Why did Japan ban everyone except for the Dutch? (Short Animated Documentary)

Japan was an infamously closed off country for over two centuries until the Commodore Matthew Perry turned up and forced it to open. Yet, during this time the Dutch were exempt from the ban on foreigners and were given a monopoly on trade with Japan? So why were they singled out? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.
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[@Tijnob]

Japan: Trade is allowed as long as you dont spread your religion Netherlands: Trade is my religion

[@CallieMasters5000]

Netherlands was all about the money.

[@You-mr3lo]

They still are.

[@sanderkoekkoek9866]

May i tell you about the beautiful message of geld?

[@golagiswatchingyou2966]

@@offroadguy7772 naw, just really greedy and putting trade before religion.

[@francescotonini6268]

​@@You-mr3lo they are lutheran / calvinistic

[@michaelstern5206]

I love how after 1:50 the Dutch dutifully comply and start wearing bigger hats.

[@Hilversumborn]

Gotta keep the relationships positive.

[@alejandrotoro9676]

History Matters has such a funny sense of humor

[@jonbaxter2254]

@@alejandrotoro9676 Very dry, I love it.

[@user-ow2cs7fb5l]

tiny details like that make videos so much better

[@billfred51]

The LMG slipped in with the muskets and the hand holes for Jesus were also really nice touches.

[@shame2189]

"You can't dock here" -"We have guns, writing, and *_not_* Jesus for you" "Wow didn't know you were chill like that."

[@yj9032]

Japan already had guns, writing and gods

[@s70driver2005]

Shit senpai that's all you had to say!!

[@AudieHolland]

There are still many Dutch documents from the time of the VOC in the Japanese national archives. Watching a 1980s documentary, I was suprised to learn that there were still Japanese officials who were trained to read these documents in Dutch! They could not only understand Dutch, they were also able to pronounce Dutch words more or less correctly.

[@thedoodoobrain8944]

Visiting a museum in Osaka I found myself reading one of the 17th century documents, which seemed normal to me, but halfway down the page I suddenly realized I had been reading Dutch in a Japanese museum. Cool experience

[@majesticapeman]

Maybe a long shot.. but do you know the name of the documentary?

[@AudieHolland]

@@majesticapeman Unfortunately, don't remember the title and it wasn't preserved I guess. But I found this, a brief video that explains how it all started (Dutch studies in Japan). *Rangaku (Dutch Learning)*

[@majesticapeman]

Thx a lot !@@AudieHolland

[@ICaImI]

I think you meant to say: "Swamp german" :>

[@ryansearle6157]

Fun fact you forgot to mention: since foreigners weren’t allowed on Japanese soil, the Dutch and Japanese had to bypass this by building artificial land for trade interactions to be carried out on

[@isramubashar1227]

Cheeky

[@bottomtext]

They definitely chose the right people to trade with in that case

[@lightworker2956]

Raising land from the sea for profit is a very Dutch thing to do.

[@krzysztofdudzic4808]

How did they manage to do the yearly trip to Edo then?

[@NIDELLANEUM]

@@krzysztofdudzic4808 they were escorted by the military. Guess it's okay for them to travel when they had lots of samurai ready to do anything if they started to not follow the rules

[@ChessedGamon]

Fun fact, when the Americans first arrived to open Japan, the diplomat the Japanese sent out to them only could translate Dutch.

[@ajw20]

“What heathens, at least it isn’t French” -Some naval captain

[@elijahwatson3474]

The Americans suspected that and had a Dutch translator with them.

[@bradley8575]

Fun fact:The first contact between the US and Japan was just after the American Revolution was in 1791 when 2 American explorers landed in Honshu for 11 days on Kii Oshawa island And 6 years before that in 1785 the first Japanese people came to America on a East india company ship owned by an Irish men.

[@fatalcross105]

@off road guy you clearly dont know your dates, ww2 started in 1939 (invasion of poland) the first ww began in 1914, so your a century and 4-5 decades off.

[@shan4680]

@@fatalcross105 You could argue quite convincingly, by forcing the country open, it set that in motion a few decades later.

[@nameredacted6221]

The Dutch are real ones for warning Japan about the US. Sad that Japan didn’t trust them after years of them trading and the Dutch respecting their laws for the most part.

[@morefiction3264]

Trading with everybody was good for the Japanese right up to the Smoot Hawley tariff where we effectively closed our markets. 1 year later, Japan invades China to secure resources that way.

[@niceto1998bt]

Fact: in southern Spain there is a city (Coria del Río) who has japanese lineage from one expedition of the japanese to visit the Pope in 1614. There are at least 600 person with the surname Japón , the name in Spanish for Japan

[@filipmerksa1426]

WOW that's one precious fun fact :D :D :D thanx a lot ^^

[@diranbodossian6061]

"Takeo, I thought you said this was Korea?"

[@Ocro555]

that's cool!

[@Ocro555]

@@filipmerksa1426 Christ it's so rare to see kind and energetic people on the internet nowadays, bet you have a lot of friends

[@ScrewyDriverTheMan]

Fabulous facts

[@lightworker2956]

We Dutch even sold weapons to the Spanish while being at war with the Spanish. Selling guns to the Japanese while they were fighting Catholics was like child's play.

[@tadcastertory1087]

Yep, in 1780, Britain was at war with the Dutch, but also borrowing money from Amsterdam to fund the war against them!

[@HarrowKrodarius]

@@tadcastertory1087 I guess in the end the Dutch were the victors everytime

[@bowelrupture]

@@HarrowKrodarius The Anglo Dutch wars ended in a 3-2 victory for the Netherlands. The English won in 1654 and in 1784. The Dutch in 1667 (Chatham!!) 1674 and in 2021 (haha) .

[@JD-np9hx]

@@steiner554 probably would’ve just found another way mate

[@sd-ch2cq]

Initially the Dutch Republic asked the british Queen Elizabeth to send one of her nobles as a governor (as part of an alliance against Spain). But that dude wanted to outlaw the weapons trade with Spain. So he was kicked out and the Netherlands stayed a Republic.

[@c0ree]

isn't it ironic that the japanese made the dutch send a delegation every year to give information about events in other countries but when the dutch warned about an american invasion they ignored it anyway

[@alanpennie8013]

That's bureaucracy for you.

[@onii-chandaisuki5710]

Well, the guy who made that rule died about two hundred years before.

[@MrDMIDOV]

It’s like your crack dealer telling you about an impending 👽 invasion and now’s the time to load up on all the speed you can afford.

[@warrenschrader7481]

Probably because the Dutch used the event as one giant infomercial. After watching the equivalent of "As Seen On TV" for 200 years pushing whatever crap they had, can you blame them for being a bit skeptical?

[@MrMoron-qn5rx]

to be fair, we DID sell stuff to them, they just assumed we were bullshitting since they didnt wanna check

[@yumij23]

When American ships came to japan with a lot of threatening weapons, one man climbed the ladder of the ship claiming “I can speak Dutch!!” As a Japanese, the word “Netherlands”appeared in my history test millions of times 😅

[@Dutch_Mapping2]

Surprisingly dutch poeple don't get teached about this in school while this was very important in dutch history

[@neogivxapwntcpaa]

Echt

[@user-gs7ev5hk3v]

Lying is not good.

