Part One: Beginnings and foundations. Prehistory of the Japanese archipelago. The early state: Chinese and Korean influences -- Part Two: Aristocrats, monks, and Samurai. The Heian period. The Kamakura period in Japan. Muromachi Japan -- Part Three: Early modern/late traditional Japan. The formation of a new order. Tokugawa Shogunate -- Part Four: Japan and the modern world. Endings and beginnings: from Tokugawa to Meiji, 1787-1873. The emergence of modern Japan: 1874-1894. Imperial Japan: 1895-1931. Militarism and war. The new Japan