00:00How did a Japanese peasant become ruler of Japan?
00:03Toyotomi Hideyoshi was a Japanese peasant born around 1537.
00:07At the time, Japan was fragmented between many warlords.
00:11Hideyoshi decided to join Nobunaga, one of the most powerful warlords who wanted to unite Japan.
00:16He started as a simple soldier, but proved himself and eventually became a general.
00:21But in 1582, Nobunaga was betrayed by his own general Mitsuhide and killed.
00:26Hideyoshi was fighting a different war when he heard this,
00:28so he immediately made peace and rushed back.
00:31He arrived much quicker than Mitsuhide expected and defeated him, avenging Nobunaga.
00:36But this didn't automatically make him ruler, as Nobunaga had heirs and other powerful generals.
00:41Through political maneuvering, he emerged as Nobunaga's successor.
00:45Through diplomacy and war, he then conquered and unified the rest of Japan.
00:49Ironically, after rising from a peasant to ruler,
00:52he introduced laws that made it much harder for peasants to rise through the social hierarchy.
