He was born in 1537 as a peasant with no last name and rose to power as a loyal and skilled warrior as part of Nobunaga's army.

Hideyoshi was a skilled warrior in Nobunaga's peasant armies and became his second in command after Nobunaga recognised his military talents. After Nobunaga's death at the hands of Akechi Masuhide, Hideyoshi wanted to avenge his master like any good samurai would. Defeating Mitsuhide at the battle of Yamazaki and Shibata Katsuie (an Oda general loyal to Oda Nobutaka, Nobunaga's son) at the battle of Shizugatake lead Hideyoshi to gain power over Nobunaga's forces and land.

Hideyoshi built a reputation of being able to quickly move his forces and take his enemy by surprise. He was a very talented commander and warrior

His wife Lady Nene advised him during his life. She was in charge of Ozaka castle and essentially the Daimyo while Hideyoshi was away. She advised him on what to do with hostages and campaigns. She proved to be a valuable part of Hideyoshi's success.

Hideyoshi became prime minister of Japan in order to make himself more prestigious. Most daimyo in Japan didn't respect him before this because he was the son of peasants. Hideyoshi used his new title and power to make laws to protect his own power.

In 1590, Hideyoshi made peace and alliances with the powerful daimyos Tokugawa Ieyasu and Date Masamune. For the first time in 120 years, the whole of Japan is ruled by one warlord.

The Battle of Yamazaki (1582) - Akechi Mitsuhide knew Hideyoshi was going to attack him. Mitsuhide decided that the battle was going to take place at Yamazaki because the castle he occupied only had one very narrow road leading to it. Mitsuhide has less men so he knew he could focus the battle around this one road as there was a river one one side and Mt Tennozan on the other. Hideyshi stationed his samurai on Mt Tennozan he surprised Mitsuhide as his troops passed through the narrow road. Mitsuhide retreated and tried to hide in a nearby village. There, he was spotted by some peastants and they stabbed him to death. Akechi Mitsuhide is remembered as the '13 Day Shogun' because of his short time in power.

The Imjin War (1592 - 1598) - Hideyoshi unified the whole of Japan, a country that was full of fierce daimyo and samurai who now had nothing to do. Hideyoshi turned his attention to conquering China. He did this not only to keep the military machine that was Japan occupied but also to become one of the greatest conquerors to ever live.

To get to China, Hideyoshi knew they had to get through Korea. He asked the Koreans for safe passage through their country. They said no because Korea was an ally with China and Japan had tried to invade Korea several hundred years ago.

In 1592, Hideyoshi sent 200,000 men (the Western Daimyo and their samurai/ashigaru) to Busan. We wouldn't see a military campaign like this again until D-Day in WW2. They dominated the Korean defences as they were skilled warriors. The Japanese were extremely cruel.

Battle of the Nam River (July 6–7, 1592) - Small groups of Korean men called righteous armies attacked Japanese supply lines using guerilla warfare tactics. The righteous armies' most famous victory was at the Nam River where the Koreans attacked them while they crossed the river.

After this, more Koreans rose up and joined the righteous armies who attacked Japanese supply lines. This disrupted supply lines and the Ming Dynasty from China then sent troops to take back land from the Japanese. The samurai in Korea ran low on supplies.

Hideyoshi became out of touch with the Korean war because his generals stopped reporting bad news back to him. Hideyoshi at this stage is also grief stricken, his baby son (and heir), daughter and mother all died within a short amount of time. His behaviour become erratic and he began to go mad.

Hideyoshi thought he was winning the war and tried to make peace with China. In 1596, he sent a message to the Ming Emperor of China and demanded half of Korea and one of his daughters. The emperor replied by sending Hideyoshi Chinese robes, a sign that Hideyoshi and Japan belonged to him. Humiliated, Hideyoshi replied by sending another 100,000 men to Korea. This is known as the second invasion of Korea. Korean and Chinese warriors fought them off and Hideyoshi's death ended the war.

Hideyoshi died in September of 1598 of a long but unspecified illness.

Before his death, Hideyoshi left his son Hideyori (born of Hideyoshi and Lady ChaCha) in the hands of five of the most powerful daimyo in Japan. One of them was Tokugawa Ieyasu and another one was Maeda Toshiie. Toshiie was the one who was in charge of raising Hideyori. Ieyasu was put in charge or running the government. The plan was for the five daimyo to protect Hideyori until he was old enough to rule Japan.

Laws - Hideyoshi (as prime minister) invented laws that changed the way the Japanese lived. Hideyoshi was the person who made the law that only samurai could carry weapons. This was known as the sword hunt. These laws also further seperated the social classes. The Peace Edict was another law that he made, making it illegal for a daimyo to go to war against another daimyo. This left Hideyoshi as the only man left in Japan who could start a war.

When Hideyoshi became the most powerful Daimyo in Japan in 1583, no one in Japan had known anything but war. The rivaling daimyos had been at war with one another for hundreds of years prior to his rise to power. He made peace with his enemies to claim power and unify the country. He created a stable government and ended 120 years of civil war across Japan. He was born a peastant and became one of the greatest Japanese people ever.

The Imjin War last from 1592 to 1598. The Imjin War was fought between the Japanese under the command of Toyitomi Hideyoshi after he unified the whole of Japan and the Koreans who allied with China.

Hideyoshi wanted to conquer China to increase his glory in Japan (and world History) but also because he had hundreds of thousands of warriors with no war to fight. He knew that if he didn't have a war for daimyo to fight in, they would plot against him.

The Japanese dominated the early stages of the war due to the skills of their warriors. Japan ultimately lost the war due to supply lines being attacked, naval loses and poor communication between Hideoyshi and his forces in Korea.

The battle of Chungju was lead by the daimyo Konishi Yukinaga who fought against Sin Rip, a Korean general who held up in the city of Chungju. Yukinaga had 15,000 men and Sin Rip had 8000.

Yukinaga easily won the battle because his ashigaru soldiers had arquebuses which had longer range than the Korean longbow. His samurai and ashigaru quickly killed all retreating Korean soldiers. Sin Rip drowned himself after losing thousands of men.

This battle was key as Chungju was the last city before the Japanese could take the capital of Korea, Seoul.