The Ryukyu Islands

An important trading partner with the Ryukyuan crown was Ayutthaya, which conducted trade with them from between about 1390-1570. This mostly involved Thai goods from Ayutthaya and Chinese goods bought by the Ryukyuans. In other words, the value obtained by the islanders from the trade arose almost entirely from their location, since they neither built and sailed their own boats or produced their own goods for sale. As a result, the islanders were not able to accumulate a large surplus of goods which could have been used to create an effective defence force (either by recruiting islanders into the armed services or hiring foreigners) or else to pay as tribute to potential invaders to persuade them to leave the islands to their own independence. Consequently, after the end of the sixteenth century, the islands were dominated by outside powers of China and Japan as those nations were increasingly able to exert their power overseas.

East Asia has a large number of once independent states with unique cultural and societal characteristics that have now been forgotten and, often, lost. It would be unfortunate indeed if the memories of what people have achieved in the past were completely lost. Diversity should be treasured and at the very least properly chronicled.

References and Further Reading

Breazale, Kennon, "Thai Maritime Trade and the Ministry Responsible," in Kennon Breazale, ed., From Japan to Arabia: Ayutthaya's Maritime Relations with Asia (Bangkok: The Foundation for the Promotion of Social Sciences and Humanities Textbook Project, 1999), pp.1-54.

Ravina, Mark, The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori (Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 2004).

John Walsh, Mahidol University International College, March 2004

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