Age of Discovery and the New WorldTravel and discovery
Portuguese on Tanegashima — the first Europeans in Japan
A Chinese junk carrying Portuguese traders, driven off course by a storm, put in at the island of Tanegashima: the Japanese met Europeans for the first time and were introduced to European firearms.
- Date
- 1543year known
- Place
- Tanegashima Islandtoday: Tanegashima, Japan · East Asia
- Participants
- Tanegashima Tokitaka, Kingdom of Portugal
- Threads
- Age of Discovery and the New World, History of Portugal since the Battle of Aljubarrota
The lord of the island, Tanegashima Tokitaka, bought two arquebuses from the Portuguese and had his craftsmen copy them. The Japanese matchlock guns, nicknamed tanegashima, spread rapidly and changed the nature of warfare in the Sengoku period. The encounter marked the beginning of the Nanban (“southern barbarian”) trade — regular contacts between Japan and the Portuguese.
Connections
Related events
- Ōnin War1467–1477 · East Asiaat the height of the Sengoku period, which began with the Ōnin War, the Portuguese brought arquebuses to Japan, changing the nature of its civil wars
- Capture of Malacca25 July – between 10 August and 24 August 1511 · Southeast Asia and OceaniaPortuguese Malacca’s trade with China and Japan
- Portuguese settle in Macau1557 · East AsiaMacau became the base of Portuguese trade with Japan
- Rezanov’s embassy to Japan26 September (8 October) 1804 – April 1805 · East AsiaThe Portuguese were the first Europeans in Japan; after 1639 the country was closed to all Europeans except the Dutch, and Rezanov’s embassy was turned away
Same participants
- Ethiopian–Adal WarMarch 1529 – 21 February 1543 · Africavia Kingdom of Portugal
- Founding of Salvador and the Governorate General of Brazil29 March 1549 · Latin Americavia Kingdom of Portugal
Adjacent events in the thread
- Hernando de Soto’s expedition into the interior of North America30 May 1539 – September 1543 · North America
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 25 years of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Publication of Copernicus’s De revolutionibus1543
- Siege of Vienna (1529)27 September – 15 October 1529
- Sack of Rome (1527)6 May 1527
- Battle of Mohács29 August 1526
- First circumnavigation of the globe10 August 1519 – 8 September 1522
+ 1 event
Eastern Europe
- Coronation of Ivan IV as tsar16 January 1547
- Capture of Kazan23 August – 2 October 1552
- Annexation of the Astrakhan Khanate26 August 1556
Balkans and Anatolia
- Accession of Suleiman the Magnificent30 September 1520
Middle East and Egypt
- Capture of Baghdad by Suleiman Ibetween November and December 1534
Africa
- Ethiopian–Adal WarMarch 1529 – 21 February 1543
- Letters of Afonso I of Kongo on the slave trade1526
South Asia
- First Battle of Panipat21 April 1526
- Garcia de Orta’s Colloquies on the Simples and Drugs of India10 April 1563
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Toungoo–Hanthawaddy War: the beginning of Burma’s unification1534 – May 1541
- Battle of Mactan27 April 1521
North America
- Hernando de Soto’s expedition into the interior of North America30 May 1539 – September 1543
- Jacques Cartier’s second voyage — up the Saint Lawrence River19 May 1535 – 16 July 1536
Latin America
- Founding of Salvador and the Governorate General of Brazil29 March 1549
- Battle of Cajamarca16 November 1532
- Fall of Tenochtitlan13 August 1521
- Spanish conquest of the Aztec EmpireFebruary 1519 – 13 August 1521
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Tanegashima (gun)
- Wikipedia (English): Nanban trade
- Wikipedia (Russian): Танэгасима (огнестрельное оружие)
- Boxer C. R. The Christian Century in Japan, 1549–1650. — Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951.