First to industrialize
The Japanese were dumbstruck when the Dutch showed them machinery. They had been handpicking rice and painting lewd pictures of octopi up until that point.
First to industrialize amongst their neighbors. And mechanization of rice harvesting is a very late invention.
As is, for that matter, lewd octopus drawings, which date only to the 19th century.
First to industrialize amongst their neighbors.
The OP is still misleading to make his point.
As is, for that matter, lewd octopus drawings, which date only to the 19th century.
Most famous example from 1814 (NSFW): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dream_of_the_Fisherman's_Wife Although I bet that for a popular artist to be able to publish this openly, it probably means it was already floating in the culture before. The article mentions earlier netsuke, but without dates and the sources are books.
The whitewashed curry came to Japan via the British Royal Navy.
Fried fish was introduced to England by the resident Jewish population in London, along with fried chips. They had migrated to England from the Netherlands, and Portugal/Spain before that.
Oh, I just read a book called 1632 that touched on this. If I recall the term for them was Sephardic Jews, and due to prejudice large portions of them moved around until settling in England because the monarchy at the time promised protection. They still weren’t allowed real positions of power, but did fill many roles as financial advisers.
Of course the book was published 25 years ago, so some of that information may be outdated.
Eric Flint wrote it. I don’t think I made it clear, but know that it’s a piece of fiction where a coal mining town from Virginia gets sent back in time to 1632 German Thuringia and brings American values to the Thirty Years War. It was written by a historian though, so the setting around the story is as accurate as it could be. A lot of the book has aged not so great in terms of what was progressive for the 90’s when it was written, but the premise is out there enough to make up for it, and I really enjoyed how the history is portrayed.
Would’ve thought that China would’ve had a bigger historical empire than Japan?
Historically yes, but in the 19th and early 20th century, Japan expanded significantly, while China shrunk. China was still bigger, but Japan had ‘gained’ more imperial territory, if that makes sense.
Also driving on the left for roughly the same reason.