[@Dutchman-2002]

@@Dutch_Mapping2 i think alot of schools fear about teaching history, especially about colonialism.

[@Dutch_Mapping2]

@@Dutchman-2002 maybe i'm still surprised the indonesia was in 0 of my history tests since the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) was dutch for 400 years and made the dutch rich, indonesia in one of the quite few reasons the dutch are so rich

[@Jimbonator]

The special relationship between the Netherlands and Japan is why Dutchman Anton Geesnik won the first Olympic judo gold medal (in Tokyo!) The knowledge the Dutch shared with Japan for 225 years is called rangaku ("Dutch learning") which includes knowledge about microscopes, clocks, and biology.

[@RubenTheCartographer]

Anton Geesink* but very interesting the "rangaku"

[@stevejones8660]

Kurosawa’s movie Red Beard is about a Doctor practicing Western Dutch medicine in Tokagawa Era Japan. Excellent movie starring Toshiro Mifune.

[@coitze8704]

Selling weapons to the people you just met provided they be Christian is the most Portuguese thing ever

[@Toonrick12]

Just ask Ethiopia.

[@NIDELLANEUM]

@@scintillam_dei Metatron? As in the Italian youtuber?

[@mojewjewjew4420]

@@Toonrick12 Ethiopia was already christian tho.

[@stevetheheadcrab7110]

@@mojewjewjew4420 and a different type of Christianity too

[@jacklaurentius6130]

Today it’s “sell weapons only to friendly democracies”

[@Reqqles]

Best part is how the Dutch trolled Japan by convincing them Dutch was a world language that other Europeans also spoke, causing Japan to invest heavily in learning Dutch, only to find out none of the other Europeans could speak it

[@AwoudeX]

They did sell the language very well *wink* *wink*

[@peterdevalk7929]

It helped that in that erea The Netherlands was the centre of the world regarding economics, culture, art, science, etc.

[@weirdo36]

They didn't pretend Dutch was a world language. It's just that they shared all kinds of Dutch literature, like how to bulld a microscope and other medical inventions. So if you wanted to use this knowledge you had to be able to read it and thus they studied Dutch. This is also the reason Japan managed to become modern so fast during the meji period, they were closed to the world for hondreds of years but.. they did have knowledge of modern science.

[@nickdentoom1173]

I mean... there is a reason many Japanese words are deprived from Dutch ones. Biru - Bier Bisuketto - beschuit Chifusu - Yeah, i will let you figure this one out on your own. Dansu - Dansen Doronken - Hint is both words, take the first o away and you get the Dutch word. And there are so many more.

[@kristelpi652]

@@nickdentoom1173chifusu?

[@At0mix]

Traders were barred from interacting with Japanese locals. They could only conduct their trade on a small artificial island and then were promptly told to go away. This was a very effective policy. There is pretty much zero Dutch cultural influence in Japan to this day, while dishes with Portuguese roots exist in Japanese cuisine (like Keiran Somen).

[@djmarkiez]

" There is pretty much zero Dutch cultural influence in Japan" Not completly ture though, because eventually the dutch did share educational and scientific information with japan, so in certain areas there are word wuth a dutch origin, the best example i know is old japanese word for condom (Ruddesakku) has a dutch origin because back in those times condoms where called roedezakken, mostly made from fish blatter. fascinating stuff

[@khylebaguingan8211]

There ways also of not being colonize like the rest of there asian brothers and sisters... Because you know the Europeans use religion to convince people to side to them

[@jeanbethencourt1506]

The Dutch were also restricted to a small section of an already tiny island as well. They were allowed because after they were "humbled" by the Chinese and Portuguese at Macau, they were not seen as threatening.

[@jannetteberends8730]

Apart from their Dutch theme park, which is the largest theme park in Japan. And they are selling stroopwafels and bitterballen there 😊. But you’re right, the Dutch were never much in exporting their culture to other countries. That’s why Indonesia doesn’t speak Dutch, I think.

[@requiemforameme1]

@@jannetteberends8730 To be fair, Huis Ten Bosch only opened in 1992 after western influence already had permeated Japan. They did borrow a lot of architecture from the Dutch and others during the Meiji Restoration though I think, so it is a bit disingenuous to say Japan took _nothing_ from the Dutch. :)

[@fallingskies8991]

My grandmother's family were one of the few Japanese families to stay Christians interestingly enough. They were from the northern islands but moved to Tokyo after the war.

[@dmitrygaltsin2314]

were they Catholic?

[@fallingskies8991]

@@dmitrygaltsin2314 I’m not sure. My grandmother died when I was young, and I’m not on speaking terms with my father (her son) to ask.

[@Guns_Blazin]

Why were they allowed to stay Christians? Was it specifically not Catholic or was an agreement made somehow?

[@fallingskies8991]

@@Guns_Blazin I frankly know little to nothing about the actual history, but I imagine that they just hid their Christian faith. They lived in a fairly rural area of northern Japan, and their relative wealth as a minor samurai clan probably helped.

[@martinusv7433]

@@Guns_Blazin They probably became underground Christians.

[@theAverageJoe25]

I really love how every time someone gets burned alive they just look mildly inconvenienced

[@boaoftheboaians]

There’s also that image of Jesus on the cross in 0:49 but he too looks mildly inconvenienced

[@jonbaxter2254]

Wouldn't you?

[@Diggnuts]

Well, being burned to death in a bit of a nuisance.

[@TheMCzorro]

"Burned? Really?"

[@jonbaxter2254]

@@TheMCzorro "A man of your talents..."

[@Quin_Ram]

It must’ve made the Dutch VERY special to know they were the only country allowed to trade with the Japanese for more than two hundred years.

[@scintillam_dei]

I need a magnifying glass to see the Dutch Empire.

[@soeppoes8949]

​@@scintillam_dei You must be blind then.

[@GwainSagaFanChannel]

@@scintillam_dei dutch east indies was like four times as big as great britain ma dude

[@daarom3472]

we were also the only country willing to kowtow to the Chinese Emperor as we literally didn't care and wanted to trade at all cost (the English/French delegations refused as they didnt recognize the Chinese emperor as superior to their Monarchs). Because of this the Dutch were able to start trading there way sooner.

[@snomcultist189]

@SCINTILLAM DEI I need a microscope to look at your knowledge of Dutch history

[@gabespiro8902]

“Could this treaty be anymore unequal?” -Commodore Matthew Perry

[@schonkigplavuis8850]

Im dutch and we never learned about this. In fact, we mostly learn how amazing our entrepreneurship was regarding expansion and history on how we came to be as republic

[@visjesvanger]

MAYBE WO2 HAS TO DO WITH THAT?

[@orifox1629]

wait really? i moved to NL like 5 years ago and all my friends were aware of this, maybe it's because they're history nerds?

[@schonkigplavuis8850]

@@orifox1629 I can promise you, it is highly uncommon. In fact, the shit we've pulled in indonesia is something we don't really delve into either. We destroyed civs after WO2 and the only reason we stopped chopping of ears to parade on tanks is because America stopped giving post war buckeroos.

