyus point at) conquered the Kingdom of Okinawa. Because the Shogunate didn't allow anyone other than itself to add to Japan's terroritory, the Kingdom of Okinawa could not become a part of Satsuma Province;* instead, it became a personal fief of the daimyo of Satsuma, with the king as his vassel -- while still remaining a tributary of China.
China banned trade with Japan, but not with Okinawa, which was after all nominally still a client. Japan banned trade with anyone outside its borders (except for the Dutch in the treaty port of Nagasaki). However, comma, the Satsuma daimyo could move goods within his domain -- after all, he's receiving taxes and fees from his vassals. So Okinawan merchants could trade in China, and could trade in Kagoshima, the capital of Satsuma. And make a tidy profit in the exchange -- after all, if you have to deal with the complications of dual subordination, you might as well get something out of it.
Which is how Satsuma, at the ass-end of southern Kyushu, pretty much as far from the capital you could get, became one of the richest provinces of Japan -- one of the handful to lead the Meiji Restoration that overthrew of the Tokugawa Shogunate, some two-and-a-half centuries later.
Did I get that right?
Has anyone based a fantasy setting on this scenario? And if not, WHY NOT?
* The Okinawans were considered so Not Japanese that their languages were officially deemed incomprehensible. After the Meiji Restoration, as part of furthering international ambitions, the Okinawan languages were officially declared dialects of Japanese, and the islands a natural part of Japan all along. "A language is a dialect with an army," indeed.
---L.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 30 April 2009 07:42 pm (UTC)And, well.
Why don't you do it? :D
no subject
Date: 30 April 2009 07:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 April 2009 09:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 May 2009 12:37 am (UTC)Which means I'd be best taking a tight point of view inside the dual subordination, as they play both sides against each other. Hmm.
---L.
no subject
Date: 30 April 2009 07:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 April 2009 07:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 April 2009 08:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 April 2009 10:35 pm (UTC)Yes, there's a lot to THINK ABOUT here.
no subject
Date: 30 April 2009 08:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 April 2009 09:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 April 2009 10:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 April 2009 11:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 April 2009 11:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 April 2009 11:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 May 2009 12:38 am (UTC)Just sayin'.
---L.
no subject
Date: 1 May 2009 12:55 am (UTC)startfinish writing it, first.But I'll remember your offer.
>:D
no subject
Date: 2 May 2009 05:13 am (UTC)We once figured out the age of a globe in the UA library based on many things (the Dakota Territories still being one), but the exact few years was given by which side Okinawa belonged to. :)
no subject
Date: 2 May 2009 02:24 pm (UTC)---L.
no subject
Date: 2 May 2009 07:34 pm (UTC)Who cares? You're going to, right?
no subject
Date: 3 May 2009 05:54 am (UTC)---L.