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Tokugawa Ieyasu crushes his opponents in the Battle of Sekigahara and gains control of Japan.
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Tokugawa Ieyasu founds the Tokugawa shogunate, the military government that will rule Japan for two and a half centuries.
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William Adams becomes one of Japan's few contacts with the Western world. He rises to great prominence in Japan during his years in the country, and his letters offer Europe a glimpse into this closed society.
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Battles of Osaka; Ieyasu victorious
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Christianized Japanese farmers on the Shimabara peninsula and Amakusa Islands rise up to protest the oppressive policies of Shogun Iemitsu during the Shimabara Revolt.
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Between 150,000 and 200,000 people are killed during the Tokyo earthquake, the most devastating earthquake to hit that city until the great 1923 earthquake. The earthquake marks the beginning of a series of natural disasters that devastate the treasury of the shogun and help end the Genroku era.