Changes

===Early Modern History===

===Early Modern History===

Following the 1609 Shimazu invasion, the Shimazu appointed a ''[[daikan]]'' to oversee the administration of Amami. In the 1610s-1620s, the Amami ''daikan'' was granted authority over the neighboring islands of Kikai and Tokunoshima as well.<ref>Ono Masako, Tomita Chinatsu, Kanna Keiko, Taguchi Megumi, "Shiryô shôkai Kishi Akimasa bunko Satsuyû kikô," ''Shiryôhenshûshitsu kiyô'' 31 (2006), 244.</ref> Despite these circumstances, however, people continued to travel freely to some extent between Amami and islands to the south, and Kagoshima (at least in certain contexts) continued to regard Amami as part of the territory of the Ryûkyû Kingdom, even while denying Ryûkyû any actual administrative or political authority there.<ref>Gallery labels, Okinawa Prefectural Museum, August 2013.; Akamine Mamoru, ''The Ryukyu Kingdom: Cornerstone of East Asia'', University of Hawaii Press (2016), 69-70.</ref>

Following the 1609 Shimazu invasion, the Shimazu appointed a ''[[daikan]]'' to oversee the administration of Amami.<ref>THe ''daikansho'' (''daikan's'' office) was based in what is today downtown Kasari-chô, near [[Akakina gusuku]]. Gallery labels, Tatsugô Shima Museum.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/49490994301/sizes/h/]</ref> In the 1610s-1620s, the Amami ''daikan'' was granted authority over the neighboring islands of Kikai and Tokunoshima as well.<ref>Ono Masako, Tomita Chinatsu, Kanna Keiko, Taguchi Megumi, "Shiryô shôkai Kishi Akimasa bunko Satsuyû kikô," ''Shiryôhenshûshitsu kiyô'' 31 (2006), 244.</ref> Kagoshima extended the shogunate's policies of [[kaikin|maritime restrictions]] over the Amamis, banning the construction of large oceangoing vessels and overseas travel (including to [[Okinawa Island]] and elsewhere in the Ryûkyû Kingdom).<ref>Gallery labels, Shima Tatsugô Museum.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/49490994301/sizes/h/]</ref> Despite these circumstances, however, people continued to travel freely to some extent between Amami and islands to the south, and Kagoshima (at least in certain contexts) continued to regard Amami as part of the territory of the Ryûkyû Kingdom, even while denying Ryûkyû any actual administrative or political authority there.<ref>Gallery labels, Okinawa Prefectural Museum, August 2013.; Akamine Mamoru, ''The Ryukyu Kingdom: Cornerstone of East Asia'', University of Hawaii Press (2016), 69-70.</ref>

In a system which [[Robert Hellyer]] has described as "a structure of colonial extraction,"<ref>Robert Hellyer, ''Defining Engagement'', Harvard University Press (2009), 95.</ref> Satsuma obliged the people of Amami and the surrounding islands to focus their efforts on [[sugar]] production, to the detriment of all else. While the islanders were not indentured or enslaved, did not have their traditional lands taken away from them, and were to a certain extent allowed to maintain their traditional political and social structures, other crops were discouraged, [[currency]] was banned from the island, and islanders were forced to sell (trade) sugar to Shimazu authorities for far below a fair market rate. This system of policies forced islanders to work to ensure they could grow enough sugar to both pay their tribute taxes and to purchase (i.e. barter for) the foodstuffs and other things they needed to get by, leading to impoverishment and occasionally serious famines. This extractive and oppressive system of intensive sugar production reached its heights of severity in the 1820s-1830s, when Kagoshima domain ''[[karo|karô]]'' (elder) [[Zusho Shozaemon|Zusho Shôzaemon]] used Amami sugar as a key element in his efforts to rescue the domain's financial situation.<ref>Hellyer, 127-128.</ref>

In a system which [[Robert Hellyer]] has described as "a structure of colonial extraction,"<ref>Robert Hellyer, ''Defining Engagement'', Harvard University Press (2009), 95.</ref> Satsuma obliged the people of Amami and the surrounding islands to focus their efforts on [[sugar]] production, to the detriment of all else. While the islanders were not indentured or enslaved, did not have their traditional lands taken away from them, and were to a certain extent allowed to maintain their traditional political and social structures, other crops were discouraged, [[currency]] was banned from the island, and islanders were forced to sell (trade) sugar to Shimazu authorities for far below a fair market rate. This system of policies forced islanders to work to ensure they could grow enough sugar to both pay their tribute taxes and to purchase (i.e. barter for) the foodstuffs and other things they needed to get by, leading to impoverishment and occasionally serious famines. This extractive and oppressive system of intensive sugar production reached its heights of severity in the 1820s-1830s, when Kagoshima domain ''[[karo|karô]]'' (elder) [[Zusho Shozaemon|Zusho Shôzaemon]] used Amami sugar as a key element in his efforts to rescue the domain's financial situation.<ref>Hellyer, 127-128.</ref>