Recent comments in /f/history

War_Hymn t1_j33ziq6 wrote

Reply to How Did Japan's National Identity Emerge? by Preyinglol

The Japanese emerged from a relatively closely-related group of bronze age settlers sharing a similar culture/religion that migrated to the Japanese archipelago from the Korean peninsula, give or take 3000 years ago. Around 2500 years ago, a dominant tribe/clan (the Yamato) established military/political hegemony over this group. This was also the origin of the first and only royal dynastic house in Japan. At the same time, they were also conquering and assimilating the weaker hunter-gatherer tribes that had settled the islands earlier.

The emperors of this royal house claimed they are direct descendants of the sun goddess (Amaterasu), hence have a divine sanctioned authority/right to rule the other Japanese tribes and clans. And from this basis, the Japanese were able to establish and sustain a socially/culturally homogeneous society for the last two thousand years.

The Yamato emperors ruled pretty much uncontested up until the 1100s, and even when the country splintered into territories de-facto controlled by military strongmen, the emperor still held a paramount religious and spiritual role for the country (like the Pope for Catholics).

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Gary_Shea t1_j33bo2x wrote

Reply to comment by ideonode in Bookclub and Sources Wednesday! by AutoModerator

Thanks to both commentators for the Ross King suggestion. My Yale UP copy of The Bookshop of the World is indeed a paperback and looking at it again I can agree that the print is small by common trade paperback standards today. Perhaps it needed to be produced as a larger format paperback.

And the two new suggestions are very welcome too. While we are on the topic of the history of books and printing, I have an additional title to suggest that I read two years ago: The Paper Chase by Joseph Hone, a case-study of a clandestine printing operation in Queen Anne's London. Cheers! and Happy New Year

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Abject_Ad1879 t1_j33b8xr wrote

Reply to How Did Japan's National Identity Emerge? by Preyinglol

I'll put my stake in the ground: 1853-1900 is the answer to your question.

tl:dr;

History and the nature of the Japanese Emperor has a lot to do with the answer to your question. First, Japan is an Empire. Always has been and in some ways, still is today. Unlike Kings/Queens in the West, the Japanese Emperor is a descendant of the Sun God Amaterasu (not just a political ruler appointed by a religious class of people as in the rest of the world). Up, until the end of WWII, this is exactly what the bulk of the Japanese population believed through its long history. Inclusive in the deification of the Emperor, and the Shinto mythology of the creation of the world, came the logical conclusion that Japanese people were superior to all other races. This last thought would cost Japan WWII as their military thought that the Japanese fighting spirit alone could win them the war against the US and the Allies, but I digress...

During the Tokugawa (Edo) period (not too long after the warring states period) the class system in Japan wasn't focused on abroad as Japan was closed off for almost 300 years from the rest of the world, but focused on rice production--which requires a hierarchical government due to land and water requirements. From the Shogun down to the lowly rice paddy laborer, focus was on rice production and maintaining a closed door policy. Also, during this period, Japan maintained its feudal classes (Shi-No-Ko-Sho) and regional leaders (Dimyo) had to have part of their families in Edo (Tokyo) as hostages to the government which kept the peace.

Therefore, during sakkoku (closed door policy), there wasn't a need for 'nationalism' as the population was fully under the control of its samurai overlords. It wasn't until the Meiji period--after the US insisted at gunpoint-- that Japan finally opened their markets to the West and Japan started to modernize its entire society. The Emperor Meiji was at the heart of this decision and small scale civil wars/conflicts ensued, but after just a few decades, Japan emerged on the international scene. My brief sentences here do not do this transformation justice. It is called the Meiji Restoration because the power was moved from the Tokugawa Shogunate to the Emperor Meiji, but they should have called it the Meiji Revolution as it transformed Japanese society from pre-industrialization to contemporary modernization. Japan, for the next 50 years, learned and benefited tremendously from the West and became a 'modernized' economy--on par or surpassing comparably sized countries in the West. This also meant that Japan was out in the world diplomatically.

Fast forward less than 50 years after Matthew Perry forced Japan to open, Japan was more-or-less modern enough that in the early 1900s, Japan went to war with Russia and beat the Russian's soundly in Manchuria and the Sea of Japan. From the signing of the Portsmouth Treaty ending this war (for which Teddy Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating this treaty).

Interested if someone has a different take.

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C4pt41n t1_j32m5tg wrote

Reply to The States of WY, UT, MT, CO and ID all gave women the right to vote 20 years before the 19th amendment. This meant women in those states could vote for U.S. President in 1892, but women in most other states could not. Montana even sent a woman to Congress before most U.S. women could vote. by triviafrenzy

I think it's interesting the (partial) reason that many of these western states had: If we treat woman as equally as all humans, they'll want to live here.

Why was that such a novel idea?

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pk10534 t1_j32j9lz wrote

Reply to comment by Breezy34 in The States of WY, UT, MT, CO and ID all gave women the right to vote 20 years before the 19th amendment. This meant women in those states could vote for U.S. President in 1892, but women in most other states could not. Montana even sent a woman to Congress before most U.S. women could vote. by triviafrenzy

Idk, I think it’s kind of a cool piece of trivia to know we had women in congress before all women could even vote. What is the problem with this post?

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ImOnlyHereCauseGME t1_j31ofh1 wrote

Reply to comment by AceKokuren in Bookclub and Sources Wednesday! by AutoModerator

I finished this a few weeks ago and loved it. As someone who knew very little about the Middle Ages I thought the author Dan Jones did a really good job of writing informatively but keeping it interesting and surprisingly relevant to the modern era. I’m definitely going to check out some of his other books, I know he did one on the Crusades that sounds interesting. Also if you’re interested you can find some interviews/podcasts with the author on YouTube which are also pretty interesting - one I liked was where he kind of overviewed all of the crusades and their importance and Dan Carlin did a podcast episode with him also which is where I learned about the book originally.

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Loive t1_j30uhun wrote

Reply to comment by Evilbob93 in In 1930s, Music Defense League launched a campaign against recorded sound in movie and live theaters, claiming that numerous musicians would lose their jobs if "canned music" was preferred over live recordings. by Profanion

The most streamed song ever on Spotify is Blinding Lights by The Weeknd, with 3.3 billion streams. Only that one and Shape of You by Ed Sheeran has reached 3 billion streams, so they are the heaviest hitters with a wide margin.

Payment per stream varies a bit, but on average it is 0.004 cents per stream. That means Blinding Lights has earned about 13 million dollars on Spotify. The record company has of course taken a big share of that, while the rest would be split between the 5 writers. Thus the would end up with about $2 million each, before taxes. Certainly good sum of money, but not enough to live on for the rest of your life.

There are of course more streaming services, but they are all smaller than Spotify so there might be about the same amount coming from them if you add it all up.

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