[@orifox1629]

@@schonkigplavuis8850 dang! Tbh i should probably learn more about all of that but I'm prioritizing the stuff i need for the inburgering examen

[@schonkigplavuis8850]

@@orifox1629 Oh it's not that hard. Don't worry.

[@theyeti6258]

Fun story: during this period, the Dutch traders were not allowed to bring their wives to Japan, as the Japanese wanted to make sure that the Dutch would return home. A high ranking trader named Jan Cock Blomhoff ignored this rule and brought his wife, Titia Bergsma, who became the first European woman to set foot in Japan. During the few months that she was staying, she caught the attention of many Japanese artists and has since been depicted on over four million objects where she can be recognised by her - back then unusual in Japan - curly hair.

[@a12shotman]

you telling me this story with a man named Cock and a woman named Tit is supposed to be true?

[@Mr96Frank]

@@a12shotman gave me a good laugh hahaha

[@dennisengelen2517]

@@a12shotman Google it, it's true.

[@a12shotman]

@@dennisengelen2517 you want me to Google Cock and Tit?

[@gracelandtoo6240]

Holy shit they're right. Somewhere, god or whoever is laughing to themselves right and now like "yeah, I did that." lmao

[@someonee3186]

As Bill Wurtz once said: “Open. The country. Stop having it be closed”

[@Xiborg1]

murica

[@StevenEveral]

A historical video on Japan is incomplete without a quote from that Bill Wurtz video.

[@scintillam_dei]

He's a propagandist for racist shit called macro-evolution which I proved wrong in my channel.

[@redshirt5126]

Knock knock, it's the United States.

[@DaxxieGfx]

"knock knock...whos there? AMERICA...with big guns and boats...gunboats"

[@user-jn7cb4xj5v]

Bruh as a dutchman it cracked me up the second: "And two... money" (geld)😂 1:39

[@alegp97]

Great video, as always

[@kawper4425]

For everyone thinking that he mistakenly used the flag of Luxembourg instead of the Netherlands, no he did not. He instead used the flag of 'The Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands' which was an old republic that used that particular flag.

[@Hunter-wl3zt]

Oh! Thanks for clearifying :)

[@bpdbhp1632]

But then he couldve used the prinsenvlag later on if im not mistaken

[@CatnamedMittens]

Better flag than now

[@Victor7.]

@@CatnamedMittens nope

[@FrietjeOorlog]

The flag in the thumbnail uses a darker shade of blue than the one in the video though..

[@5thMilitia]

Fun fact: after Dutch annexation into the Empire of Napoleon in 1810 and the capture of Dutch colonies by the British, Japan was the only place were the Dutch flag still proudly flew. This is actually a fascinating little episode in Dutch-Japanese history

[@molrat]

nobody cares the only people liking ur comment are dutch ppl because they like the attention when a video is about them but in reality no one gives a flying fuck about the netherlands and theyre just another country

[@rune.theocracy]

Fascinating, they don't like each other and only traded? This suggests otherwise, love it.

[@nickdentoom1173]

@@rune.theocracy Look up Huis ten Bosch themepark. Its located in Japan and is even the biggest thempark in Japan. Search also for Dutch Windmill festival in Japan. Long story short: Due to our shared history, the Japanese love the Dutch.

[@jamesflameson]

@@nickdentoom1173 I finally understand why some cities in the Netherlands have a japanese city name below the sign of their own city name

[@TommyTako]

How about Indonesia?

[@yumij23]

A lot of Japanese words that came from Dutch are still used commonly nowadays. I realized it for the first time when I started to study Dutch. I love NL🥰🥰

[@ThaFuzzwood]

Guess where 蘭方 comes from :)

[@neogivxapwntcpaa]

​@@ThaFuzzwoodhow do you say it in english

[@ThaFuzzwood]

@@neogivxapwntcpaa Literal translation would be "Dutch way or method". Mostly used for Western medicine which the dutch introduced as part of their trade route with the Japanese.

[@nickvandergraaf1053]

Easily the funniest video you've done yet!😂

[@Rey__Jan]

I like how one of the conditions on-screen was to have bigger hats and in the next scene, the Dutch are wearing oversized hats. Caught me off guard and made me chuckle

[@DaffieChan]

Don't forget that in contrary to most countries, the Dutch learned the language of the country they were trading with, making communication a lot easier.

[@MrMoron-qn5rx]

Still try to nowadays, with about 95% of us speaking english since lots of people can speak it.

[@bewawolf19]

Where do you have any citations for that myth?

[@MrMoron-qn5rx]

@@bewawolf19 our source is we like money more than god, and we sold guns to the spanish while they were attempting to murder us. Something tells me that simply making some dude learn a new language so we can get money isnt that far fetched Also youtube doesnt like links unless its to grown-up pillow fights, so i cant send it yet. Ill try to send a link tho

[@bewawolf19]

@@MrMoron-qn5rx Sure? But having translators who knew local languages was always considered valuable, and knowing multiple languages wasn't as uncommon then as you might think, as if you are a merchant visiting multiple regions , it is really hard to do complex trade deals if you can't communicate with eachother. This is also further made more complicated as in general Europe at this time had a lot more different dialects than it does now (With sometimes entire languages such as Welsh only resurging with nationalist efforts after it nearly went extinct). I never once seen professors such as Jonathan I. Israel claim that the dutch were unique in Europe in learning other languages, with the push of dutch trade changing dramatically through the years of their prime heavily depending on who they were at war with, who they were allied with, and what economic rights they managed to negotiate with their larger neighbors.

[@FredStam]

@@bewawolf19 Which other language do you speak. you only speak English I think. When you look at the English speaking countries the majority only speaks English. When you look to The Netherlands everbody speaks two languages and many speak 3 language as French or German

[@nik65stgt60]

Great content!

[@ramon1029]

GELD!!!

[@paleoph6168]

0:55 Ah yes, I remember the time Oda Nobunaga used the M60 GPMG during the battle of Nagashino.

[@user-xm5is4dz2z]

😅😅🤣🤣

[@lightworker2956]

Why do you think Oda did so well?

[@theotherohlourdespadua1131]

I mean there is more than one film about how modern arms changed the course of Sengoku era Japan forever. Like,"1980's JSDF" modern ala Final Countdown...

[@bigben9889]

yeah, i don't think some dudes with spears on a horse have much of a chance against m60 GPMG's

[@willlasdf123]

It's based on the historical documentary "Family Guy" where Jesus and Moses fight back to back on a hill with M60s to beat the Egyptians no doubt

[@notashinytyphlosion]

Japan when banning everyone: “Everyone out!” *Points to the Dutch* “Expect you, you can stay.”

[@AquaLantern]

*Happy Dutch Honking*

[@Longshanks1690]

Like Tywin Lannister telling Tyrion he’s the only one not allowed to leave the room.

[@alexandrearaujo2877]

Portugal: Well, so much for founding Nagasaki and introducing tempura and firearms to you, dear fellow.

[@mint8648]

Actually china, siam, and vietnam still traded with japan too

[@tar170]

except

[@Xycmos]

everything about this page is good. I liked the video and I love the comments

[@handlesarecringe957]

When Perry first arrived in Edo harbor, he performed a gun salute, albeit quite aggressively since all the guns were aimed at the city. This led the Japanese to believe that they were being bombarded and so they built a number of artificial islands in the harbor to prevent warships from getting close enough to bombard the city, the largest of which survives today as the shopping district of Odaiba.

