The global interaction was probably the starkest difference between the influence of western Europe on Japan and Russia. Russia—or, really, Peter the Great—was in favor of westernization, while Tokugawa Japanese rulers were insistently against it. Russia built a navy—something they modeled off the West—and sent himself and many young nobles to the West to work on building the ships for the fleet. In 1702, in the Decree on the Invitation of Foreigners, …show more content…
Peter the Great faced his resistance from almost everyone below him because what he wanted to do challenged a great amount of Russian traditions. Namely in the beard decree, where men had to rid themselves of their “gritty” and “manly” characteristic or pay a tax that would induce financial difficulty on them to keep it. Peter faced a lot of grief from his political advisors about his words on his love for Europe in his later years and for his decision to go to Europe with the young nobles for the construction of his army, as stated in Peter the Great Westernizes Russia. Japan’s resistance came from its Christian-converts during the government’s Anti-Christian Campaign spoken about by Jerry Bentley in Traditions and Encounters. Dutch learning helped to keep the rebellious Japanese Christian-converts informed about the outside world and could remain by the Japanese government. However, the Christian religion did get banned in Japan by 1614 and people had to be very discrete in their faith. The significant difference between resistance in Russia and resistance in Japan was the population of people taking part; Russia faced a larger crowd that resisted Peter’s rules and regulations than Japan’s government