Franciscan missionary who worked in India during the 1540s among outcast and lower caste groups; later worked in Japan.
Robert Di Nobli
Italian Jesuit active in India during the early 1600s; failed in a policy of first converting indigenous elites.
first Ming emperor (1368-1403); drove out the Mongols and restored the position of the scholargentry.
Chinese admiral who led seven overseas trade expeditions under Ming emperor Yunglo between 1405 and 1423; demonstrated that the Chinese were capable of major ocean exploration.
Jurchen people from region to the northeast of the Chinese empire; seized power and created the Qing dynasty after the collapse of the Ming.
general under Nobunaga; succeeded as a leading military power in central Japan; continued efforts to break power of the diamyos; became military master of Japan in 1590; died 1598.
vassal of Toyotomi Hideyoshi; succeeded him as the most powerful military figure in Japan; granted title of shogun in 1603 and established the Tokugawa shogunate; established political unity in Japan.