According to the Adam Clulow article Like Lambs in Japan and Devils Outside Their Land and the film Will of the Shogun, the Tokugawa Shugunate certainly faced particular obstacles and like all other dynasties of a like nature, produced enduring legacies both for its future subjects as well as world history. The encroachment of the Dutch, English and Portuguese into Japan itself and neighboring Southeast Asia. Clulow’s article focuses on the letters of the Shugunate between all other nations and the threat of European settlement in addition to the domination of trade routes was very real, which was backed by very violent methods on behalf of both parties. The difference being the Shugunate disavowed the atrocities committed by their citizens in other nations and they were on their own, while Europeans were backed in entirety by their governments. It made their aims much more difficult to suppress than the Japanese citizens. An example of this is the Amboyna incident Clulow discusses.
Like Clulow, Will of the Shogun names intervention from other nations to be a large obstacle of the Shugunate, but also reveals that conquering the 260 feudal lords to unify Japan under its control and then maintaining that control was a major problem throughout its existence as the parties had been fighting amongst each other for more than a century. Once the Shugunate was established, they often required a lord’s family to reside in the capital which definitely kept the reins of control quite taut.

Examining what the lasting effects of the Shugunate were, Will of the Shogun discusses the erecting and improving of roads throughout Japan, the expulsion of Christianity and the largest legacy would be the closing of Japan to the world for more than 200 years. In fact, Japanese that were abroad could not return and if a citizen was caught leaving he or she would have been put to death. Also, when a Portuguese party landed being unaware of the edict, they were exterminated and used as an example to the rest of world that Japan would deal with any other party landing on its shores in the same fashion.