[@user-cf1xm9dh7b]

Oddly enough, the artificial island houses the Statue of Liberty at Odaiba now. and Gundam is standing as if facing to her.

[@manolokonosko2868]

Fun fact: The special bond between Japan and the Netherlands extended into the invention of the Compact Disc by Philips and Sony.

[@Alien1375]

And then the bond broke after Philips released the Zelda games for CDi.

[@arjanvanraaij8440]

The invention was done, Philips did a tour to all big electronics firms in Japan with a working prototype . To market together the system. the only remark sony had the playtime had to be longer then 60 min for a serten piece of classical music request of a single sony maneger. so 74 min it was.

[@softonsoftie4581]

@@Alien1375 top 10 aniime betrayals

[@randar1969]

@@Alien1375 And now the Dutch make the machines that make computerchips below 12nm and Japan was left behind for Taiwan and South Korea. Yes ASML was founded by Philips. Don't take my word for it simply type wiki ASML in any search engine on your browser. They can bring the future of Sony down by simpling not supplying those machines to anyone that produces chips for Sony if they so wish.

[@51bikerboy]

@@arjanvanraaij8440 Philips missed the video market by keeping the video 2000 ( the best system ever available) to themselves and learned that it was better to share your knowledge with other big companies so that they would use your system as the standard system.

[@RIKUMIU123]

A few tangentially related fun facts - From the Napoleonic conquest of Netherlands until the end of the First Napoleonic war, the Netherlands as a sovereign country briefly ceased to exist. It seems that everyone got the memo except the Shogunate, who was kept in the dark by the Dutch in Dejima. For a few years, Dejima was the only place left where the Dutch flag was still flying. - In 1912, the Dutch granted Japan most favored nation status. A few years ago, someone successfully argued in court that under this treaty, Japan must be treated equally as the MFN at the time, Switzerland. Therefore, Japanese people briefly had the right to live and work in the Netherlands without a permit, whereas Romanians and Bulgarians, despite being fellow EU citizens, had to get a permit.

[@pieterveenders9793]

Wow, that's an interesting bit of information, I had no idea about that!

[@piano_beginner]

時間は信頼を生む

[@StoneCrow189]

Bring it back. Every country could use more Japanese. Quite possibly the best ethnicity, in every respect, on Earth.

[@PossessedPotatoBird]

@@StoneCrow189 💀

[@louish5068]

@@StoneCrow189 bro what???? There is no "best ethnicity"....

[@csdude35]

Anyone else here after watching Shogun?

[@scarlet8723]

LMAO. Subscribed after this video. Your explanation is hilarious.

[@petroleumalley]

Fun fact: Dutchman Jan Joosten (yan yōsuten) was one of the very first foreign samurai. He arrived with the same ship as William Adams. William is better known as John Blackthorne as described in Clavel's novel Shogun.

[@007Hutchings]

Fun fact: He was a homosexual 😊

[@soeppoes8949]

@@007Hutchings Fun fact: So is your aunt.

[@justfuckit4815]

@@007Hutchings most of the samurai were too xD

[@neshirst-ashuach1881]

That sounds deeply improbable, what did they do - make you kiss a dude before you could learn to use a sword?

[@what-oy8il]

​@@justfuckit4815 everyone is.

[@Hilversumborn]

I'm always surprised the Dutch are barely mentioned in Japanese media given the history of trade between both countries.

[@scintillam_dei]

Dutch is German without the power, and Nutterlands is always in England's shadow. The Dutch care more about English than their own language.

[@jascrandom9855]

When the Dutch had exclusive rights in Japan, it was also the most boring period. The US however had a bigger and more recent impact.

[@LCTesla]

they appear in the anime Samurai Champloo, which is set in that era

[@bakrahabibi5471]

Cause they didn't trade directly with the Netherlands nor had alot of influence and interaction from the nation itself. Almost all the interaction was with the VOC, who were careful to comply with Japanese isolationalist standards.

[@tjitse3916]

“You are unlike all others welcome….but if your cooking is Dutch, we won’t mention you much!” (In angry chef from Seinfeld voice).

[@Gloriaimperial1]

Spain had a relationship with Japan. Not colonies. I think only the Netherlands. And Portugal very briefly. But Japanese samurai traveled to Spain, across the Pacific Ocean, Mexico and the Atlantic at the beginning of the 17th century. Some of them stayed to live in the city of Coria del Río. They have the last name Japón. Spain had more relations with the Philippines, Cambodia, Taiwan, a base in China, Borneo, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, Papua and New Guinea and many archipelagos in the Pacific Ocean. We even discovered Hawaii (16th century Spanish map) and New Zealand (16th century Spanish Helmet)

[@joshlarcelet2977]

Am a New Zealander and Abel Tasman isnt spanish he is dutch and was the first european to discover NZ

[@remc0s]

The Dutch were (and still are) brilliant inventors who invented glasses, microscopes and telescopes. The Japanese were very interested in this "Rangaku", and decided to do business with the Dutch to obtain this new ocular technology. Soon wearing a pair of glasses became a status symbol in Japan, even if you didn't need glasses.

[@ThaFuzzwood]

There is a reason why the translation of western medicine in Japan carries the kanji used for the netherlands :). Thats what the ran-part means.

[@Xelif9]

@@ThaFuzzwood Theres a kanji for the netherlands? can you send the japanese kanji for modern medicine?

[@VIVY1818]

⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠@@Xelif9 Dutch scholarship at the time:蘭学(Rangaku) Dutch kanji name:阿蘭陀(oranda) Western medicine:西洋医学(seiyouigaku) I’m Japanese. Nowadays, Dutch and Western medicine are rarely associated, but back then it was common.

[@tsaoh5572]

As a Dutchie, you missed my favorite part of the story! In the large Dutch Imperial Museum in Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum), they once had a room all the way up on the highest floor, dedicated to Dutch-Japanese relations. In that room, it proudly and openly displayed the following story (I’m paraphrasing): The Japanese, having grown weary of Christians for various reasons, outlawed Christianity and required anyone in Japan to stamp on a Christian cross or image of Jesus to prove they have no intent to spread the religion. Naturally, they did so with foreigners as well. The Portuguese came in their boats, and were asked to do this. They said NO and were horrified, to which the Japanese asked them to leave. The English said NO and were horrified. And the Spanish… and the French… BUT… the Dutch?? They happily said YES. They took the image of christ, enthusiastically threw it on the floor, stamped on it, and were now trusted so much by the Japanese that it helped them a lot in getting a monopoly on trade rights. For those who might think this sounds simplistic or strange, it is actually true. The practice of disgracing Christ to prove you’re not a Christian missionary is called fumi-e, look it up. The Dutch were widely criticized and called all sorts of things (satanists, heretics, pagans, etc.) by the rest of Europe when this came out. However, you have to understand that 1) the Dutch were traders and didn’t seek to spread their religion and 2) as mostly calvinist protestants they don’t believe in depicting Jesus, or Mary, or God. The Japanese only asked them to stamp on what, in their eyes, is a violation of the laws of Christianity to begin with. Of course, it is still Jesus, so even to many Dutch people at the time this was a huge problem, but not as big as for other Europeans. The Dutch independence war actually started over the Spanish overlords depicting Jesus in churches, and Dutch rebels smashing up this ‘unholy’ imagery. To this day, you won’t find any imagery of Jesus in protestant Dutch churches. Remember, this story is still PROUDLY displayed in our most prominent museum hundreds of years later. I, myself, am proud of it too. It shows that we have never cared much about symbolism as a people, and never will. We don’t accept fake authority.

