alternatehistory.com

First, forgive me of the title, I've never been good at coming up with them.​

Japan was finally unified in 1590, after years of continuous warfare. Soon afterwards, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the supreme warlord of Japan, led the newly unified Japan in two invasions of Korea. The invasions failed in OTL. No sooner had the invasions fail that Hideyoshi died, and then appoint his 5 year old son Hideyori as his succesor. Soon afterwards, Hideyori had been overthrown and Tokugawa Ieyasu took control of Japan, thus establishing the Tokugawa shoguate which isolated Japan from the rest of the world until the 1850's.​

Yet how would East Asian history, or indeed world history have changed if Japan's invasion of Korea had succeeded? Could they realistically have gone to conquer China and establish a new dynasty, and then colonies throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans? I know this might seem like a Japan-wank, which it may very well be, but considering what the Manchu's were able to take over China, why not the Japanese?​

So I'll write a timeline on this idea, and hopefully it won't just fade away after a few posts like my other timelines. Since this particular idea hasn't been explored all that much it may well last longer than normal. There will probably be numerous errors and other things that go on in the timeline that might be contrary to the societies I am depicting, as I don't presume to be an expert on Feudal Japan or East Asian history. I'll probably have to go back and do some editting to correct the errors. Just bear with me and give me comments, rather than just screaming ASB!!​

Here it goes:​

The end of the warring states period:

Tensho 18, 7th month (1590): The warring states period of Japan was coming to a close. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the supreme warlord of Japan, has conquered nearly all of Japan, and only the Hojo clan remains. The Hojo control a sizable territory in the Kanto plain, where modern day Tokyo is located.​

The only man that can claim to be a legitimate rival to Hideyoshi's power is Tokugawa Ieyasu. Hideyoshi and Ieyasu had both been proteges of Oda Nobunaga, and his top generals. When Nobunaga had been assasinated by Akechi Mitsuhide in 1582, both Hideyoshi and Ieyasu had raced to take revenge on Mitsuhide, with Hideyoshi winning the race, and thus acquiring Nobunaga's assets. The two nearly went to war when in 1584 Ieyasu had decided to support the eldest son of Oda Nobunaga against Hideyoshi's own candidate, who was another son of Nobunaga. A larger conflict had been averted through a hasty negotiation. Ieyasu had also been an occasional ally toward the Hojo in the past.​

So it was understandable that Hideyoshi not only was weary of Ieyasu's loyalty, but could also pose a threat to his power later on. Nonetheless, Ieyasu joined Hideyoshi's force in the assault on the castle at Odawara.​

During the siege, Hideyoshi, which on the surface appeared to secure Ieyasu's loyalty, offered the eight Kanto provinces of the Hojo for his five traditional holdings. Considering that Ieyasu had been Hideyoshi's primary rival for years, it seems unlikely that Hideyoshi desired a situation where Ieyasu could set up a power base that could potentially give him a degree of autonomy from Hideyoshi's control as what had occured in OTL and allowed him to take control of Japan after Hideyoshi's death.​

Hideyoshi was surprised later on to discover that Ieyasu accepted the risky proposal of moving his soldiers and vassals from one province to another. Though the Kanto region was by far more prosperous than Ieyasu's previous estate, the loyalties of the ex-samaurai of the Hojo were far from certain. And as had so often proved during the warring period, disloyalty could prove fatal, as it had for Oda Nobunaga.​

When the Hojo clan had been defeated, its leaders, as was customary, were forced to commit seppuku. Hojo Ujinao, though the hier of the Hojo clan, had been married to Ieyasu's 2nd daughter Toku Hime, and was thus spared from seppuku. Yet instead, he had been ordered into exile to Mount Koya.​

The assasination of Ieyasu

(POD)However, Ujinao, instead of complying, gathered a number of ex-Hojo samurai and devised a plot to assasinate Ieyasu, feeling that he had sold out the Hojo to Hideyoshi. Once Ieyasu was dead, Hojo Ujinao would sieze back control of the Kanto, and also gain the alliegence of those formerly belonging to Ieyasu, as after all he was the son in law of Ieyasu, believing that this would give him enough power to resist Hideyoshi.​

Thus, in December of 1590, Ujinao along with his co-conspirators attacked Ieyasu during the night, dispatching the guards before moving in. A huge fight took place within Ieyasu's estate, but the conspirators slowly move their way toward Ieyasu's quarters, in due part that many of the servants and guards had been ex-Hojo. Rather than escape, Ieyasu decided to fight to the death, killing several of Ujinao's conspirators before being overwhelmed. In a final act of defiance, Ieyasu, with his dying breath, committed seppuku, thus preserving his honor.​

With Ieyasu dead, Ujinao declared himself the diamyo of the Kanto region, changing his name to reflect his new status (I'm not sure just how the name changing system in feudal Japan works). Ujinao also made the claim that it was Hideyoshi had betrayed Ieyasu, and had employed several ninjas and warrior monks to assasinate his father. As Hideyoshi was seen as having a unquenching thirst for power, a good number of Ieyasu's samurai joined Ujinao in his rebellion.​

However, the majority of Ieyasu's samurai suspected Ujinao from the start, and formed a coalition against him. Immediately, a civil war broke out within Kanto, as the Ujinao's faction, comprising of the ex-Hojo samurai, facing off against the Tokugawa samurai.​

A representative of the Tokugawa immediately sent word to Hideyoshi of the coup, and begging him to send forces to crush Ujinao's rebellion. Hideyoshi's response was that Tokugawa's forces had to give a direct oath of loyalty to him first before he joined the fray, which the emissary agreed to. Therefore, Hideyoshi sent an army to crush Ujinao, which they were by the beginning of February of 1591. Trapped in his quarters, Ujinao and his subordinates committed seppuku, thus ending the short lived rebellion.​

With the rebellion crushed, Hideyoshi named Ieyasu's favorite son, the 11-year-old Tokugawa Hidetada as diamyo, while forming a Council of Elders, (who were basically obedient pawns of Hideyoshi) to act as his regents. Hideyoshi also ordered for those samaurai who had been alleged to have conspired to assasinate Ieyasu to commit seppuku.​

Three of Ieyasu's key subordinates, Honda Tadakatsu, Sakai Tadatsugu and lastly Hattori Hanzo, famed for his unique fighting style and the leader of the pro-Tokugawa forces against the Ujinao rebellion, were also ordered to commit seppuku, on the grounds that they had failed to protect their overlord in the first place.​

The death of Ieyasu had once again made Hideyoshi aware that there might be disloyal elements within the various diamyo. In late February of 1591, Hideyoshi ordered several prominent samurai, whose loyalties were considered suspect, to commit seppuku to show that they in fact were loyal. When one samurai refused to obey the edict, he was hung ignominously on a tree, while the rest of his family was executed along with the dishonor of the family name.​

Once all the named people were dead, Hideyoshi demanded that all the diamyo give an oath of loyalty to him (and also to the emperor), thus acknowledging that the man who had been born a peasant, was now the shogun in all but name.​

Yet because Hideyoshi had been born a peasant, and thus had not been a member of the Minamato lineage, he was ineligible for receiving the actual title of shogun. He did possesses the title of regent, which in many ways was more prestigous than that of the shogun. Yet it was this last title that would, in Hideyoshi's mind, would finally cement his legacy as the greatest man of Japan had ever known.​

Thus to achieve such a legacy, military conquest of an epic scale was required, starting with Korea... Once Korea was conquered, then it would be the Ming Dynasty, followed by India, and eventually the rest of the world...​
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