The effects of Japanese settlement in the new world, 1400-1500.
Prior to Japanese settlement in the new world during the late fourteenth century and early fifteenth the societies and cultures of the new world seem backwards to our modern eyes. With many peoples, general culture and language groups calling the new world home. The majority of these people lived in loose family groups, existing by a hunter-gatherer lifestyle as had been done for thousands of years. Agriculture, domesticated animals, organized societal divisions, and written language were largely unknown outside of central America and the cultures there.
Mongolian settlement did not achieve any lasting effects upon the native people of the region. Aside from the displacement of the local native peoples into new areas. The empire’s presence had been to brief, and the number of survivors who merged with native populations to small, to achieve anything permanent in the region.
Early Japanese settlement likewise did not have a serious impact upon the cultures and people living near and alongside them. Far less any impact upon the distant cultures in the remainder of the continent. Japanese settlers lacked much in the way of technology such as farming implements and metallurgy, and lacked the ability to manufacture their own.
The general isolation of the region where Japanese settlements were initially established also must be born in mind. Few lived in the area where the Japanese chose to dwell, and many of those that did live in the area quickly chose to assimilate into the Japanese towns. Where there were better sources of food and shelter.
The age of Ronin, lasting from 1360 until 1420, saw the end of this era of relative isolation. Many Ronin would leave the larger settlements, even before the invasion of 1422, in an effort to establish their own mini-fiefdoms with whatever Japanese followers they could attract and whatever locals they could convince to join them.
This explosion of small villages in the Alyskan interior went largely unnoticed by the newly conquered heartland. Many Ronin became chieftans of local tribes, or else hired themselves out to the tribes. Selling their services and knowledge in exchange for their safety.
Slowly at first, but accelerating as the century wore on, the tribes around the Japanese settlements began to exhibit more and more Japanese characteristics. Adopting Japanese language as a trade language, and seeking out educated people to introduce Japanese agriculture and building practices to their peoples.
Permanent settlements began to pop up all around the region of Alyska during the period, notably in the Tlingit kingdom. But the Tlingit model for assimilating Japanese culture is followed by many tribes and clans on a larger or smaller scale. By 1500 many of these tribes would have largely lost their own native culture in favour of increasing Japanese elements.
Outside of the area immediately surrounding Japanese settlement this process dropped off sharply. With the manufacturing of various implements of agriculture, war and domestic use, being largely confined to Alyska itself. However trade of these items, as well as knowledge of agriculture, would penetrate deep into the north American continent. With archaeology in the United States showing trade items of Alyskan manufacture in sites as far east as present day Pennsylvania. With sites in Missouri holding significant hoardes of Alyskan goods. Suggesting major trade took place in the years before European contact with the continent.
The scale of this trade, as well as its extent and the involvement of Japanese merchants in it, is hotly debated. However the presence Alyskan goods, notably iron tools and pottery, in places as far flung as Mexico and Peru speaks to the serious scale of the trade.
That more native cultures did not adopt Japanese technology, culture, and language may seem strange to a casual observer. As does the lack of domesticated animals among native tribes. However this is likely the result of a lack of overall Japanese interest in assimilating larger territory outside Alyska. As well as a unified Japanese policy on the continent to guide operations in the region. Native cultures will be dealt with in future when the Spanish conquest is detailed.