[@Lucas_WAZZAA]

Underrated comment!

[@LennardFransen]

I don't think it shows that we don't care about symbolism as much as it shows that all we care about is making money.

[@incomingtruth49]

I think it more means money > everything. So the Dutch will actually do everything for money which is not something to be proud of, personally for me.

[@tsaoh5572]

@@LennardFransen Bwoah, I think that’s just framing the same phenomenon through a negative lense. The Dutch didn’t want to enslave, kill, or convert the Japanese in their blind pursuit of profit, unlike the other Europeans. After plundering half the world before getting to Japan, the Europeans didn’t want to stamp on a simple cross? Come on… as if they could still pretend to be virtuous or not pursue profit at that point. Besides, the Dutch-Japanese relationship actually went way beyond simple trade for profit. The Japanese have a special word (‘Rangaku’) which means ‘learning from the Dutch’ or ‘Holland studies’. Rangaku involved translating Dutch books into Japanese, especially those containing the latest science, engineering, and social theories. For centuries, this was how Japan managed to not technologically lag behind too far of western countries. When the Americans opened up Japan, Dutch was by far the most widely known western language in Japan. In return, Japanese philosophy and artisans became famous across Europe through the Dutch. So much so that even the Spanish king, the arch-nemesis of the Dutch, would build a whole Japanese art collection and dedicate a room in his palace to it. You call it blind greed. I call it openness to other cultures in order to develop humankind. Both are probably exaggerations and the truth is a grey area inbetween. Some Dutch people blindly pursued profit, and others had a profound interest in Japanese knowledge and culture. And, at least institutionally, the Dutch-Japanese relationship was perhaps the world’s first between countries that was exclusively set up to make the latter group flourish. I would say that’s rather something to be proud of than to hate on. The blind greed of the Dutch manifested itself much more horribly in other places, such as Ghana, Curaçao, and Aceh - and of course, we should point that out too and not ignore it.

[@agustinpetronius3304]

Is it known who was exactly the dutch merchant who did this? Because i´ve read somewhere the "dutch merchants" and other "dutch" colonial leaders were in fact jews expelled from Spain and England. That may explain why they didn´t have any problem with desecrating symbols that mean nothing to them.

[@mr.bonkers2310]

For everyone confused about the flag (more precisely the shade of blue). The original Statenvlag (the flag of the Netherlands) didn't have defined shades, but usually had a light shade of blue. The marine flag however was a little different: because of recognisability at a large distance the shade of blue used was darker. At some point (I don't know when exactly) the marine version became the version used as the national flag. This was formalised when in the 20th century the shades of the flag were defined as 'vermilion, bright white and cobalt blue'. So long story short: that's not the flag of Luxembourg you're staring at.

[@ApemanMonkey]

Sure looks like the flag of Luxembourg. Isn't it the shade of red that should be more orange, instead of the blue having been made lighter?

[@Phillberts]

​@@ApemanMonkey You're thinking of the Prinsenvlag, which was orange, white and blue. That flag was replaced by the Statenvlag used in the video. The flag of Luxembourg is actually derived from the coat of arms of the Duchy of Luxembourg, rather than being related to the Dutch flags.

[@mr.bonkers2310]

@@ApemanMonkey Not really. The orange-white-blue Prinsenvlag was a different flag used alongside the Statenvlag. The flag has always been red-white-blue, but there was also another flag to make things complicated (like politically heated-level complicated, as the Statenvlag was used as the party flag of the republican Statist Party while the Prinsenvlag was the party flag of the more monarchist Orange Party).

[@DenUitvreter]

Isn't it the other way around? Being a republic it was the first national flag flown on ships, as the other flags were kings' flags. The use of it as a national symbol came from the ships flags as they had to fly a flag on the international seas and in harbours, there were no international football matches and stuff like that to fly flags for.

[@daano50letter36]

It was only used untill 1796. Also at the time the voc would have used its own flags, which was based on the prince's flag. with orange and still a darker shade of blue than this.

[@petroleumalley]

So many weird comments about our flag. It was the Dutch flag in the 1700's. Luxembourg didn't have a flag until 1830. Look up "statenvlag 1700".

[@MaHuD_]

On the bright side, large amount of comments (viewer participation) helps with the youtube algorhitm

[@fidenemini4413]

The English weren't banned, they just weren't a player at that time yet. William Adams, an English sailor among the Dutch actually served as high ranking staff for Tokugawa

[@RankinMsP]

Obviously he meant THE ENGLISH/ govt not every single English person. 🙄

[@trevorsmith7753]

The English traders left Japan of their own accord (1630s), as their own civil war loomed.

[@thundereagle4130]

I'm not so sure about the Dutch and Japanese officially not being friends. I vaguely remember a story of some high-ranking Japanese visiting the Netherlands in the 1700's. At one point they talked to a landowner in Amsterdam asking ''do you even sell your land to someone like me'' on to which the Dutch landlord said ''yes as long you're paying'', which surprised the Japanese convoy. Edit, turns out it was the memoir of Yukichi Fukuzawa when he went with a Japanese envoy to 4 European countries (icl the Netherlands) in 1864. Japan has also a lot of loanwords from the Dutch language, which apparently never bothered the Shogun.

[@bozobozolol]

we dutch people love anime, that's why

[@mint8648]

A figment of your imagination probably

[@wiltel2409]

Biru

[@antonikudlicki1100]

I think it was mentioned in Voices of the Past channel's vid

[@golagiswatchingyou2966]

I believe the word for Beer in Japan is "Bieru" which probably came from the Dutch word "bier" for Beer.

[@Shamino1]

The Dutch were also the only ones willing to ply and teach their medical trade to the Japanese. Catholic traders would provide medical assistance for conversions, whereas the Dutch were providing medical textbooks for coin and residency in Japan. When Japan opened up again in the 1850's most Westerners were surprised at the robustness and modernity of Japanese medicine precisely because they had kept up to date with modern Western medical progress due to the Dutch.

[@alpinisme07]

At school, the history-teacher explained to us: The Japanese asked the traders to spit on the portrait of the Queen; traders had no problems with it, it was only a picture. Japanese also asked or ordered to tread on the national flag; they again had no problems with that, and they did it. That was for the Japanese the sign that their emperor and their values were accepted above ours and so they could do business.

[@dreliq981]

1:51 I really like how they actually used bigger hats.

[@NIDELLANEUM]

I recommend you to check and research about Rangaku. The Japanese learnt a lot of things from the Dutch, and it was a really amazing example of Eastern and Western knowledge and culture coming together

[@schris3]

That's why Japan could successfully modernize after they opened up to the world. They learned a lot of science and technology from Dutch books. So in the long run it was great they didn't stick for long with the Portuguese.

