Why Didn't The Japanese Colonize America?

History is full of 'what if's' like 'what if I didn't write a description full of key words', and 'what if' those key words didn't include things like: #japan, #history, #pewdiepie in Japan, #europe #eu4

[stefanpfeiffermerino]

In my opinion I would say that the type of sea one navigates through makes a big difference to how skilled and capable a nation's seafarers and shipbuilders are.

Take the maritime silk road, stretching from Egypt and the Red sea through the Indian Ocean Dominated by seasonal monsoon wind and current shifts, the tropical islands of south East Asia and into the east China sea.
Then compare it to the traditional home waters of the western European naval powers, they are seas that are much higher in latitude and much colder with rougher seas and the highest average wave heights in the world lying in the north Atlantic.
Those conditions have created incentives to not necessarily build bigger ships but built tougher ones which can withstand a beating and develop better navigation that can bring you to your destination with a limited access to the stars courtesy of the shorter days in winter and more widespread cloud cover.

You may argue that at least the northern half of Japan has similar conditions and you would be correct, but the difference is that there wasn't much incentive for Japanese sailors to venture north because there wasn't anything of much value to them there.
The northern Japanese island of Hokkaido was only slowly incorporated into the Tokugawa shogunate in the 18th century with the native Ainu peoples continuing to live rather undisturbed lives until the expanding Russian empire began to reach the northern domains of Japan, only then did the Shogunate begin to show interest in its northern frontier.
This means that a European power on the other side of Eurasia reached and began to settle the Kurils and Sakhalin before their Japanese next door neighbour.

Maybe if Japan hadn't become isolationist in the 17th century things would have been different with them continuing to adopt European technology like they did before with the musket.
Had they succeeded in conquering Korea or even attempting to invade China they would have found themselves with no choice but to compete with the outside world.

One final thing is that the currents in fact allow Japan to travel east, in the north Pacific winds and currents blow West to East, in fact there have been multiple accounts of Japanese fishing vessels being blown of course and making landfall on the coast of Oregon in the 19th century. Who is to say that these types of incidents didn't happen two or three centuries before Europeans were there to record them?
But the catch here lies with the aforementioned climatic conditions, the northern Pacific is quite similar in roughness to the north Atlantic and with everything of interest lying to the east and south of Japan most naval activity was focused towards these more forgiving waters, baring the ocational typhoon of course.
And without much experience or need to be proficient in navigating the northern waters a successful voyage to America would have been less likely.

We do know that trans Pacific voyages were perfectly possible as demonstrated by the centuries long Spanish Manila galleon trade routes in which they conducted trade between ther colonies of New Spain in Mexico and their possessions in the Philippines traveling east to west in more tropical latitudes were the trade winds are dominant and traveling back sailing a more northern course traveling to the seas east
Of Japan and then letting the westerlies carry them to the Shores of North America usually to make landfall somewhere in Northern California and then traveling down the coast until they reached the port of Acapulco in Mexico.

[PhoenixAscending]

I wouldn't say that Rome rose because Carthage just "fell". They fell due to Rome beating them in battle, and winning a war against the Carthaginians, while both were at their heights militarily, and as empires. Then Rome defeated them in two more wars

[frankmitchell]

If the Junk that sailed westward in 1420 had continued for another week or two it likely would not have made it home again for the very reason given, the winds blow in the wrong direction. However we do not know if any Junks did just that voyage but then never returned. Are there any Japanese or Chinese artifacts to be found in the New World?

[RobertRodgers-rh]

Very well done, so I happily subscribed to your channel! Thank you for making and sharing this outstanding video.

[zhcultivator]

Interesting video, I have a question though, Why didn't an Indonesian Empire colonize Northern Australia like say Majapahit conquering new guinea, the torres strait islands & the northern australian coast?

[Exoneos]

It's not that japan are complacent they have just another form of mindset and this mindset was not set for colonisation/conquest like we have in the west. The imperial japan of WW1 et WW2 are just an odity against the whole of japan history. Imho of course.

[chazzemmons]

This is such a great video, expected 100, 000’s of subscribers, excited to see what’s next x

[ivancheung]

This is a great video! I finally understand this huge mystery. What motivated you to make this video?

[alessiodecarolis]

In 1632 books there's a novel where, to avoid the infamous christians ' massacre by the shogunate, they are given the means to sail and colonize California.

[bhavinigurjar]

Nice work it will be great if you make more videos like this one

[DannyBuster]

This deserved a sub. More like these please pal.

[deveanhernandez]

this ones gonna pop off on history youtube fr

[loquat-]

I did not finish this video. A better question is why china did not colonize america. They had a more a substantial naval and were into long distance trading and even exploring. For Japanese their natural route to discover america would have been hunting, trapping, and fishing trips to the north and then to the Aleutian Island to Alaska. But the Russians were showing up in those areas and were in that type exploration-conquest. Also China still had outstanding claims. The japanese instead attacked what was nearer and clearly was of value like Korea.

[JIRO-FX]

Tsunenaga Hasekura, who is said to have been born in Tateishi, Seki, Yonezawa City, later became a vassal of Date Masamune and was active as a military commander.
In 1613, in order to negotiate trade between the Sendai domain and Spain, Tsunenaga boarded the San Juan Bautista and crossed the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, meeting with the King of Spain and the Pope. As a result, the negotiations could not be concluded and he returned home disappointed, but Tsunenaga Hasekura made history by being ``the first Japanese to successfully cross the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and the first to go to a European country to conduct diplomatic negotiations.'' He accomplished a great feat.
Japan did not have ships capable of sailing long distances, and the Spaniards controlled North and South America, making it physically impossible to colonize America.

[eitkoml]

What if the British Navy was so powerful because it was crewed by legions of Chavs with stronger wood than other sailors have?

[zacksnell]

124th sub. Hope this is as good as it looks

[nicinatr]

Can you make a video explaining why Ana de Armas wont answer my DMs?

[rebeccaorman]

Personally, I thought that this video contradicted itself.

[elvenkind]

Is it not a bit too ambitious to try a channel explaining how the world was built?

[scintillam_dei]

But I've heard of Gobi sandstorms sending sand particles to Korea and Japan. How so if the wind goes towards the west instead?

See my series "The British Empire Was NOT The Biggest" and the video "Spain created the British Empire and the USA"
as well as "A conquistador refutes the 'Metatron' on Samurais VS Spaniards.

It's very satisfying to humiliate a famous youtuber because he shat on the history of your people.

I creatd a colossal realistic map from London to Cape Town to Nanjing for Age of Empires 2 HD, with América in the center from Canada to Antarctica, and for Japan to fit, I had to put it close to California. Conquering Japan with jaguar warriors is a joy few men have ever experienced.

And setting up trade with Cuzco from Kyoto is also pleasant.

But nothing beats retracing the steps of the early Spanish Empire, fending off the Turks, the French, crushing Portuguese rebels, destroying London, destroying Tenochtitlán, capturing Cuzco, and showing up in the Far East like the rising sun.