Of the major civilizations on the planet, Europe has usually ranked as one of the most warlike. The only major culture that compares to Europe is Japan. China never had much use for warriors. Neither did Egypt. Attila the Hun did, but he wasnt very civilized. Both Europe and Japan idealized them (warriors, not Huns), and, in Japans case, for good reason - the samurai were some of the best fighters on the planet. Just ask Kublai Khan and his army. Ask the Koreans. Unfortunately for the Japanese, Mongol invasions were rare, as were Japanese wars on mainland Asia (although Koreans might say they werent rare enough). So guess who these world class fighters got to fight against? Thats right, the samurai beat the hell out of each other. Japan was in a state of chronic warfare from about 1467 until 1600. The daimyo (local lords) fought each other and even their own families in the pursuit of power. Kyoto was destroyed more than once. Entire families were exterminated. Legendary heroes were born. It was a real exciting time if you enjoy death and destruction. Eventually however, somebody won. By making allies or vassals of defeated enemies, winners of battles got stronger and the losers got a second chance (or at least their families did). Finally, a handful of powerful lords had reestablished stable governments of sorts over the country. To become, and remain shogun, however, you needed to control the whole country, not just a large part of it. Like the movie says, "in the end, there can be only one." In the end the one was Tokugawa Ieyasu, an ally of Oda Nobunaga and then of Odas successor, Hideyoshi. After Hideyoshi died, the five major co-rulers he had appointed, (Ieyasu was one of them), quickly prepared for war. In 1600, Tokugawa and his vassals met and defeated the armies of the anti-Tokugawa coalition at the battle of Sekigahara. This is one of the most important (and famous) battles in Japanese history because for over 250 years after Sekigahara the daimyo were subordinate to the central government (with minor exceptions). In other words, peace prevailed. It was the Pax Tokugawa.