Dutch and Japan

Dutch and Japanese learning

In the 1600 the Dutch encountered the Japanese. They were the first western to have contact with Japan. Japan had a policy which was call ‘closed country”(sakoku) policy, this policy allowed only minimum County to have contact with Japan. One of the few Countries that Shogun allowed to trade with them was the Dutch. The Dutch purpose of having a relationship with the Japanese was to trade with them. The Japanese accepted to trade with them, even through they didn’t like the Dutch. The Shogun didn’t like the Dutch, because the Dutch traded slaves, and they were very harsh to their servant. The Shogun put a lot of restriction on the Dutch, such as they were put on a small Island, which they had to pay for it. They had to pay for all the items they used. No Japanese could live with them except for prostitutes, and no Dutch could be buried on Japanese soil. The Dutch couldn’t practice any religious services on the ship, and on the Island. They had to bring gifts to the Nagasaki officialdom. The only reason the Shogun in the 1615 allowed the Dutch to trade with them was the Shogun wanted to get western knowledge and technique from the Dutch. The Shogun wanted to use Dutch knowledge to improve defense and technology. With improve military, they would be able to fix their trouble economic. They believed with improve military, they can have better economic.

Even through the Dutch faced all these harsh condition from the Japanese, they still benefit a lot from the Japanese. The Dutch made good money from the Japanese goods, that they brought to Dutch. The Dutch had monopoly on the Japanese goods in Europe, as no other European could trade with the Japanese. This monopoly helped the Dutch economy, which made them be a wealthy country.

The only knowledge the Japanese had was Neo-Confucian, which was just mostly concern with morals and household management. New-Confucian was more of a philosophy, than applied science . The...