History of Japan. The history of Japan encompasses the history of the islands of Japan and the Japanese people, spanning the ancient history of the region to the modern history of Japan as a nation state. Following the last ice age, around 12,000 BC, the rich ecosystem of the Japanese archipelago fostered human development. The earliest-known pottery found in Japan belongs to the Jōmon period. The first known written reference to Japan is in the brief information given in Twenty-Four Histories in the 1st century AD. The main cultural and religious influences came from China.[1] The first permanent capital was founded in 710 at Nara, which became a center of Buddhist art, religion and culture. In the 1860s, the Meiji period began, and the new national leadership systematically ended feudalism and transformed an isolated, underdeveloped island country, into a world power that closely followed Western models.
The U.S. occupied Japan until 1952. Japanese prehistory[edit] Paleolithic Age[edit] Nara period[edit] Empire of Japan. The Empire of Japan (大日本帝國, Dai Nippon Teikoku? , literally "Greater Japanese Empire")[5] was an empire and world power that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868 to the enactment of the 1947 constitution of modern Japan.[3] Imperial Japan's rapid industrialization and militarization under the slogan Fukoku Kyōhei (富国強兵? , "Enrich the Country, Strengthen the Army") led to its emergence as a world power, eventually culminating in its membership in the Axis alliance and the conquest of a large part of the Asia-Pacific region. At the height of its power in 1942, the Empire of Japan ruled over a land area spanning 7,400,000 square kilometres (2,857,000 sq mi), making it one of the largest maritime empires in history.[6] After several large-scale military successes during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) and the Pacific War, the Empire of Japan also gained notoriety for its war crimes against the peoples of the countries it conquered.
Terminology[edit] Boshin War[edit] Maya mythology. Maya mythology is part of Mesoamerican mythology and comprises all of the Maya tales in which personified forces of nature, deities, and the heroes interacting with these play the main roles. Other parts of Maya oral tradition (such as animal tales and many moralising stories) do not properly belong to the domain of mythology, but rather to legend and folk tale.
Sources[edit] The oldest written myths date from the 16th century and are found in historical sources from the Guatemalan Highlands The most important of these documents is the Popol Vuh or 'Book of the Council'which contains Quichean creation stories and some of the adventures of the Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque Yucatán is an equally important region. In the 19th and 20th centuries, anthropologists and local folklorists have committed many stories to paper. Main gods[edit] Important mythical themes[edit] Creation and end of the world[edit] Creation of mankind[edit] Actions of the heroes: Arranging the world[edit] Notes[edit] History of ancient Egypt. The history of Ancient Egypt spans the period from the early predynastic settlements of the northern Nile Valley to the Roman conquest in 30 BC. The Pharaonic Period is dated from around 3200 BC, when Lower and Upper Egypt became a unified state, until the country fell under Greek rule in 332 BC.
Chronology[edit] Note For alternative 'revisions' to the chronology of Egypt, see Egyptian chronology. Egypt's history is split into several different periods according to the ruling dynasty of each pharaoh. The dating of events is still a subject of research. The conservative dates are not supported by any reliable absolute date for a span of about three millennia. Neolithic Egypt[edit] Neolithic period[edit] The Nile has been the lifeline for Egyptian culture since nomadic hunter-gatherers began living along it during the Pleistocene. Continued desiccation forced the early ancestors of the Egyptians to settle around the Nile more permanently and forced them to adopt a more sedentary lifestyle. Edo society. Merchant's house (Fukagawa Edo Museum) Merchant's kitchen; stove boiler made of copper (Fukagawa Edo Museum) Working-class district apartments (Fukagawa Edo Museum) Society during the Edo period (or Tokugawa period) in Japan was ruled by strict customs and regulations intended to promote stability.
Confucian ideas provided the foundation for a system of strict social prescriptions. At the top of the social order, though below emperor, shogun, and daimyo (lords), were the samurai who functioned as the ruling class. Four class order[edit] The Tokugawa government intentionally created a social order called the Four divisions of society (Shinokosho), that would stabilize the country. In actuality, shinokosho does not accurately describe Tokugawa society.[2] Buddhist and Shinto priests; or court nobles (kuge); and outcast classes including eta and hinin (those sold or sentenced into indentured servitude) were not included in this description of hierarchy.
Samurai[edit] Peasants[edit] Notes[edit] Ancient history. Ancient history is the aggregate of past events[1] from the beginning of recorded human history to the Early Middle Ages or the Postclassical Era. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, with Sumerian Cuneiform script, the oldest discovered form of coherent writing, from the protoliterate period around the 30th century BC.[2] The term classical antiquity is often used to refer to history in the Old World from the beginning of recorded Greek history in 776 BC (First Olympiad). This roughly coincides with the traditional date of the founding of Rome in 753 BC, the beginning of the history of ancient Rome, and the beginning of the Archaic period in Ancient Greece. In India, the period includes the early period of the Middle Kingdoms,[9][10][11] and, in China, the time up to the Qin Dynasty is included.[12][13] Study[edit] Historians have two major avenues which they take to better understand the ancient world: archaeology and the study of source texts.
Archaeology[edit] Spring and Autumn Period. During the Spring and Autumn period, China's feudal system of fēngjiàn became largely irrelevant. The Zhou dynasty kings held nominal power, but had real control over only a small royal demesne centered on their capital Luoyi[5] near modern-day Luoyang. During the early part of the Zhou dynasty period, royal relatives and generals had been given control over fiefdoms in an effort to maintain Zhou authority over vast territory.[6] As the power of the Zhou kings waned, these fiefdoms became increasingly independent states.
The most important feudal princes (known later as the twelve vassals) met during regular conferences where important matters, such as military expeditions against foreign groups or offending nobles, were decided. During these conferences, one vassal leader was sometimes declared hegemon (Chinese: 伯; pinyin: bó; later, Chinese: 霸; pinyin: bà) and given leadership over the armies of all Zhou states. Beginning of the Eastern Zhou dynasty[edit] Interstate relations[edit]