[@Sceptonic]

@@schris3 Further proves that the Dutch were better Portuguese

[@kermitthethinker1465]

@@Sceptonic ?,thanks for saying that Dutch people are superior to my people just because they would do anything for money

[@tr33c21]

@@Sceptonic Dutch people like trading more than converting them. Sadly they saw people as a trade product too for a long long time. Which makes me wonder if Japanese ever traded goods for people to work on the ship, expelled from the nation in some form of excile

[@Sceptonic]

@@tr33c21 so did Portugal (slav3 trade)

[@womoth9959]

I actually wrote a paper on the Dutch and their "colonialism" as an undergrad. My ultimate conclusion was essentially that the Dutch would do whatever made sense financially where they could make a profit.

[@poingucac]

its pretty funny cause dutch people still tend to be greedy when it comes to money

[@Manon627]

yeah that sums us up pretty well. we are famous for selling weapons to both sides of multiple wars too

[@petertenoven3282]

This could still be said about us. Since the Ukraine war there was for a while a huge shortage in gas. Wich caused prices to sky rocket. An average household had the thermostat to about 21 degrees Celsius (70 fahrenheit) after the prices sky rocketed the average dutch household lowered the thermostat to 18 degrees Celsius (64.5 fahrenheit). We rather freeze then that we spent a penny more then we want. Also, the dutch are infamous for their business mindset. So far everytime i went abroad, people always comment on that fact when i tell them i am from the Netherlands. "You must have had a company when you were really young" uuuh no not really? Why do you ask? I found out that that is because they were talking about "heitje voor karweitje". That is basically when children (mostly between 6 & 14 years old) go door to door in the neighborhood to ask for chores to do in and around the house (shoveling snow, mowing the lawn, raking leaves or removing weeds between the garden tiles) for a little pocket money. And then i had to admit that i actually did do that kind of stuff when i was little so that i could buy a gameboy 😂 Finances and business are integrated at a very young age.

[@Izithel]

@@Manon627 Wars we were even an active participant in.

[@softonsoftie4581]

Dutch Merchant:"You Smell That?" Other Dutch Merchant: -Big Sniff- "Yes PROFITS!"

[@walesruels]

Very interesting!

[@Broekje]

GELD

[@itzadam9359]

Video idea as a loyal Patreon supporter: Why was Finland 🇫🇮 Autonomous in the Russian Empire?

[@farbrormelker2341]

The russian government wanted the people in Finland to stop thinking of themselves as being swedish, since that could have led to rebellion.

[@jonathanwebster7091]

Seconded!

[@Briggattonii]

*was*

[@wederMaxim]

Санкт-Петербург. Ну и Александры I и II были либералами, пытались бездумно копировать все Европейское, а поскольку у себя было делать страшно (Павел I передает привет) то стали реализовывать в Финляндии и куске Польши (неудачно)

[@antorseax9492]

@@farbrormelker2341 Led

[@yujishimamoto4777]

I live in Tokyo. Even today, I can hear a lot of word borrowed from Dutch in daily conversation(like ransel, gom, pons, ontembaar etc..). It was good to me to watch this video because I could understand why Tokugawa shogunate had chosen Dutch instead of Portuguese as a trading partner.Thanks!

[@Mr96Frank]

Ontembaar is a word in Japanese? Could you tell me the definition? I would like to compare it to how we would use it in The Netherlands

[@RyszardPoster27]

@@Mr96Frank お転婆 (otenba) meaning tomboyish

[@sirironsights2456]

@@RyszardPoster27 untamable became this? Why is this so.... Japanese?

[@yujishimamoto4777]

@@RyszardPoster27 Right! Thanks for explaining it.

[@yujishimamoto4777]

@@Mr96Frank As already mentioned in this thread, otemba (which is ontembaar in Japanese pronunciation) means tomboyish or naughty as for girls.

[@GamingsOffline]

I was in Dejima(the dutch trade harbor in Japan) 2 weeks ago! or whats left of it. naturally a lot of it got blown up by the nuke but they're actively working towards rebuilding it.

[@jezusbloodie]

It can not be understated how critical the exclusivity to Japan was for the succes of the Dutch Golden Age. It was Japanese silver that facilitated the VOC's ability to monopolise South East Asian shipping and trade for a while.

[@theotherohlourdespadua1131]

My favotite bit about this entire topic is how the Dutch provided Sakoku-addled Japan with a very important line of knowledge and tech for the latter to take advantage of. "Rangaku" (Dutch Learning) is arguable what gave Japan a massive leg up over the other uncolonized independent states still alive at that point of time because they have an intelligence base that knows what the foreigners are and their tech making their efforts in Westernizaation and diplomacy much smoother and more organic compared to Qing China or Abyssinia. I mean we have some hilariously accurate accounts of America's birth as a country, with a "Manly Burgher" George Washington battling a tiger, Ben Franklin firing a cannon carried under his arms with John Adams ppinting the directions of fire, and John Adams fighting a big bird that ate his mother in pure vengeance...

[@rugerredhawk9065]

Got any further reading on the American history bits? It sounds interesting but I have no idea what search terms to use

[@ls200076]

@@rugerredhawk9065 use the term Dutchwife

[@DutchLabrat]

I was going to bring this up! Yes, the VOC paid a fortune in silver for trade but also literally boatloads of science books, dictionaries and grammars, maps and globes, mathematical and navigational table books, scientific instruments, engineering models, etc... etc... etc.... And this was not all just for the Emperor's hoard. They got studied, replicated, translated AND used and applied. Even improved on!!!

[@theotherohlourdespadua1131]

@@rugerredhawk9065 Look up on the “Osanaetoki Bankokubanashi” (童絵解万国噺) and the Konyo Zukishi...

[@eastvandb]

I want a movie series of American history as the Japanese understood it at that time!

[@Marco22061998]

I love that the five trade points that were blocked at the beginning of the video are at the exact position where the five for japan available trade nodes im Total war Shogun 2 were. A lovely detail :)

[@Cipollarosa]

man that "bigger hats" bit killed me

[@paleoph6168]

Tokugawa Shogunate: "Bigger hats" 1:51 Dutch: OK 1:54

[@HistoryHustle]

Lesser known topic actually. Not taught in schools here. Great reminder. Thanks!

[@Victor-07-04]

You can’t teach everything

[@BajanEnglishman51]

The goat

[@ElmoPlayss]

This 3 minute video expained more things than my history teacher did in 4 years lol

[@earlysda]

The facts of the matter are that many Japanese (over 300,000) had become Christian, and the shoguns were afraid that the people would call for freedom, so they crushed Christianity in Japan.

[@KamikazeCommie501]

More likely you just weren't listening.

[@alvarogonzalezable]

This channel always asks "why". However, I ask myself "what": what did we do to deserve this magnificient content?

[@manny2themaxxx333]

The Netherlands: "The US is on their way to your country" Japan: "Bullshit" USA: "BOOM BOOM POW POW buy and sell me stuff now."

[@fmitchell238a]

I always imagined Commodore Perry as more, "You're going to trade with us, aren't you?" followed by a big used car salesman smile. Ammunition costs money.

[@FalseNoizia]

Their*

[@Sauron...]

