Building Mythos out of the Empires

Eastern and Western empires vary in their degree of reign.  Western empires seem more crueler than Eastern empires because many affiliate Western empires to successful colonization across the globe, and the inhumane treatment subjugated towards natives.  Western empires successfully conquered overseas territory and conquered the indigenous populations with cruelty.  Domestically, people living under the domestic empire enjoyed better living.  Despite the lack of colonies, Eastern empires excelled Western empires, in terms of reform policy.

Western empires fought and competed against each other during the 15th to 17th-centuries for territorial expansion.  Eastern empires fought within and against each other around the same time as the Western empires did.  Eastern empires focused on domestically securing peace within their territories and stability.  At the same time, feudal lords and emperors in the East plotted military campaigns to conquer land overseas.

Between 1463-AD to 1573-AD of Japan, the period known as the Sengoku Jidai dominated the land. Feudalism governed the ways of the people.  Daimyo stood as the governors of the land.  They dictated their laws as they branched out to establish a stable empire after famine and earthquakes disrupted Japanese economy.  Europe saw the Renassaince, the Protestant Reformation, and the colonization of the Americas around that time.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a daimyo from the lower class, ruled Japan after the assassination of the previous daimyo, Oda Nobunaga.  Not surprisingly, his name had no origins of samurai-class distinction or achievement-class.  He started his life from the obscure peasant class and moved up eventually as a vassal, then general to Oda Nobunaga.  He established the end of the Sengoku Jidai and unified Japan.  His tenure as daimyo and unifer brough significant change to Japan by instating a heirarchy class system that defined Japan up until the Meiji Reformation.

The general consensus suggests Sengoku Jidai Japan best be on par with the periodic transition of the rest of the world and define a line drawn between the divine-religious interpretation and the human realm.  What makes the Sengoku Jidai so significant stems from the nature of the period itself.  The name translates to the 'Warring States Era'.  At this time, most expect Japan too far isolated to engage in trade, or have time for ethnocentric spirituality.

It became the opposite as brilliance, art, and culture flourished.  With addition of encountering the Portuguese earlier, Japan grew into a nation soon unified by the deified-daimyo in history.  If the Portuguese arrived any later, can it possibly jeopardize the timing of Japan's establishment and unification process?  What if the Spanish first arrived instead of the Portuguese?