On 9 November 1867, the Tokugawa shogunate, which had ruled Japan since 1603, handed power back to the Emperor, beginning the Meiji Restoration. The shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu agreed to return authority under pressure from reform-minded samurai clans and after years of crisis following the arrival of American ships in the 1850s, which exposed Japan's military weakness and forced it to open its ports. The Edo period had been a time of peace and isolation under the shoguns, who governed from Edo (now Tokyo). After a brief civil war, the new government centralised power, ended the samurai class's privileges and set Japan on a path of rapid industrialisation.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.