The video glares over it but it needs to be mentioned that Indonesia was the Dutch Indies at the time so trade was much more convenient than having to sail from NL to Japan every time they wanted to trade. Japan was basically trading with their southern neighbor.

[@DenUitvreter]

The VOC did most of it's trade within Asia, for different Asian nations. The journey to Europe took about year, that was only for the special stuff.

[@AwoudeX]

@@DenUitvreter ssssssssssssssssspice!

[@DenUitvreter]

@@AwoudeX Silk, china, art, Persian rugs, the spice was mostly important because it were the base trade goods that regrew and was in demand all over Asia and Europe.

[@apveening]

@@DenUitvreter Don't forget the special stuff also included profits in excess of needs for investment in Asia.

[@David_Crayford]

This is interesting to me as I watched Shogun as a kid and grew up during the martial arts craze. The comments here are even more comprehensive than the video!

[@DeeDellimore]

your Dutch flag was actually Luxembourgh, yet I enjoyed the information

[@vytah]

That's the correct flag for that time period

[@An0niem4]

If anyone wants to know more about this topic: There is a complete museum in the Dutch city of Leiden, dedicated to this. Named after a German botanist and doctor who traveled on the Dutch ships, the Siebold Huis contains a vast collection of artifacts and stories from this period of exclusive Dutch trade.

[@molrat]

nobody wants to know more about this, its just dutch people being in love with themselves but the rest of the world doesnt rly care about u

[@sturmpelz1277]

@@molrat are you serious?

[@TheIncredibleNL]

@@molrat In love with themselves? Fyi, this is 300 years ago everyones dead from that time period. And one of the few remarkable impacts we've had on the world as a country. It astounds me how theres multiple people like yourself getting angry in a sort of country vs country war on the internet.

[@molrat]

@@TheIncredibleNL the fact that ur so upset by this proves my point 😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@yaralaterveer]

I've been there a few times. I think the first time I went there, they had an exhibition about hello kitty.

[@fairytalegoesbad8724]

I love the ‘GELD’ frame as a Dutchy 😂

[@GrinderCB]

It doesn't show up very often but if you get a chance to watch it, the 1970's miniseries "Shogun" takes place in early 16th century Japan. It's fictional of course but takes a lot of situations and Japanese feudal politics from history.

[@AKARazorback]

Dutch are, simply put, awesome. No modern world without the Dutch, period.

[@jz5403]

The Tokugawa Shogunate wasn't the first regime to ban Christianity, but it was Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The San Felipe incident in 1596 was the direct reason why Christianity was banned in Japan (it was an incident where a Spanish sailor explicitly stated that the purpose of spreading Christianity in Japan was to mentally conquer the Japanese, as it would be easier to physically conquer them afterwards, just like they did in the Philippines and Americas). Additionally, the Toyotomi regime was upset by Portuguese and Spanish slave trades, hence he became the first man in medieval Japan to officially ban slavery (there were some laws banning slavery in the 7th century, but they were practically gone after a century). While many Japanese people enjoy Western customs including Christmas today, Christianity still has a very bad rap (partially because of this incident) and only about 1% of the population are Christians, making it one of the least Christian countries in the world (this is in stark contrast with its neighbor South Korea, where the biggest religion is Christianity). Most of today's Japanese Christians are descendants of Christians who hid their faith throughout the 250 years ban on the religion. A lot of them concentrated in Nagasaki where the Atomic bomb was dropped by the Americans, ironically wiping out a lot of the already scarce Christian population in Japan.

[@seronymus]

Do you know about Orthodox Japanese like Chiune Sugihara and Yamashita Rin (both still-unofficial saints)? Did you know St. Nikolai of Japan converted a ninja his assassin into an Orthodox priest? There's even an independent Orthodox Church of Japan to this day, under Metropolitan Daniel/Daniiru.

[@jz5403]

​@@seronymus It wasn't a ninja who tried to kill Nikolai of Japan, but he was a former Samurai named Sawabe Takuma. I knew the other stuff you mentioned except Sugihara and Yamashita being regarded as unofficial saints. While I do know their amazing acts (especially of Sugihara), I don't know what "unofficial saints" mean. And by the way, the number of Japanese Orthodox Christians are extremely few, only around 9,000 or so.

[@alanpennie8013]

@@jz5403 Unofficial saints are the ones not recognised as saints in Rome where there has to be a formal enquiry conducted like a trial before anyone is admitted to be a saint.

[@jz5403]

@@alanpennie8013 Thanks for the info! I've kind of heard that's how it works for the Catholics, but I wonder how it works in the Orthodox system where each country basically has an independent church system (Sugihara and Yamashita were both Orthodox).

[@alanpennie8013]

@@jz5403 I really don't know how it works for Orthodox. Since they don't have a central authority like The Vatican it must be difficult to decide who's a saint and who isn't. Maybe if The Russians think they're ok then they're ok?

[@cieproject2888]

Still waiting for a sketch in which Matthew Perry plays Matthew Perry .... "Could you BE any more isolationist?"

[@NIDELLANEUM]

Similar to how it feels weird that Anne Hathaway never played Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway

[@dyak0]

Japanese: - What is the favorite hobby in your country? Dutch: - Growing tulips. Japanese: - Flowers?! That's kawaii. You are permitted!

[@burnoutvista]

"Dear whoever is Shogun right now." that cracked me up

[@gummynoodles9036]

1:39 Lmao “GELD”

[@amirferdhany3177]

The guilder was the Dutch currency before euro

[@dr.wallacebreen3859]

The translation says MONEY

[@gummynoodles9036]

@@amirferdhany3177 wow nooit aan gedacht dat het daarvan komt

[@parmentier7457]

(Dutch-speaking Japanese delegation) In 1862 the Tokugawa Shogunate sent its first mission to London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, and Lisbon. They also stayed in The Hague, the delegation felt so at home in the Netherlands that their stay was even extended. The members of the embassy delegation spoke or could read Dutch. Because the VOC brought many Dutch (science/technology) books to Japan over the centuries. The Japanese also recognized many Dutch attributes that they received from Dutch sailors. The Dutch King permitted them to visit Dutch museums and university libraries in Amsterdam and Leiden.

[@kippesnikkel5217]

1:51 You actually gave them bigger hats in the remainder of the video hahahaha

[@JubrieI]

It's also a reason why there is still so many of the japanese traditional sports practiced here in the Netherlands. I, as a lot of kids, did Judo as a child. Jui-jitsu is super common as well. But also Aikido, Iaido and Kyūdō are practiced here (though less commonly).

[@lllllllllllllllll905]

you literally have that in every country

[@miklehellerup]

@@lllllllllllllllll905No it’s strictly because of this old trade deal, you also see things like noodles and sushi in the Netherlands, something the rest of the world will never experience as daily life

[@BigRedReady]

One of my favorite books is about the Dutch in Japan. It's called the Thousand Autumn's of Jacob Dezoet and it's such a stellar book. The author spent a long time in Japan to be able to write about the history and culture of the time accurately. It's so worth the read

[@ChannelOfJoris]

That title is so Japanese while that author's name is so Dutch. I love it

[@BigRedReady]

@Joris well it's by David Mitchell who wrote cloud atlas. He's Irish tho hahah

[@4Usuality]

The hats joke and follow through was so unexpected I did laugh out loud for once lol, well done

[@beeaye7944]

I love how this is woven into the Tokugawa era setting of Samurai Champloo.

