The rapid spread of Christianity. Spanish and Portugese missionaries made their
way to Japan in 17th Century.
In time, they manage to convert many of the Japanese into the Christian
faith. The Japanese lords were alarmed by
the growing spread of Christianity as the influence of the missionaries was
growing on the people. They started to
view the missionaries as predecessors of
military colonizers and started to be hostile against the missionaries.
In 1627, a revolt by Christian samurais and peasants called the Shimabara
Rebellion angered the Shogunate and issued the Seclusion Decree that outlawed
Christianity and closed Japan to the world starting a period of isolation.
