Isolation
The first Europeans came to Japan in the 1500s. They were Spanish
missionaries and Dutch and Portuguese traders. The shoguns did not
like the ideas of these foreign people and were afraid of losing
their power to them. In 1603 the Tokugawa shoguns ordered that no
one could visit Japan and no Japanese could travel abroad without
permission. Japan was closed for over 200 years. In 1854 an officer
in the US navy, Commodore Perry, persuaded the shoguns to open
Japanese ports for trade. By 1868 the shoguns had lost power. The
emperor moved from Kyoto to the Tokugawa castle at Edo. A new
government was set up.