[@SilverScarletSpider]

0:05 wait a second that’s the total war shogun 2 map’s trade nodes! 😂

[@astrotog7265]

Commodore Perry's mission to Japan to open up trade would be an interesting documentary all on it's own.

[@21goikenban17]

Perry's first demand of Japan was to provide a port for American whalers

[@lenseclipse]

"Open. The country. Stop having it be closed"

[@softonsoftie4581]

@@lenseclipse america breaks open door- "the door was closed, i was scared for your wellbeing japan."

[@morbidsearch]

It's disgraceful that it wasn't even mentioned in the Friends reunion

[@tomdekler9280]

Was hoping for a visual gag of Chandler Bing's face on the commodore, yeah.

[@xsXRevanXsx]

Btw if someone is also interested in some other Dutch-Japanese trivia. Look up a man called: Jan Joosten van Lodensteijn or Yayōsu in Japanese. He’s a Dutch samurai! (Or at least, had the status thereof.)

[@mrpink8951]

There’s been at least two dozen recorded non-Japanese samurai. A handful were Europeans, one was African, and the rest (surprisingly) were Koreans.

[@xsXRevanXsx]

@@mrpink8951 yeah it’s really intriguing. Though most are just given the status of samurai but don’t do anything with it. The only ones that did do something with their titles and are really famous are: William Adams and Yasuke of course.

[@oniemployee3437]

Oh that's cool! I love it when my countrymen are revered(or even mentioned) in the history of other countries!

[@rugratrik]

Okee ik MOEST die kaart van 2:10 even screencappen, ik ging stuk xD

[@edmontom7804]

There’s one thing I never understood, and I hope History Matters adresses it in a future video: The Americans sent the most technologically advanced weapons at the time to threaten the Japanese to reopen. Why? There are so many other locations open to trade. What made the 19th century Japanese so desirable for trade, they were willing to threaten to kill for it?

[@ricksarvas6563]

From the Wikipedia The Perry Expedition article... "Growing commerce between America and China, the presence of American whalers in waters off Japan, and the increasing monopolization of potential coaling stations by European colonial powers in Asia were all contributing factors in the decision by President Fillmore to dispatch an expedition to Japan. The Americans were also driven by concepts of manifest destiny and the desire to impose the benefits of western civilization and the Christian religion on what they perceived as backward Asian nations. By the early 19th century, the Japanese policy of isolation was increasingly under challenge. In 1844, Dutch King William II sent a letter urging Japan to end the isolation policy on its own before change would be forced from the outside. Between 1790 and 1853 at least twenty-seven U.S. ships, including three warships, visited Japan, only to be turned away."

[@0cat1526]

Life in Vietnam after the unification would be interesting.

[@fallaciousfirm2524]

Someone did this topic recently (Idk which channel tho) Btw video about these from history matters would still be interesting!

[@davidbrennan3396]

The armchair historian

[@aleksandarvil5718]

Wars against Khmer Rouge/Pol Pot!Campuchea and Beijing!China in 1979

[@warriorofmacedon]

I was in Nagasaki 3 weeks ago and to my surprise there where discriptions in dutch and a Japanese man even said thank you in dutch to me.

[@CapAdGroup]

The Dutch-Japanese friendship treaty is still active 😊

[@jdj8168]

the bigger hats part killed me 😂

[@TheFreshEC]

Also fun to know is that the Japanese were in disbelieve when the Dutch told them they had no king but were instead a republic.

[@schris3]

That's why Japan developed a strong admiration towards Britain in the Meiji era for being also an island nation with a king, and they were also the inspiration of Japan to build a strong navy and create an empire.

[@DenUitvreter]

Try to explain that with the Dutch Republic being something that was made up on the go in the fight for freedom and inalienable rights. The Dutch DOI from 1581 was very similar to the American one, but not the constitution, which was actually a treaty that predaated it by two years. Even Madison and Adams who studied the Dutch Republic thoroughly and took a lot of inspiration from didn't understand it all.

[@AwoudeX]

@@DenUitvreter Alot of the constitutions of the so called 13 colonies were heavily based upon that of the Dutch too, but don't tell that to the patriots of the US of A, they believe that a constitution like theirs fell out of the sky and into their laps or something like that.

[@DenUitvreter]

@@AwoudeX Because of the way the Dutch Republic came about, it was a bit of a patchwork in terms of civil rights and philosophy of law concerning the state. There was not one well redacted document of the principles introduced at one moment. But thanks to the Dutch invasion of Britain in 1688, John Locke who lived and worked in the free Netherlands, writing principles down party on what he saw around him, helped parliament to come up with a coherent Bill of Rights. So that was a bigger influence, but still originating in the first free nation state, the Dutch Republic.

[@angusyang5917]

Fun fact: Between 1810 and 1813, when the Netherlands was occupied by Napoleonic France and its colonies were gobbled up by Britain, Japan was the only place in the entire world where the Dutch flag flew independently.

[@user-dd9xs2ft8m]

And a British frigate sailed into Nagasaki under a Dutch flag, invited the head of the Dutch trading post on board and the sailed out of the harbour.

[@bramvanduijn8086]

Hiding with trading partners is a bit of a Dutch pattern, it is part of the reason why the Dutch send tulips to Canada every year. That's the upside of making friends: When things back home turn sour, you still have a place to stay.

[@GalaxyInvasion]

No you not, you been occupied is been occupied 😂

[@markdowding5737]

At 2:25 what is that tiny exclave outside the Netherlands and how did become separate from the mainland?

[@soringontariu4799]

That's Luxembourg and it remained a part of the Netherlands after Belgium gained independence from them, at least for a while

[@janwillemdewaard354]

​@@soringontariu4799no it's not. It's the Maastricht area and it was liberated in the Dutch Revolt and was defendable enough to remain Dutch afterwards. Luxembourg only became Dutch in 1815

[@soringontariu4799]

@@janwillemdewaard354 oh, I see, thx for pointing that out

[@scottdebrestian9875]

The graphic shows the Perry expedition crossing the Pacific from the West Coast, but they sailed from Virginia around the Cape.

[@dutchuncle2716]

I visited a very nice exposition about this relationship at the Leiden Anthropology Museum once. Funny thing was that practically every Japanese painting of the Dutch in that period had a Dutch guy playing with a dog in there somewhere. Apparently because the Japanese were absolutely baffled by the Dutch playing with their dogs and caring for them almost like they're human. Little did they know we were just centuries ahead of out times.

[@yaralaterveer]

Volkenkunde right?

[@dutchuncle2716]

@@yaralaterveer Right.

[@yaralaterveer]

@@dutchuncle2716 I was like: anthropology museum.... Huh? OHHH WAIT OF COURSE VOLKENKUNDE I have been there quite often and had almost forgotten about its existence 😂😭

[@dutchuncle2716]

@@yaralaterveer Well, that's on me for just making up translations. It's a very nice museum though, had a great time, lots to discover, and I don't even like people that much.

[@paddotk]

Ironically enough, the slaves they held were treated less than dogs now or then. Not so much a case of being ahead of time in that regard.