Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s Invasion and His Impact on Ming Dynasty in China

Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s invasion was one of the first big events for Modern East Asia, the invasion had huge impacts on Japan as well as Korea, but also on China.  Political impacts from Hideyoshi’s invasion were a significant impact during the period, when looking at the changes that occurred in Japan and Korea, one must look at the collapse of the government but also at China. After the Imjin War, Choson Korea suffered numerous damages and many lives were taken, but also there was heavy corruption within the government. The famine in 1597 showed that the Choson Korean government needed to have a political change, the government needed to prevent unrest by reforming but with the collapse of the government and the corruption within it, Korea was collapsing:

“The entire state of Chosǒn was reeling from famine. Exhausted from the hard labour of delivering the military provisions, old men and children collapsed here and there. Those who had any strength to move became thieves, with the rest of the people being killed by epidemics. The plight from the famine went to such extremes of driving fathers and sons to slaughter each other to feed on them, with husbands and wives killing each other. Bones of the dead were scattered around streets like weeds.” This extract shows that the people in Korea were suffering heavily and turning to the extremes to get out of their misery, thus showing that the government were not doing enough to prevent such anguish. As well as Korea, in Ming dynasty China, pressure had built up from Hiodeyoshi’s invasion therefore allowing many rebellions to take place. However, Hideyoshi also adopted numerous measures to effect stratification of society which would provide the basis for forming a stable centralized government under his domination. There were disagreements with Korean’s government this is because the Koreans had failed to prepare for this outbreak of war and unlike Japan, Korea didn’t have any guns. Thus, they needed aid, meaning that Ming dynasty China came for military support. Ming dynasty China did so in the beginning by blocking the Hideyoshi’s Japanese troops, therefore, not allowing them to advance forward and this created the first truce. This had set the precedent that if any instance China would need to come to Korea’s aid if in any doubt of war. However, Ming dynasty China aided Korea due to the diplomatic consequences as the Koreans had previously owed a debt to Ming China due to Korea giving significant resources. Nevertheless, the conflict does weaken Ming dynasty China and later on in 1636, the Manchu attacks the Ming and causes them to collapse. In Japan, there were also hidden quality of early modern regimes in Japan and this is functioning largely through domanial admins, but the Japanese were lacking a national police force, although it did avoid being a potential target of political mobilisations until the 19th century. In the short run, Ming Dynasty China had suffered due to their collapse however, in the long run they benefitted due to the invasion allowing them to gain an ally for future needs. Choson Korea on the other hand suffered heavily, causing distress to the people and the country which allowed Hideyoshi to get the upper hand. Although for Hideyoshi and Japan, the political impacts had caused disruption to the first planned invasion due to the allying of Choson Korea and Ming Dynasty China, however, the Japanese did manage to avoid being a target politically.

In conclusion, politically, Hideyoshi’s first invasion was disrupted by Ming Dynasty China and Choson Korea’s ally, as they were pushed back and had to form a truce. This ally was a benefit to the two countries and not for Hideoyoshi because if there were going to be any problems for either Ming China or Choson Korea, they would be at each other’s aid.